mpd@anomaly.sbs.com (Michael P. Deignan) (08/04/90)
I recently ran into some difficulty when I investigated the possibility of "upgrading" my Trailblazer Plus to a T2500. Unfortunately, all I could get on the phone were sales people, and nobody "of authority". This is the situation: When talking to a rep about upgrading the Plus to a T2500, I went thru the whole process... Yes, It'll cost me $x because I bought the Plus last July... Yes, there is a y day turnaround time. Then I got the shocker: Telebit Rep: "Okay, sir, now let's get you an RMA number for your modem..." Me (in my AT&T commerical voice): "Excuse me? You mean I have to return my Plus and then wait for Y days before I get the T2500?" Telebit Rep: "Thats correct, sir..." Me: "And just how am I supposed to transfer 11 megs of news per day?" ...etc... -=- Then, after attempting to get someone of "authority" on the phone for awhile, I finally gave up. It seems that Telebit either expects you to have more than one Telebit modem at your site, or that you can for go the use of your Telebit for some unknown period of time while they ship you your upgrade (nah, I didn't get the Telebit for UUCP transfer of news... I only bought it because it was expensive...) Can someone "of authority" at Telebit comment on this? What is Telebit's company policy on upgrading modems? Is this "standard" treatment which all small businesses and individuals who have Telebits can expect to receive? MD
bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) (08/07/90)
Many companies, when repairing or upgrading hardware that's in use, will send a "new" unit and expect the customer to send back the "old" unit in the same shipping container by the next day's shipping schedule. They often require a check, purchase order number, or maintenance contract first. They include an RMA number in the box carrying the "new" unit to the customer. Such a policy assumes the vendor has more inventory of the vendor's product than does the customer. This is very helpful to folks who don't have cold spares lying around. This has been my experience, anyway, in interacting with computer companies that deal mostly with other corporate entities. Perhaps Telebit is too deeply into the consumer marketplace for this sort of policy to succeed.
rick@uunet.UU.NET (Rick Adams) (08/08/90)
Its rather pointless to pay $795 to upgrade your modem to a T2500 when you can buy a new one for $899 from several places. Either 1) pay the extra $100 or so and keep the old one (as a spare if nothing else) or 2) buy the new one and sell the old one. I expect you will get a lot more than the $100 difference. --rick
pjg@acsu.buffalo.edu (Paul Graham) (08/08/90)
rick@uunet.UU.NET (Rick Adams) writes: | |Its rather pointless to pay $795 to upgrade your modem to a T2500 |when you can buy a new one for $899 from several places. | telebit told me it was $395 for modems purchased after 1/1/89. has this changed?
michi@ptcburp.ptcbu.oz.au (Michael Henning) (08/09/90)
mpd@anomaly.sbs.com (Michael P. Deignan) writes: >I recently ran into some difficulty when I investigated the possibility >of "upgrading" my Trailblazer Plus to a T2500. Unfortunately, all I could >get on the phone were sales people, and nobody "of authority". Does someone on the net know what's involved in the upgrade. I believe that all you have to do is replace the ROMs. Anyone know if that is correct ? Michi.
mpd@anomaly.sbs.com (Michael P. Deignan) (08/10/90)
rick@uunet.UU.NET (Rick Adams) writes: >Its rather pointless to pay $795 to upgrade your modem to a T2500 >when you can buy a new one for $899 from several places. The upgrade price I was quoted was $395; significantly less than the purchase of a new modem. So much for "field upgradability", huh? MD -- -- Michael P. Deignan # mpd@anomaly.sbs.com # ...!uunet!rayssd!anomaly!mpd -- -- Author, SCO Ported Software Compendium, and Maintainer of Online Archives -- -- Telebit: +1 401 455 0347 Login: xxcp Password: xenix (local rmail ok) -- -- Files: /usr/spool/uucppublic/SOFTLIST /usr/spool/uucppublic/ARCHELP --
david@twg.com (David S. Herron) (08/13/90)
In article <2453@anomaly.sbs.com> mpd@anomaly.sbs.com (Michael P. Deignan) writes: >rick@uunet.UU.NET (Rick Adams) writes: >>Its rather pointless to pay $795 to upgrade your modem to a T2500 >>when you can buy a new one for $899 from several places. > >The upgrade price I was quoted was $395; significantly less than the >purchase of a new modem. > >So much for "field upgradability", huh? The upgrade price is $395 for modems built after some point in time (1/1/89?) It is $795 for modems built before then. The difference is that the modems built afterward have some magic thing on their motherboards which makes it easier/cheaper to do. For the older ones the upgrade is a complete motherboard swap. Note that the difference between a TB+ and a T2500 is much more than just a ROM change. Telebit doesn't do V.32 out of the DSP chip they do PEP in. This is because the DSP chip they use doesn't have the CPU bandwidth to do V.32. Instead they add in some off-the-shelf V.32 chips, and do the rest with DSP+ROM as is done in TB+'s. My modem was built before the cutoff :-( -- <- David Herron, an MMDF weenie, <david@twg.com> <- Formerly: David Herron -- NonResident E-Mail Hack <david@ms.uky.edu> <- <- Sign me up for one "I survived Jaka's Story" T-shirt!