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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.