LOGANJ@BYUVAX.BITNET (04/17/87)
Does anyone have experience with the Jasmine disk drives for the Mac? If so, we would like to know if they work okay. Also, if you have sent a Jasmine disk drive that's still on warantee in for repair, do they respond in the advertised 48 hour turnaround time? Thanks, Jim Logan (loganj@byuvax)
Samuel_gold_Goldberger@cup.portal.com.UUCP (05/16/87)
All reports I hear, both direct from friends and indirect from test reports, are positive. It is something of a downhome operation, with a single tech assembling them by hand from a crowded parts table, but the net result is entirely pleasing. Apparently the huge shareware library contains interesting and reasonably useful stuff.
lad@eplrx7.UUCP (Lawrence A. Dziegielewski) (05/20/87)
In article <375@cup.portal.com>, Samuel_gold_Goldberger@cup.portal.com writes: > All reports I hear, both direct from friends and > indirect from test reports, are positive. It is > something of a downhome operation, with a single tech > assembling them by hand from a crowded parts table, but > the net result is entirely pleasing. Apparently the huge > shareware library contains interesting and reasonably useful > stuff. I have had nothing but trouble with Jasmine. I'm on my 3rd 80 meg drive and the third new ROM for the drive. I have also been to see their operation, and the assesment abou the tech assembling from a crowded table is right. They rarely test the drives that go to customers. According to a Jasmine person, "If we can copy the PD software on to the drive, it must be ok!". Jeez, give me a major break. Lawrence A. Dziegielewski ...{dgis, psuvax1}!eplrx7!lad Standard disclaimer goes here..........
ching@amd.UUCP (Mike Ching) (05/21/87)
In article <419@eplrx7.UUCP> lad@eplrx7.UUCP (Lawrence A. Dziegielewski) writes: >In article <375@cup.portal.com>, Samuel_gold_Goldberger@cup.portal.com writes: >> All reports I hear, both direct from friends and >> indirect from test reports, are positive. > >I have had nothing but trouble with Jasmine. I'm on my 3rd 80 meg drive >and the third new ROM for the drive. There's probably a difference between the 20 meg situation (put a ST-225N and a power supply in a box) and the 80 meg drive that has to be integrated with a SCSI controller. My guess is that the positive reports are from customers of the 20 meg drive. The test methods are also reasonable for that drive since the drive was tested by Seagate and all that needs to be tested are the cables and the power. I'd agree that the 80 meg drive should get a bit more of a workout before shipping but I've seen worse. I was waiting for my drive, not a Jasmine, to be reformatted (not being able to do it myself stinks but that's another story) and saw a tape unit shipped that worked when daisy chained with a disk but wouldn't work as the only SCSI device connected. The retailer waiting for the unit said it's going to be used for backup and there'll be a disk connected, so I'll take it anyway. I'll refrain from naming the brand since it was not the manufacturer's decision to ship the unit.
prune@inteloc.intel.com (Bill /Prune/ Wickart) (05/22/87)
HEY, LINE-EATER! YOUR PARENTS WERE BROTHERS!
Scenario: May 6--I called Jasmine and ordered an 80 meg hard drive for
my new Mac Plus. Matthew puts me on a computerized
queue for shipping and promises they will ship May 13
via two-day air Purolator. He requires a cashier's
check for payment.
May 15--Near 4:00 p.m. I call Jasmine to find out where my
drive is. I am told so-and-so in shipping is out in
the warehouse but will call me back.
Near 5:00 p.m. I call Jasmine because I suspect they
close soon and noone has returned my call. So-and-so
in shipping is put on the line and tells me she is
behind in shipping and my drive will go out Monday
the 18th or Tuesday the 19th ("but I can't say
exactly when because if I tell you Monday and it
ends up being Tuesday then you'll be mad...").
May 20--Near noon I call Jasmine to see when the drive was
shipped. So-and-so in shipping is busy at the moment
but the receptionist, after hearing my story, tells
me she's sure the drive was shipped the 19th. She
will be sure that so-and-so in shipping returns my
call.
May 21--Near 10:00 a.m. so-and-so from shipping calls me (!).
She begins with "I am not trying to avoid you or
anything but...". I get the standard round of questions:
When did you order? When was your shipping date?
How did you pay? (I've answered these before.) It
seems as if we cannot find your order... I'VE GOT THEM.
I SENT THE CHECK CERTIFIED MAIL WITH RETURN RECEIPT.
I tell them they received the check on May 11th. So-and-so
says she will find out what's going on *immediately* and
call me back "not like tomorrow or anything; I'll call
you within the next two *hours*..."
Near 4:00 p.m. I call Jasmine and am told that so-and-so
is out to lunch, but will call me back. When I begin to
spell my name some utterance of familiarity with it is
heard.
At 4:55 p.m. I call Jasmine and request my order be
cancelled. I am given my original sales rep, Matthew.
I answer all the questions *again*. I am a polite
person but aggravated. I give Matthew one last chance:
If he can find out something about this mess and get back
to me, I'd listen, because I really *want* this drive.
He says they're closing now and he's got a meeting in
half an hour but he'll certainly find out what's going
on...and can he call back tomorrow morning?
No. And I darned well better get my check back ASAP.
I don't like telling anyone what to do, but if I were you, I would NOT
even try to deal with these people.
--wife of Prune
a/k/a Deborah Bouchette (...ogcvax!bouchett)
Disclaimer: Intel doesn't even let my division read mail during the day;
they don't have any opinions on the net.
T.F.Prune {allegra|ihnp4|decvax|cornell|tektronix} !ogcvax!inteloa!bill
-- "If you must shout, shout quietly !"cliff@sol.UUCP (Clifford T. Matthews) (05/23/87)
> In article <419@eplrx7.UUCP> lad@eplrx7.UUCP (Lawrence A. Dziegielewski) writes: > >In article <375@cup.portal.com>, Samuel_gold_Goldberger@cup.portal.com writes: > >> All reports I hear, both direct from friends and > >> indirect from test reports, are positive. > > > >I have had nothing but trouble with Jasmine. I'm on my 3rd 80 meg drive > >and the third new ROM for the drive. > > There's probably a difference between the 20 meg situation (put a > ST-225N and a power supply in a box) and the 80 meg drive that has > to be integrated with a SCSI controller. My guess is that the > positive reports are from customers of the 20 meg drive. For what it is worth, I would recommend Jasmine 20mb drives, but be aware that they are a small company. Here is a synopsis of my dealing with Jasmine: I ordered a disk via phone with my credit card and was told which day to expect my disk (about 2 weeks into the future). The disk didn't arrive when it should have. After a few phone calls (my calls were supposed to be returned, but I found I always had to call back myself) I was told that my disk would be shipped tomorrow and I would get it two days after that. When the three days were up, I played more phone games and was finally sent one overnight (they usually use two day air ship). Finally I got my disk. I hooked it up, thinking to myself how foolish I was to have let my Mac+ warranty expire without ever making sure the SCSI port worked and my worst fears were confirmed...not only did the disk not work, but it wasn't being seen on the SCSI bus at all, so it could be real SCSI problems. Since the west coast was still asleep, I decided to take my Mac in to be fixed with the idea that if the SCSI port was fine, I would call Jasmine... it was; I did. I was quite happy with the person I talked to (Keith), but I still had to ship my disk back (they told me to ship it 2 day collect). I called Purolater and the same guy who had brought me my disk early in the morning picked it up to send back. He asked me how to bill, and I said collect. He saw that it was going back to the same place and copied the info over including the request for overnight express. That was on a Friday. I was out of town Monday, when a Jasmine person (Tom?) left a message asking me to call. When I called Tuesday, I was told that they were not happy with me sending my disk overnight collect. I explained how the mistake was made. Tom sounded understanding, but wanted me to pay the difference (his explanation was that their prices are so low, they couldn't afford the extra cost [of course I would hope that my situation wasn't happening elsewhere]). I said that I had no intention of paying extra and that I was pretty steamed at all the phone calls to CA I have been making etc. I don't believe the situation had been resolved by the end of our call. I guess he would have to think about it, and/or check with someone higher up. Two days later, I got a working disk. I am happy with it, although every once in a while (probably once every twenty hours) it makes a noise that sounds a little like the crew of the Enterprise beaming up/down. The noise occurs less frequently now then when I first got it, so I don't think it is anything to worry about. The ironic thing about the whole situation is that I am very familiar with SCSI (I wrote much of and was in charge of all the SCSI software on the Cadmus [should mean something to you Scully watchers] 020 machine). I opted to buy a Jasmine disk because right now I don't have the time to fiddle around with cables/drivers, that would be involved with purchasing a used disk and fitting it with a SCSI controller etc. In the time I spent waiting for my disk I probably could have hacked together much more disk space for about the same investment in $$$ [sigh]. rpd:amf --Cliff [Matthews] decvax!savax!sol!cliff
cramer%clem@Sun.COM (Sam Cramer) (05/23/87)
In article <4014@amd.UUCP> ching@amd.UUCP (Mike Ching) writes: >There's probably a difference between the 20 meg situation (put a >ST-225N and a power supply in a box) and the 80 meg drive that has >to be integrated with a SCSI controller. I understand that the 80 MB drive is a Quantum embedded-SCSI drive. It requires no external SCSI controller, and comes pre-formatted from the vendor. From what has been said here earlier, it sounds like Quantum is having some problems with their microcode. If so, Jasmine is to blame for not doing a good job qualifying the drive, but the actual source of the problem is the drive vendor, not Jasmine. Sam Cramer {cbosgd,decwrl,hplabs,seismo,ucbvax}!sun!cramer cramer@sun.com
paul@fcstools.UUCP (Paul Perkins) (05/23/87)
The release notes for System 4.1 /Finder 5.5 say that earlier systems do bad things to disk volumes > 32 MB. If someone is having problems with 80 MB drives, this could perhaps be the reason.
lad@eplrx7.UUCP (05/27/87)
In article <712@omepd>, prune@inteloc.intel.com (Bill /Prune/ Wickart) writes: > Scenario: May 6--I called Jasmine and ordered an 80 meg hard drive for > May 15--Near 4:00 p.m. I call Jasmine to find out where my > May 20--Near noon I call Jasmine to see when the drive was > May 21--Near 10:00 a.m. so-and-so from shipping calls me (!). > --wife of Prune > a/k/a Deborah Bouchette (...ogcvax!bouchett) > [much deleted, but you get the picture...] Deborah, This has been my expeirence as well. Jasmine can deliver nothing but empty promises and bum drives. I have put my Jasmine to good use, it's holding up one side of a busted chair. Jasmine refuses to fix it, and they won't give me my money back. Their explaination is that whenever they get the drive in for testing, it works fine. When I have gotten it back, it refuses to work. I have tried it an all 3 of my Macs, a Mac Plus, a brand new SE, and an old 512K with a SCSI port. So much for Jasmine.... Lawrence A. Dziegielwski E.I. DuPont Co. UUCP: {dgis, psuvax1}!eplrx7!lad Engineering Physics Lab GENIE: LARRY.DSKI Wilm, DE Cash-We-Serve: 76127,104 MCIMAIL: idt MABELL: (302) 695-7719
lad@eplrx7.UUCP (05/27/87)
In article <19584@sun.uucp>, cramer%clem@Sun.COM (Sam Cramer) writes: > In article <4014@amd.UUCP> ching@amd.UUCP (Mike Ching) writes: > >There's probably a difference between the 20 meg situation (put a > >ST-225N and a power supply in a box) and the 80 meg drive that has > >to be integrated with a SCSI controller. > > I understand that the 80 MB drive is a Quantum embedded-SCSI drive. It > requires no external SCSI controller, and comes pre-formatted from the vendor. > From what has been said here earlier, it sounds like Quantum is having some > problems with their microcode. If so, Jasmine is to blame for not doing a good > job qualifying the drive, but the actual source of the problem is the drive > vendor, not Jasmine. > > Sam Cramer {cbosgd,decwrl,hplabs,seismo,ucbvax}!sun!cramer cramer@sun.com have spoken with Jasmine AND Quantum about the QC80. They have delivered 4 new PROMs to Jasmine in the last four months. Jasmine still can't seem to get their end of it right. Jasmine has the responsibility to qualifying the drives they intend to *sell* to people, and also the responsibility of writing a good driver to handle the Mac end of things. They apparently have fallen down on both counts. I can't blame Quantum, they're not forcing Jasmine to buy and re-sell their drives. Lawrence A. Dziegielwski E.I. DuPont Co. UUCP: {dgis, psuvax1}!eplrx7!lad Engineering Physics Lab GENIE: LARRY.DSKI Wilm, DE Cash-We-Serve: 76127,104 MCIMAIL: idt
alcmist@well.UUCP (Frederick Wamsley) (05/30/87)
In article <423@eplrx7.UUCP> lad@eplrx7.UUCP (Lawrence A. Dziegielewski) writes:
* This has been my expeirence as well. Jasmine can deliver nothing
* but empty promises and bum drives. I have put my Jasmine to good
* use, it's holding up one side of a busted chair.
* Lawrence A. Dziegielwski E.I. DuPont Co.
* UUCP: {dgis, psuvax1}!eplrx7!lad Engineering Physics Lab
* GENIE: LARRY.DSKI Wilm, DE
Last I heard, Mr. Dziegielewski was president of Micah Storage Systems,
which sells Mac hard drives.
--
Fred Wamsley {dual,hplabs}!well!alcmist;well!alcmist@lll-crg.arpa;
CIS 72247,3130; GEnie FKWAMSLEY;ATT Mail fwamsley; other uucp
uw-beaver!uw-june!bcsaic!asymet!fred; USPS - why bother?
"uucp mail is not in general unreliable" - Lauren Weinsteinjohn@felix.UUCP (06/04/87)
In article <423@eplrx7.UUCP> lad@eplrx7.UUCP (Lawrence A. Dziegielewski) writes: >Deborah, > This has been my expeirence as well. Jasmine can deliver nothing > but empty promises and bum drives. Well, since my Jasmine Direct Drive 80 has worked flawlessly since I received it in March, I would say the above statement is absolutely untrue. They can deliver more. Perhaps they did not in your case. > I have put my Jasmine to good > use, it's holding up one side of a busted chair. Jasmine refuses > to fix it, and they won't give me my money back. I have never known them to refuse assistance of any kind. My drive was a few days late. They were most apologetic. They even called me once to let me know it would be delayed. I have called them for technical advice, and they have always tried to help, tho once they could not answer the question. A friend got a 20mb with SCSI adapter, and when the unit failed to boot up, they spent a considerable amount of time on the phone (everyone in a positive mood) helping to get the thing working. They offer a 30 day money back offer, plus a one year warranty. If they really just plain refuse to fix it, you may have grounds for legal action. > Their > explaination is that whenever they get the drive in for testing, it > works fine. When I have gotten it back, it refuses to work. I > have tried it an all 3 of my Macs, a Mac Plus, a brand new SE, > and an old 512K with a SCSI port. So much for Jasmine.... > Perhaps you could fill the net in on the nature of your problem and diagnostic approach to it. It is possible someone here might have some useful insights They perhaps seem lax in their business attitude. They are a small, low-budget operation. If I were you I would continue to seek satisfaction. I just can't believe they would leave you high and dry. If your pissed off at them, that's one thing. But the statement you made above can be proved wrong. This is a public forum, and you may get yourself in trouble. > > Lawrence A. Dziegielwski E.I. DuPont Co. > UUCP: {dgis, psuvax1}!eplrx7!lad Engineering Physics Lab > GENIE: LARRY.DSKI Wilm, DE > Cash-We-Serve: 76127,104 > MCIMAIL: idt > MABELL: (302) 695-7719 I have absolutely no connection with Jasmine other than as a reasonably satisfied customer. -- John Gilbert .!trwrb!felix!john
rmg@mips.UUCP (06/06/87)
I've had a Jasmine Direct Drive 50 (that's right, 50) since late April, and
so far, no problems with it. Overall the only minor hassle I've had with the
company was a one-week slip in delivery date, during which I felt I was
getting a slight run-around. Part of that was, I suspect, due to changes in
the product line. They are still a pretty small operation, which always
carries a bit of risk...
--
- Rich Geiger
{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!mips!rmg
MIPS Computer Systems, 930 E. Arques, Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408) 720-1700 x308 [Day Job] (408) 739-7911 [home]lad@eplrx7.UUCP (Lawrence A. Dziegielewski) (06/09/87)
In article <2914@felix.UUCP>, john@felix.UUCP (John Gilbert) writes: > In article <423@eplrx7.UUCP> lad@eplrx7.UUCP (Lawrence A. Dziegielewski) writes: > >Deborah, > > This has been my expeirence as well. Jasmine can deliver nothing > > but empty promises and bum drives. > > Well, since my Jasmine Direct Drive 80 has worked flawlessly since I > received it in March, I would say the above statement is absolutely untrue. > They can deliver more. Perhaps they did not in your case. Just because your drive works fine and mine dosen't does not mean my statement is wrong. It's not true in your case. I have had a helluva lot of trouble getting Jasmine to fix my drive. They FINALLY took mine back and get me a working drive. But it took them THREE MONTHS to do it. > I have never known them to refuse assistance of any kind. My drive was a few > days late. They were most apologetic. They even called me once to let me know > it would be delayed. I have called them for technical advice, and they have > always tried to help, tho once they could not answer the question. A friend > got a 20mb with SCSI adapter, and when the unit failed to boot up, they > spent a considerable amount of time on the phone (everyone in a positive > mood) helping to get the thing working. My expirence has been that the folks at Jasmine were very willing to spend time on the phone with me. That was not the problem. They almost never called me back, I had to call them (I'm on the East Coast, they're on the West Coast, a VERY expensive call) and then we would go through their fixes over the phone. Another problem is with delivery. I paid for my drive on the floor of the SanFrancisco MacWorld Expo and didn't get my drive (the first one) until Feb 4! And I know for a fact that many other paople have had this problem with them. Jasmine makes you pay up front and they deliver later. > > They offer a 30 day money back offer, plus a one year warranty. If they really > just plain refuse to fix it, you may have grounds for legal action. > Perhaps you could fill the net in on the nature of your problem and diagnostic > approach to it. It is possible someone here might have some useful insights And legal action was considered. Since I have the problem resolved at this point I will not elaborate any further on the problems. I have gone over them enough in previous posts. > > They perhaps seem lax in their business attitude. They are a small, low-budget > operation. If I were you I would continue to seek satisfaction. I just can't > believe they would leave you high and dry. They did, and it took them a long time to remedy the situation. They are definately a low-budget operation, I was there twice. One time I was sitting next to the receptionist waiting for someone to see me and I overheard the secretary trying to ward off the phone company from turning off their phones. > > If your pissed off at them, that's one thing. But the statement you made > above can be proved wrong. This is a public forum, and you may get yourself > in trouble. Being pissed of has nothing to do with it. Sure, I was pissed, but anyone in my situation would have been. And I want to state that i am just not 'Jasmine Bashing'. I had a problem with them and i felt it was my duty to inform other of my problems. When I did, i got a flood of email from others telling me of their woes with Jasmine. I know that a lot of people got good drives from Jasmine, but a lot of people got bad ones too. That the facts, and I can't understand how telling the truth could ever get me in trouble. > > John Gilbert > .!trwrb!felix!john Lawrence A. Dziegielewski ...!dgis!eplrx7!lad
larryb@bcsaic.UUCP (Larry Baum) (06/15/87)
I think my experience with Jasmine is of interest:
I ordered a Jasmine 80MB in mid-April. I was told it would be shipped
on 4/29. It was shipped 5/14. Not when promised, but ok two morw weeks
was no big deal.
I opened it up. Very nice manual.
It worked fine. Boots very fast. Lots of public domain software and
shareware. However, my Mac is in my study which is very quiet and the
noise level from the disk was just too high. I called their customer
service (and got through the first time!) and reported the problem.
They let me send it back COD so that they could see if it was abnormally
noisy. A couple of days later I receieved a new disk. It too was
noisy.
I called them again (and got through right away again) and told them
about it. I sent the disk back (this time I paid the freight) and have
received my refund. They did not say or do anything to that was not
friendly. I give them very high marks for service.
Anyway, if you have an environment that has ambient noise, I feel the
Jasmine is well worth considering. If your environment is extremely
quiet, you will definitely hear the constant hum from the disk.
I am still looking for a hard disk and would appreciate any comments.
My priorities:
1) Must be very quiet
2) more than 20 MB
3) reliability
4) cost
I am currently considering MacBottom. Any experiences? Is it really as
quiet as the MacUser article claimed?
LSB
--
* The opinions expresses are not necessarily those of my employer *johnr@hpisla.UUCP (06/17/87)
I recieved a 20M disk from Jasmine 2 weeks ago, and the disk has performed quickly and flawlessly. It arrived about 2 weeks late, but on that account my story is the same as others have posted. I did have a problem with fan noise also, a vibrating sound that made the machine impossible to use. Taking a look inside I found that one of the blades was scraping the side of the fan housing, causing the vibration. I used a nail file to take off a couple-hundreths, and the fan has performed flawlessly since. If you can survive the ordering delay, I highly recommend Jasmine drives on price/performance. JKR