This is Dissatisfaction-with-NeXT-(formerly in view mode; [Up]
Date: Sun 19-Jan-1991 18:49:46 From: judd@marlin.NOSC.MIL (Randall R. Judd) Subject: Dissatisfaction with NeXT (not the machine, the company) (formerly I am tired of reading articles understanding NeXT's need to delay shipments of the 040 upgrade, and hoping for at least a bone in the form of the 2.0 version of the operating system. When NeXT came out with there upgrade there were all kinds of hints that you should get your order in early to prevent delays due to a waiting list, and to buy before January so you could get a free copy of Improv. Well I sent NeXT a cashiers check for 1600 dollars on October 5 for my upgrade, which was about as soon as there was a way to do it. I sent a cashiers check because a personal check or credit card was not good enough for them. I expected a certain delay because, after all, Motorolla was holding everybody up. But it is now January 19, and there has been a demo NeXT station down at the UCSD bookstore for a week now. Further Delays have not been explained by NeXT, and I don't believe the one about there not being enough 040 chips. Arguments that it is more important to fill NeXT station orders don't hold much water with me. I am just as important as the other guy and if my order was in before his, I should recieve it before him. It is difficult for me to understand why I should have to play second banana to a bunch of people who are buying there NeXT now when they are cheaper and not as risky a buy, when I bought mine over a year ago when they were more expensive, and riskier. I would not be so irritated if NeXT would send me some information and/or a confirmation of my order. They have sent me absolutely nothing. I had to call them to ensure they even recived my check. I have twice called them and was told that somebody would call me back, but so far nobody has. Every time I call they ask me for my order number, which I don't have and which they won't tell me over the phone. They just tell me they will check, and call me, and then a week later I have to call them to find out what the answer is. The last time I called they thought my order would be out This month but the woman on the phone was not sure, and she would have somebody call me to confirm it. It is now a week later and I still have not recieved a call. If I have to call them again, and hear that my upgrade is not coming until March 31 I will come unglued. As long as I am bitching I might as well bitch about there lack of ability to fix these machines. On October 15, about 2 weeks after my warranty ran out my hard disk started making bad noises, and my computer started having panic attacks. I called NeXT to see what there fix policy is, and they have none. They told me basically, that I had to go to Business Land. I called them (several times before I finaly got somebody who knew anything) and was not impressed. It looked like if I sent it to them I would never know how much it would cost to get it fixed until the final bill showed up, probably a big bill. My solution was to buy a 600 MByte Maxtor drive to replace the 300 MByte Maxtor that was in my cube. My cost was about 2250, which was about what I was charged (student prices) originally by NeXT for the 300 MByte, and my new drive has a 5 year guarantee by the seller. This means that when I originally bought my hard drive from NeXT I might as well have flushed 2000 dollars down the toilet. Not only was it more expensive to buy from NeXT, I got ZERO service for buying everything from 1 seller. The morale to this story is to look long and hard at third party products, and use a sharp pencil before you buy anything from NeXT that you can get somewhere else. Just one mans opinion. Randy Judd
Date: Sun 20-Jan-1991 01:50:44 From: mikec@wam.umd.edu (Michael D. Callaghan) Subject: Re: Dissatisfaction with NeXT (not the machine, the company) (formerly I would just like to put in that I recently received a letter from NeXT basically apologizing for the delays, and saying that they are significantly stepping up production for January. I am told that I should receive my 040 upgrade within a month. MikeC
Date: Sun 20-Jan-1991 16:52:01 From: anderson@sapir.cog.jhu.edu (Stephen R. Anderson) Subject: Re: Dissatisfaction with NeXT (not the machine, the company) (formerly I just got the same letter, and I suppose it's better to see that they know there's a problem than to hear nothing at all about where the hardware and software upgrades I ordered at the end of October are. I'd still rather have the equipment, and I don't have a whole lot of confidence in the latest guestimate of "mid-February". I bought my cube in the B'Land fire sale, and while I like it a lot, it does have an OD that irretrievably sucks [n.b. - this description is intended as literal, not calumnious], and for which I can't get media (so as to allow me to back it up, for instance). I shelled out the last money I had on a grant for this, rather than getting another Sun, in order to evaluate the NeXT for our new student lab. So far my impressions of dealing with NeXT (as a company) don't encourage me to rely on them for our students' facility. As an aside, several people have puzzled over the slow pace of software upgrade distribution: '040 shortages are presumably responsible for the hardware distribution problems, but why the slowness in shipping the new software? But since I'm told they don't have any OD's to ship to fill my order for those, I bet that's the problem with the software upgrades too. Steve Anderson
Date: Sun 21-Jan-1991 02:19:50 From: waltrip@capd.jhuapl.edu Subject: Re: Dissatisfaction with NeXT (not the machine, the company) (formerly In article <1991Jan20.015044.18461@wam.umd.edu>, mikec@wam.umd.edu (Michael D. Callaghan) writes: > I would just like to put in that I recently received a letter from NeXT > basically apologizing for the delays, and saying that they are significantly > stepping up production for January. I am told that I should receive my 040 > upgrade within a month. [...] > Michael D. Callaghan,MDC Designs, University of Merryland We received a similar letter from NeXT (actually sent from the University of Maryland computer store) regarding the NeXTstation we ordered for my son. Nice touch by NeXT and the University. Thanks to both. c.f.waltrip Opinions expressed are my own.
Date: Sun 25-Jan-1991 17:01:00 From: smb@csn.org!datran2 Subject: Re: Dissatisfaction with NeXT (not the machine, the company) (formerly In article <1991Jan25.133302.4796@wam.umd.edu> mikec@wam.umd.edu (Michael D. Callaghan) writes: > >Mine sucks air in the back of the Cube, and blows air out the front. It >didn't come that way from NeXT. Also, it is no great task to cut a piece >of filter from an a/c unit or such, and tape it in front of the fan. > When you get your update kit you will find a filter and instructions for turning the fan around. Yes. Its as simple as that. Just unscrew the fan and it can be turned around and remounted. Its all symmetric. Do not reverse the polarity on the power. No warranty expressed or implied. I can't be responsible if you do things to your cube. Steve.
Date: Sun 25-Jan-1991 05:13:52 From: iwelch@agsm.ucla.edu (Ivo Welch) Subject: Re: Dissatisfaction with NeXT (not the machine, the company) (formerly (1) I love my NeXT, and would immediately buy it again. In general, the NeXT folks have stood behind their product much better than say Apple or Sun. Just consider upgrade prices and free warranty extensions (unlike Apple, even when the delivered harddisk was faulty, they didn't fix it). (2) Like many, I am glad to see that NeXT has orders. I am not glad not to have received my upgrade yet. (3) The only thing I am *REAL* unhappy about is the OD in my cube. Alright, I live in a dusty environment, and newer cubes than mine blow the dust the right way, and thus avoid breakdowns. Still, given that I have an old-design cube, I have no choice but to sell it (which I have already committed too). Pity. (4) Let's get back to a discussion about how to improve things in the future, not each individual's opinion about past problems. /ivo welch ivo@next.agsm.ucla.edu
Date: Sun 25-Jan-1991 13:33:02 From: mikec@wam.umd.edu (Michael D. Callaghan) Subject: Re: Dissatisfaction with NeXT (not the machine, the company) (formerly In article <791@mara.cognet.ucla.edu> iwelch@agsm.ucla.edu (Ivo Welch) writes: >(3) The only thing I am *REAL* unhappy about is the OD in my cube. Alright, I >live in a dusty environment, and newer cubes than mine blow the dust the right >way, and thus avoid breakdowns. Still, given that I have an old-design cube, I >have no choice but to sell it (which I have already committed too). Pity. I noticed when I opened up my Cube, also a rather old one, that the plug on the fan is symmetric. Now, it seems to me, that if the motor for the fan is electric (which I believe it is), then one could just reverse the polarity on the plug to the fan, and it would blow the other way! Mine sucks air in the back of the Cube, and blows air out the front. It didn't come that way from NeXT. Also, it is no great task to cut a piece of filter from an a/c unit or such, and tape it in front of the fan. If I'm a total moron, please keep it to yourself. I would like to remain ignorant of the fact. MikeC
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Marcel Waldvogel and Netfuture.ch.