Winds of Change

written by Charles DeVore

from Mouse Tracks May 2004

A client and old friend just had a run-in with HP tech support that I just have to relate to you. It seems his new 1210 all-in-one printer/copier/scanner was having problems printing a HyperCard stack. As the printer was newly-purchased from Costco about a week before, he called HP to see if tech support could help him. When he gave his serial number to confirm the warranty information, the HP tech informed him that he was not under warranty due to the fact that his printer was made over a year ago. That’s right—the person on the phone said that the warranty was not valid due to the fact the printer had been manufactured a year ago. Asking for help to solve this problem resulted in a courtesy help forward to a tech who could not answer his question and said to contact the software manufacturer. What I want to know is, when did the rules change regarding when a warranty starts and ends? Who in HP told the tech support people this information, and why haven’t they had a class action suit filed against them for this practice? My best guess is that HP (the company) knows nothing about how the hired-out tech support is answering warranty questions. I have asked my client (who is a retired lawyer) to write HP a letter detailing his contact and responses from tech support.

Another client had a problem with her G4 tower not wanting to shut down. Each time she tried to shut down, the machine would turn off, then restart. Since I was upgrading her to a 800 MHz processor and a SuperDrive, I told her I would take a look at the shutdown problem. Upon arriving at my house, the machine shut down normally every time I tried, with no restarts. So we upgraded her to the current firmware, then updated 9.1 to 9.2.1, then to Panther from Jaguar. Still, everything started up and shut down with no problems. As soon as the machine was returned to her house, the problem again appeared. Making sure her keyboard and mouse were plugged directly into the back of the Mac, I asked her to unplug the USB hub and try shutting down her computer. Everything worked fine at that point, so then she added the hub back in, and then one USB device at a time. The Imation SuperDisk floppy drive was the device causing the restart problem. So the solution to this problem is to plug in the Imation drive only when she needs it, and to unplug it right after use. The moral of this story is, if you’re experiencing similar difficulties, remove any external devices and see if the problems still exist. It may be a simple fix to correct your hardware problem.

PMUG needs more people to help answer questions from software users. In each issue of Mouse Tracks we publish a Resource List of people who are willing to answer a quick question or two from other PMUG members. All you have to do is be familiar or skilled with the program you would like listed with your name and phone number. We also list times that you would be willing to do this, so that people would know what times you are willing to help. The more people we have on the list, the greater chances are that answers will be found. So if you can help, please let the Mouse Tracks crew know the following: the software you can answer questions about, your name, your phone number, and what times you can be contacted.

Here it is again! Yes, that wonderful warning I give out about every two to three issues about not running old utilities on newer systems. Currently we do not recommend running any disk optimization on any version of Panther (OS 10.3). Several people have tried this action and have been forced to reformat their drives and reinstall their software. I keep saying this over and over due to the fact that lots of people seem to think running repair programs is OK even if it is not needed. I really need to point out that even the utilities people state that you need to back up all your data before using their programs. About 75% of the time the repair program fixes the damage that has occurred; the other 25% the program proceeds to trash your hard drive contents. Needless to say, all documents that (victim’s name here) had been working on were lost if not backed up onto a different drive or storage media.

It’s amazing—shortly after the last issue of Mouse Tracks went to print, Apple released the Panther 10.3.3 revision fixing the network problem that I was complaining about. Great! Now can we get the rest of the printing problems fixed? Then I may very well start the process of moving most of my print customers over to System 10.3x. Many of the settings for your printer are buried two or three levels deep. The System remembers some of the settings. This means that for the next thing you print you may need to un-set what you had previously selected. For example, if I select envelope and print an envelope, I need to go back to the print layout on the next thing I print and select new settings, or everything will be printed on envelopes. That may sound funny, but just think about setting up to print a large job and discovering the you just printed everything in landscape mode over your pricey letterhead, rather than portrait mode like you wanted.

Someone asked about pricing at the local Mac stores the other day. They were quoting a price for an external hard drive at being only $1.50 more at The Apple Store in Washington Square than the onsale price to PMUG members at another store. Each store has its own profit margins to deal with, as well as shipping and handling. Here the matter of being able to buy directly from the vendors due to large volume purchases comes into play. The timing of your purchase also comes into play. You can buy a new internal 80 Gig hard drive for $100 or $69, depending on whether it is the new model hot off the factory floor or last year’s model that they need to move out the door. No matter what the advertised price, I can always save $10 by shopping around for a week or two. Most of the time I can’t afford to wait that long, so I pay a higher price and get what I need. No matter what I recommend, I suggest you shop around for your products. Many stores, like the Mac Store in Portland, will match prices with other vendors to keep your business.

It may be that the Apple stores have an unfair advantage when it comes to selling Apple products. It seems that Apple sells their products to their Apple stores at a cheaper price than they sell to their other authorized vendors. This means that Apple stores make more money off the same machines, and this can add up very quickly. The way Apple is going after sales for its own stores makes it appear that the “our stores are here to inform the customers about Apple products” is hogwash. Apple stores are here to make more money for Apple’s bottom line. Most retail vendors are there for that exact purpose, but since Apple sets the prices for their vendors, let’s have a more level playing field.

You can reach me at charles@cdevsol.com.

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