IBM field service was Re: ST-225 help needed

From: Fred Cisin <cisin_at_xenosoft.com>
Date: Wed Jul 24 13:46:01 2002

> >In their early days of the PC, IBM had worse field staff than Radio Shack
> >did!
On Wed, 24 Jul 2002, Joe wrote:
> Wow! That's hard to beleive! Especially since RS had no field service AFIK and the service in the "Service Centers" was utterly worthlss!

Before I offend any more people, I'd better be a lot clearer about my
statement!

1. I said "In their early days of the PC" (20 years ago!). I was NOT
referring to how they were before the PC, nor anything "recent" .
2. I meant their PC staff, NOT referring to any of their mainframe or
mini people. (often significantly different!)
3. I misused the word "field" to include all of their operations that
were NOT "factory", including their "service technicians" at their retail
sites, and "field service center"s.
4. I unfairly lumped in with IBM's people all of the non-IBM people who
REPRESENTED them, including Computerland, "IBM sales centers".

If you bought an IBM drive for an IBM XT, the People installing it on
behalf of IBM would be likely to pinch the cable, and the only reason they
got the cable on the right way around was the keying; the only reason
they got the drive select right was the cable twist; they often
(usually?) did NOT get the termination right. I saw a "technician" at an
"IBM Product Center" trying to connect an XT hard disk using a floppy
cable (AFTER the twist), including trying to cut a new notch in the card
edge!


(BTW, RS WOULD sometimes send somebody out to the customer's site for
Model 2 and Tandy 10 systems)
Received on Wed Jul 24 2002 - 13:46:01 BST