PC advice sought (Zeos?) - some words of caution

[tgoldin at amherst.bitnet]

In article <3590 at plains.UUCP>, klakeman at plains.UUCP (The Anti-Twin) writes:
> In article <52617 at bbn.COM> jgregg at BBN.COM (John R. Gregg) writes:
>>
>>*       Mail order computers.  I don't feel warm and fuzzy about being
>>	waranteed by people thousands of miles away.  Does it work out
>>	OK usually?
> 
> I have been to Zeos International's office, and even talked to the President.
> I kinda hung around the office on a couple of occasions and watched how they
> operate.  I was very impressed now quickly they responded to service calls.
> When someone called about a problem with their system they usually used
> next-day air to get a replacement part to the customer.  They didn't 
> require them to send the faulty part in before they would ship the new one.

I purchased a Zeos system in the fall of 1988.  While it is true that they will
ship out a new part before receiving an old part, the necessity for such
shipments was absurdly frequent (at least at that time). Quality control seemed
non-existant.  I have written about this here before, so I will not go into all
of the details, but I will give a few examples:

The machine was shipped with a defective keyboard BIOS chip (F7 did not work at
all).  The replacement, which came weeks later, was not fully compatible with
the motherboard (it forced the board into the lower of the two selectable
speeds).  The optional 1.44 MB diskette drive was installed incorrectly (ZEOS
was kind enough to include the Teac installation instructions, but had
evidently failed to read them... and had failed to test the drive).  When the
system board went bad and I had to arrange for a new CPU to be shipped, I
specifically asked them to make sure that the 1.44 MB drive was installed
properly... they dropped the ball again.  Finally, I returned the product.

While the experience of owning that machine was somewhat frustrating, I do owe
ZEOS some bit of gratitude;  the experience I gained working on their machine
helped shape my plans for the future... I am now working as a Technical
Consultant, providing PC support for a firm in Cambridge.

P.S.  I cannot say how good or bad a product ZEOS now ships.  The intent of
this letter is not to judge them in particular, but to point out that magazine
reviews and performance benchmarks rarely provide information about quality
control, durability and other important factors.  In purchasing a computer one
should seek out the experiences of others;  one should consider the age of a
company and the stability of its product line.