Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!rutgers!topaz.rutgers.edu!masticol From: masticol@topaz.rutgers.edu (Stephen P. Masticola) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Responsiveness (Is Apple just another IBM?) Message-ID: <13430@topaz.rutgers.edu> Date: Tue, 21-Jul-87 16:55:45 EDT Article-I.D.: topaz.13430 Posted: Tue Jul 21 16:55:45 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 23-Jul-87 04:30:18 EDT Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 41 Keywords: Are all their customers dummies? I just found out the following from sunny Cupertino: - My Apple Personal Modem has a slowly frying power transformer. (I didn't hear that from Cupertino -I heard it buzzing and felt it overheating its little windings.) - Apple is not willing to sell me a replacement. - My alternative is to go to a dealership, plunk down $130, and watch the ENTIRE MODEM BOARD get dropped into the trashcan. - Apple did not design the Personal Modem - this was done by U.S. Robotics. No better luck getting any info on the transformer from them, either. - U.S. Robotics severely underspecified the transformer. It may manage about half the current output it needs to, based on the power rating of the modem. All other comparable transformers have twice as much mass in the core. To further promote overheating, the transformer is placed in the worst-ventilated place in the modem. The design is bad and is likely to fail. - I had somewhat analogous problems getting Apple to acknowledge defects in their Mac Security Kit. It will not secure the printer, AS THEY ADVERTISED. They didn't give a damn about that one, either. - I now have the choice of trying to fix Apple's bad design or to pay ten times what it would cost me to do the repair myself, for a fix that won't stay together. I choose the former. I also choose never to buy any Apple product again, if I can get a substitute with schematics. Apple produces some very fine items, but "the rest of us" are not all technological dummies and should not be treated as such. I resent their IBM-ish treatment of customers as money-laden idiots who don't have the right to state their ideas and suggestions. By the way, does anyone know where I can get a 120 to 18 VCT transformer capable of 750 ma output and fitting in a clearance of 0.8 inches? I'm still looking. And Apple, if you're reading this, be aware that it's going to be crossposted to other BBS. I am seriously ticked.