From: tpang@fraser.sfu.ca (Tsui Ting Debbie Pang)
Subject: Re: The Emplant Ordeal.
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 10:55:00 GMT

langston@memstvx1.memst.edu (Mark C. Langston) writes:
>   (here I go again... my mother didn't teach me any better, apparently...)
>I'm not going to take sides here, but I would like to point out a few things:

I am going to take side then, on the customers who are victims of false
advertisement. (Or may be those things UU/Jim Drew sent out were not considered
advertisements?). No, not that it is not even working now (Emplant), but
Jim Drew admitted a lot of features pulled because of [you fill in..], but
people paid on the previous info.

>  1)  UU announced Emplant before it was shipping.  This is not unusual.
>      (Cases in point: Atari Falcon, Windows NT, etc. etc. etc.)

Yes, and you are right. People are somewhat more paranoid because of
UU track record with Sybil, for example. That's reputation.

>  2)  People (not everyone) jumped all over Jim when he didn't make his
>      shipping deadline.  This is a bit strange, because companies regularly
>      miss announced shipment deadlines.

Only because he always said 'next week', or some at UU said, which they
KNEW was just not true. How many times of lying can you take before you
feel insulted with your intelligence?

>  3)  Some of these people had a right to jump on Jim, because they had
>      already paid for the product.  This is odd, and I have no explanation
>      for Jim charging people when the product was not ready to ship.

Even we have not paid real money, but if the net has spent so much bandwidth
on this topic, which we are all getting excited (or were) because of its
claimed outstanding features being an everything emulator. A lot of people
have to pay (or their institution providing the netnews) to read and post
news. The customers were willing to pay because they were told it was going
to be shipped 'very soon'.

>  4)  People ordered the product sight-unseen, with no authoritative
>      reviews, first-hand experience, etc.  While this is not unusual, I
>      wouldn't suggest it to anyone.

Yes, you are absolutely right, I'd not recommand this buying practice too.
But if I emphasized this a couple months ago, some would say I should be
more patient and have faith/trust etc.

>  5)  UU finally shipped prepaid Emplant orders.  Good for them.

But what were shipped? If none of them works, what good for them? It's more
like more frustration IMHO. Not only it is not better than waiting, it is
a waste of the users' time to try all these things to get it to work, calling
their BBS, calling them, try diff. config. etc.

>  6)  The product did not work as advertised (as of yet).  This was probably
>      due to several factors:  pressure to release from those people who
>      already paid, general public pressure to release, and quickly declining
>      customer base.

I agree with your speculation. But still it doesn't make it right.

>  7)  UU is working to fix the software problems the product currently has.
>      These fixes are being offered free-of-charge, and UU is doing their
>      best to keep the customer base informed of progress while trying very
>      hard to fix any problems.

I hope it is true, especially for those who paid. And for those like us, who
are waiting to get one, they have to get it working before making money from
us, right?

>  8)  Customers are becoming irate, and potential customers are shying away.

1st, Sybil. 2nd Emplant. I'll give UU one more chance I guess, but not by
paying in advanced :).

>While these items seem discouraging, I would wager that the people now 
>complaining will sing UU's praises if and when the product succesfully 

The only things I have ever complained are those that has to do with the
intended feature which I doubt the plausibility. I said nothing about the
delay so far, as I agree that many big companies do the same.

>emulates a Macintosh.  Whether or not the product meets the original specs
>is open for debate.  However, many products do not achieve their original
>goals.

But the worth of it will be different. It's more ok if we haven't paid yet,and
we can see if it's worth that much with its real features. Again, for the
ones who paid, even getting a fixed version, but not as much feature as UU
claimed, I still think it's false advertisement. IMHO, the features he pulled
are some of the most important ones.

>  Although people with Emplants in their hands have some right to complain,
>it ist as though UU did not ship a product, and is not doing anything to 
>fix the problems.  If you are really that dissatisfied with the product, send
>it back for a refund.  

And what are you implying here? Send it back for a refund, but don't bitch
about it here? Because it's not of public interest to know how bad the user
feels about the product and the whole thing? I agree UU is doing their job
to get it to work, but they are SUPPOSED to, what else? It's the repeated
delay and now non-working product make everybody disappointed and yes,
dissatisfied. It's is the whole issue. It had generated so much hype.
Although I am not suggesting any of you to, if I were the one with a non-
working Emplant now, I'd send it back, and see if I can get a refund or
not. When it is working in the future, I'll just buy one again. Again,this
is only my way.


>-- 
>+--------8<------Cut Here------8<------Cut Here------8<------Cut Here---------+
>  Mark C. Langston   |  "Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny."                 
>  Psychology Dept.   |  "Always listen to experts.  They'll tell you what can't
>  Memphis State U.   |     be done, and why.  Then do it."                      
>      "Pftph!"       |           -From the notebooks of Lazarus Long         
Interesting: a floppy disk saved by DiskDoctor is named Lazarus.
Of course, you know that. :)

David Tse