wynkoop@esquire.UUCP (Brett Wynkoop) (12/20/89)
Greeting-
Has anyone else out there bought any NCD terminals from pyramid. If
so how has service/reliability been?
The first two we got had to go back because they were very out of
focus. One of the replacements will reboot without warning. When I called
RTOC they wanted the serial number of my 98x before they would talk to me.
Then by the time someone got back to me I already had answers from NCD.
BTW the pyramid person who called knew nothing about the terminal. NCD
talked me through some tests and did some simulations in their lab. They
figured out I had a sick terminal and said contact Pyramid about sending it
back and getting a new one. I did, it has been two weeks and no new
terminal. This makes 3 of 4 terminals I have gotten that were bad.
Has anyone else had the same experience? Has anyone else had good luck
with Pyramid supplied NCD terminals?
-Brett
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The facts are the facts. The opinions are my own and not those of my
employer or my cat.csg@pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst) (12/23/89)
In article <1688@esquire.UUCP> wynkoop@esquire.UUCP (Brett Wynkoop) writes: > Has anyone else out there bought any NCD terminals from pyramid. If >so how has ... reliability been? My *PERSONAL OPINION* of the reliability of NCD terminals is: if you compare them to other terminals (Wyse, Televidio, Qume, Ampex, Visual), very good. If you compare them to PCs or workstations, poor to fair. This is true whether you buy them from Pyramid, NCD, or any other OEM. I think your three out of four failures is unusual, but certainly well within the realm of statistical probability. NCD seems to have a higher infant mortality than other terminals, but are better over the long haul. Wyse is the opposite -- terminals work great out of the box, but die after a few years, especially if you have bad line power. In all seriousness, some of the longest-lived terminals I've seen are old DEC VT-52's and VT-100's. Of course, the early failures were weeded out a decade ago. :-) I was just having a fascinating discussion with one of my manufacturers sales- reps on the pricing and manufacturing quality of X servers. He pointed out that to build a 80386 PC X server you have to spend something around $10,000; yet X server "terminals" are selling around $2000. His feeling was that the X server vendors were convinced that they had to compete with the mainstream "dumb" terminal market, and had hence reduced costs to the point that quality was hurt. But on the other hand, how much are you willing to spend per desk? Most companies I've ever seen go apoplectic at the suggestion of spending over $2000 for a "terminal," regardless of how much productivity they might gain. >When I called RTOC they wanted the serial number of my 98x before they would >talk to me. Of course. That's how they locate your database entry so they can report that you had a problem. (The company really does keep track of those statistics.) Also can verify that you bought the terminal from Pyramid. >BTW the pyramid person who called knew nothing about the terminal.... [NCD] >figured out I had a sick terminal and said contact Pyramid about sending it >back and getting a new one. I did, it has been two weeks and no new terminal. Did someone from RTOC contact you stating when you would get a replacement? If not, then someone may well have dropped the ball, or maybe you are just diffi- cult to reach by phone. Did you call and ask RTOC when it was going to be shipped? It could be that Pyramid is having trouble getting the terminals from NCD, although one would hope that priority would be given to existing custo- mers with dead terminals, over new customers with no machines or terminals.... As I've said before, this is the sort of problem you should escalate within RTOC. Posting to the net may relieve frustration, but it will do nothing to fix your problem. (I'm in R&D, and just read the net for funsies. The company disavows knowledge of anything I say here, although my VP will call me out on the carpet if I say something controversial anyway. :-)) <csg>
wynkoop@esquire.UUCP (Brett Wynkoop) (12/29/89)
In article <95673@pyramid.pyramid.com> csg@pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst) writes: > >I was just having a fascinating discussion with one of my manufacturers sales- >reps on the pricing and manufacturing quality of X servers. He pointed out >that to build a 80386 PC X server you have to spend something around $10,000; >yet X server "terminals" are selling around $2000. His feeling was that the >X server vendors were convinced that they had to compete with the mainstream >"dumb" terminal market, and had hence reduced costs to the point that quality >was hurt. But on the other hand, how much are you willing to spend per desk? >Most companies I've ever seen go apoplectic at the suggestion of spending over >$2000 for a "terminal," regardless of how much productivity they might gain. It is cheaper to put together a good quality 680x0 system with a small amount of rom than it is to put together an 80386 system that can do stand alone computing. Must have more software/hardware in the 386 box for it to be a user changeabel computer. Another case in point most car computers are 6809, or 680x0 machines with the os and applications in rom. Very little i/o hardware needed. very little mem needed. No drives. that all adds up to cheaper. Lets face it an X terminal only needs to be able to do certain things. A 386 computer must have much more in it cause the user may want to do something else with it in the future. (Read as it is not a 1 trick poney). > >>When I called RTOC they wanted the serial number of my 98x before they would >>talk to me. > >Of course. That's how they locate your database entry so they can report that >you had a problem. (The company really does keep track of those statistics.) >Also can verify that you bought the terminal from Pyramid. > Does this mean that Pyramid will not sell NCD terminals to anyone who has not bought a system? (this is not retorical I am realy curious) >Did someone from RTOC contact you stating when you would get a replacement? If >not, then someone may well have dropped the ball, or maybe you are just diffi- >cult to reach by phone. Did you call and ask RTOC when it was going to be >shipped? It could be that Pyramid is having trouble getting the terminals from >NCD, although one would hope that priority would be given to existing custo- >mers with dead terminals, over new customers with no machines or terminals.... > >As I've said before, this is the sort of problem you should escalate within >RTOC. Posting to the net may relieve frustration, but it will do nothing to >fix your problem. (I'm in R&D, and just read the net for funsies. The company >disavows knowledge of anything I say here, although my VP will call me out on >the carpet if I say something controversial anyway. :-)) > ><csg> Not even my on site pyramid tech could get a terminal out of corprate. Everyone and his brother as far as I could tell had been informed. Two days after my posting I got a new terminal. I also met some other Pyramid people who expressed concern and explained to me how to get help when all else seems to have failed. My thanks to the folks in the NYC pyramid office. A happy end to a sad story. -Brett
csg@pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst) (01/09/90)
In article <1695@esquire.UUCP> wynkoop@esquire.UUCP (Brett Wynkoop) writes: >It is cheaper to put together a good quality 680x0 system with a small >amount of rom than it is to put together an 80386 system that can do stand >alone computing.... Lets face it an X terminal only needs to be able to do >certain things. Sure! But all that still doesn't account for a six-to-one price difference. <csg>