[OT] Waddizzit?? - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

25 Jun 2002

...
  From: Michael Passer &lt;passerm(a)umkc.edu&gt; 
...
  PCs, unlike televisions, are sold as being
user-upgradable--it is no more
 "servicing" to add a card or drive to a PC than adding a component to a
 high-end stereo is.  
Yes, but I've seen customers open up the box if Windows doesn't work the
way they expect ;>)

Coupla examples of customer repairs and "upgrades":

Proprietary Mitsumi CD-ROM drive plugged into IDE port on a sound card
(burnt board).
Hard drive or CD-ROM drive attached to motherboard by floppy drive cable.
IDE cables spliced together so the system can accommodate more than four
IDE devices.
PCI device edge-connector forced into an ISA slot (burnt pcb on device and
motherboard).
Sound card attached to case properly, but toward the outside edge of the
motherboard (where
there was no slot of any kind -- sound card's edge connector was hanging in
the air above the MB).

...
  I would probably be frustrated myself if customers
tried to return items
 they destroyed. It's certainly your prerogative to sell PCs with 
 warranty stickers. To me, though, that's a deal-killer, absent the kind
 of relationship you appear to have with your knowledgeable customers. 
If someone seems capable of installing a device AND DRIVERS, I tell them to
break the seal, and I also tell them that if they screw something up that
there might be a repair bill.  For the general public, though, it's "break
the seal and lose your warranty."

Fair enough?

Glen
0/0

If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?
And if not now, when?
-- Pirkei Avot