Wanted

[Jan Isley]

In article <602 at mbph.UUCP> hybl at mbph.UUCP (Albert Hybl  Dept of Biophysics  SM) writes:
>
>I would like to acquire an AT&T 3B1 with 2Meg RAM on the mother
>board, a 67 Meg hard disk, keyboard and mouse, etc.  (Are there
>any available with the AT&T warranty?)  I am also interested
>in obtaining a combo board for the above system.

Let me remind everyone one more time.

AT&T no longer provides warranty service for any 7300|Unix PC|3B1.

No matter where or when you buy|bought it, no warranty.  The only exception
to this is if you buy certain phone systems *from* AT&T that use a 3B1 as a
controller.  In that case, you don't really know that you have a computer
since it is a phone system and not usable by you as a computer.

How do I know this you ask?  I work for Discovery Electronics, an AT&T VAR
and one of the very few places left to buy a Unix PC.  I have talked to 
just about everyone at AT&T who has now or has had anything to do with these
systems for the last several years.   There is no longer a product manager
for the Unix PC.  By her own admission, the last person to hold that position
was a not very glorified clerk.

AT&T will still very gladly sell system software for the Unix PC, but they
will not even support that.  If you call the Tech Support Hotline with a
question about "supported" software that is well within the "90 day"
warranty period, you will not get to talk to an engineer without first
giving someone a credit card number and authorizing them to charge it at a
rate of $150 per hour with absolutely no assurance that you will then get to
talk to a support engineer who has ever even used a Unix PC.  If, after 
talking to an engineer, it is determined that the problem is in fact related
to the "supported software", the engineer *may* reverse the charges to your
credit card.

You can buy a service agreement from AT&T.  You better be sitting down
when they tell you how much they charge for it, especially for one with
lots of memory and a big disk.

For *much* less than a one year service contract I can sell you a spare 
computer.

If a warranty is important to you, you better buy one from a vendor who will
support you because I can promise you from experience that AT&T will not, at
least not on this machine.

Discovery Electronics does have these machines for sale and we provide a 
90 day warranty.  Some of our customers are very happy, some are not,
statistics sort of works that way, doesn't it.  If you buy a computer from
us, I am your support and your warranty.  Try to find someone at AT&T to
say that.

AT&T's position is that for every Unix PC sold, they loose a sale for a 386.
Yes, that is preposterous, but that is their official position and they are
sticking to it.  Certain unnamed AT&T big shots have even *suggested* that
we should *loose* our remaining stock of Unix PCs.  They would not be more
specific.  For support of a CURRENT, SUPPORTED product, I do not believe
that you can beat AT&T, period.  When they move on to new product lines ....

I do not have all the answers and as I said, not all of our customers are
happy, but some people expect too much of a system that is showing its age,
technoligically speaking, and some people just are not going to be happy
unless their computer walks on water and gives change.  I remember one 
customer who demanded that I replace his hard disk because it had 6 bad
blocks on it.  He got his money back.  It was easier than putting up with
someone who was clearly going to be a royal pain in the ...

Jan Isley, follower of Zen, picker of nit
jan at bagend | gatech!bagend!jan | (404) 434-1335 home | (404) 425-5700 work