pff@thumper.bellcore.com (Peter Ferris) (06/07/89)
Greetings,
Today, another 140MB internal HD crashed. That makes for a total of three such
drives in the past two weeks. Two of the drives are mfg'd by Rodime for
Jasmine, the third drive is a Rodime direct sell. The two Jasmine drive serial
#s are: D000280 and the other is D000285. Coincidence? Hmm.
Call Jasmine you say? I've tried. And tried. And tried. Typical scenario:
1) Call Jasmine.
2) Listen to automatic answering dealy - enter code for tech support.
3) Hear the msg telling me all lines are busy, and "don't worry, be happy!" my
call will be answered in the order it was rcd, etc. You know the drill...
4) Stay on hold for in excess of 45 minutes w/o speaker phone.
5) Click! AHA! A live human bean! "Customer Service Operator, all lines are
busy, may I take a message?". GEEEeeeezzz! These people have more nerve than
a toothache. Yes, I'll leave a scathing message, thank you! This has gone on
for two days now.
Meanwhile, Rodime promises to call back real soon now. I haven't pursued them
as vigorously.
To be fair: From month #1 that Jasmine started business, I've had good luck
with their drives. That is to say, though, I've never needed tech support
before. If this is "typical", I'd like to know about it before I buy another
Jasmine product. Any thoughts on this? Good and bad experiences welcome -
mention mfgr and "flavor" of experience with them - outstanding, good, fair,
wretched, etc. While none of the drives were in <MY> machine, they were in my
company's machines, which I must repair. Note: I have an external Jasmine
140MB - works great (so far!).
Also, it seems to me that recently I read a little tidbit in MacUser or
MacWorld (or was it MacWeek or ...?!) that some former Jasmine employees had
brought suit against Jasmine - charging that Jasmine had knowingly sold
defective drives, etc. Not that I suspect that I have any of the same drives
(but then again...), but it's revealing of their character, if true. Did
anyone else read this? Remember where? Have you heard any outcome of the
suit? I suspect it'll be "settled out of court".
Most importantly, I wanted to make others aware that there may be a problem
here. If you have a failed internal Jasmine drive, what was your experience in
dealing w/ Jasmine? Do you have the serial # handy? Is it "close" to the two
drives listed above? I can't really list the serial number of the third Rodime
drive in that it doesn't use the same "syntax" as Jasmine does. The SMALL bar
code tag says:
IDS-0140-02 {Model type?}
IFT890207020 {Serial# - incl. date of mfgr??}
Any comments on this issue would be appreciated. For fastest response from me,
e-mail would be preferred, though I do check the net fairly often.
---
ALSO: there is a Seagate 40MB internal hd failure for many drives shipped with
Apple Mac II's, and possibly other models, the serial number range for the
defective Seagates is: 335507 to 1023016 (wowwee! Hope those weren't
increments of "1" at a time, Seagate!!). We have one of these drives where I
work, and another (unknown) quantity of them (at least one!) at another
Bellcore location. As far as I know, these are exclusively 40MB drives.
There <IS> a "field fix" for these drives. Apple is kindly replacing the
drives that fall into the range (I believe whether they've failed or not, but
don't quote me on that!). E-mail me if you have Seagate 40MB drive in this
range, I'll tell you the "fix" and/or phone number for Apple - how to replace,
etc.
---
BTW: NONE of the owners of ANY of the failed drives had any form of back up!
It's been a fun two weeks for Mac service at Bellcore...
Thanks for your help & sympathy!
-Pete Ferris
pff@thumper.bellcore.comAdam.Frix@f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Adam Frix) (06/14/89)
About the Jasmine/Rodime 140 failures: I had a Jasmine DD45 (Rodime) that
failed THREE times within one year. After *much* dicking around with
low-level peons at Jasmine, I went to the top, to Dennis Chang's office.
I musta spent $25 in phone calls, but they finally took my Rodime beastie
back lock, stock and barrel and gave me a brand-new, off the shelf 40
(Quantum) _along_ with a brand-new 2 year warranty. Here's the key: call
their general number (415-282-1111) and ask for Connie Seracino at
extension 208, or dial 208 yourself. She's an assistant to Dennis Chang.
Tell her Adam Frix from Columbus, OH suggested that she could help you
with your problem. What I found was that in dealing with the peons, all
they could do was quote "policy" and were not in authority to help me at
all. The ONLY person with ANY authority would be Chang or one of his
representatives. Go for it. Cut through the red tape and go right to the
top.
--Adam--
--
Adam Frix via cmhGate - Net 226 fido<=>uucp gateway Col, OH
UUCP: ...!osu-cis!n8emr!cmhgate!200!Adam.Frix
INET: Adam.Frix@f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORGalen@crash.cts.com (Alen Shapiro) (06/15/89)
In article <1592@thumper.bellcore.com> pff@thumper.bellcore.com (Peter Ferris) writes: >Call Jasmine you say? I've tried. And tried. And tried. Typical scenario: >1) Call Jasmine. >2) Listen to automatic answering dealy - enter code for tech support. >3) Hear the msg telling me all lines are busy, and "don't worry, be happy!" my >call will be answered in the order it was rcd, etc. You know the drill... >4) Stay on hold for in excess of 45 minutes w/o speaker phone. >5) Click! AHA! A live human bean! "Customer Service Operator, all lines are >busy, may I take a message?". GEEEeeeezzz! These people have more nerve than >a toothache. Yes, I'll leave a scathing message, thank you! This has gone on >for two days now. > 5 days for me - Jasmine also seem to have problems with their backpack modem. I received mine on the 8th June after months of promises of delivery and failure to deliver (2 weeks was promised for 2 months). When it finally arrived (Jasmine upgraded shipment to next day for no extra cost - nice touch Jasmine) the modem issued garbage in response to ATZ, the drive power supply reset when the modem was pushed when in place, the ATL (volume) had no noticeable effect. None of these were show stoppers but tech support was not aware of these problems. Since then I've discovered that the modem does not detect a RING condition. I set s0 to 1 but ring is not announced (ATA answers the call but the modem does not detect the ring condition for auto answer to take place). I've been trying now since 9th June to get a reply from tech support - that's 5 messages with no response. Jasmine have a serious tech support service problem - I'm impressed with the idea of the product but they seem to be overloaded with problems to fix now. In jasmine's defense, they have in the past responded well to technical questions and problems - I hope this is just a temporary glitch in their ability to produce reliable product and support it. --alen the Lisa slayer (it's a long story)
pff@thumper.bellcore.com (Peter Ferris) (06/20/89)
In article <> Adam.Frix@f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Adam Frix) writes: >About the Jasmine/Rodime 140 failures: I had a Jasmine DD45 (Rodime) that >failed THREE times within one year. After *much* dicking around with (If his experience was like mine, he means ".. *VERY MUCH*... "!) >low-level peons at Jasmine, I went to the top, to Dennis Chang's office. >I musta spent $25 in phone calls, but they finally took my Rodime beastie >back lock, stock and barrel and gave me a brand-new, off the shelf 40 >(Quantum) _along_ with a brand-new 2 year warranty. Here's the key: call >their general number (415-282-1111) and ask for Connie Seracino at Forget that! She called me after I made a very "pointed" call to the "executive headquarters" of Jasmine. She was totally unable to help at all. She was totally reliant on "... what my service people tell me...". By her own admission:" I'm probably the most technically illiterate person in the building...". Great. Her solution? Believe the techs. After all, waiting 4-6 six weeks isn't THAT bad is it?! For as much as I can help it (which is considerable!), my company will never again buy a Jasmine drive. I didn't ask Connie to diagnose my drives, I merely was seeking competent customer service. After a week and a half talking to Customer Service Operators, I was "upset" to say the least. >extension 208, or dial 208 yourself. She's an assistant to Dennis Chang. >Tell her Adam Frix from Columbus, OH suggested that she could help you >with your problem. What I found was that in dealing with the peons, all >they could do was quote "policy" and were not in authority to help me at >all. The ONLY person with ANY authority would be Chang or one of his >representatives. Go for it. Cut through the red tape and go right to the >top. Thanks for your help anyway. Maybe posting her number will help some one else down the road. Frankly, Jasmine isn't worth another minute of my time. >--Adam-- Again, thanks anyway, Adam. Pete Ferris Bell Communications Research pff@thumper.bellcore.com (Adam's trailer stuff deleted)
phil@vaxphw.dec.com (Phil Hunt) (06/22/89)
In article <1605@thumper.bellcore.com>, pff@thumper.bellcore.com (Peter Ferris) writes... }In article <> Adam.Frix@f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Adam Frix) writes: }>About the Jasmine/Rodime 140 failures: I had a Jasmine DD45 (Rodime) that }>failed THREE times within one year. After *much* dicking around with } }(If his experience was like mine, he means ".. *VERY MUCH*... "!) } }>low-level peons at Jasmine, I went to the top, to Dennis Chang's office. }>I musta spent $25 in phone calls, but they finally took my Rodime beastie }>back lock, stock and barrel and gave me a brand-new, off the shelf 40 }>(Quantum) _along_ with a brand-new 2 year warranty. Here's the key: call }>their general number (415-282-1111) and ask for Connie Seracino at } }Forget that! She called me after I made a very "pointed" call to the }"executive headquarters" of Jasmine. She was totally unable to help at all. }She was totally reliant on "... what my service people tell me...". By her }own admission:" I'm probably the most technically illiterate person in the building...". Great. Her solution? Believe the techs. After all, waiting 4-6 }six weeks isn't THAT bad is it?! For as much as I can help it (which is __________ }considerable!), my company will never again buy a Jasmine drive. I didn't }ask Connie to diagnose my drives, I merely was seeking competent customer }service. After a week and a half talking to Customer Service Operators, I }was "upset" to say the least. } Doesn't Jasmine quote a 2 day repair/replacement warranty?? I bought the third 80 meg drive Jasmine ever sold in 1987 and that was what they quoted to me then and was in their ads...BTW...back in 1987, they STILL took forever to send drives...I ordered mine on a Mon and with WIRE TRANSFERRED FUNDS and was told it would be shipped Wed FedX overnight.....It showed up 5 WEEKS LATER after about 20 long-distance phone calls...... ================================================================== Phil Hunt "Wherever you go, there you are!!!" Digital Equipment Corporation Phone: (508)486-2164 ENET: VAXPHW::PHIL USENET: phil@vaxphw.dec.com MOREUSENET: phil%vaxphw.dec@decwrl.dec.com EVENMORE: ....!decwrl!dec-vaxphw!phil