From: davidf@ocf.berkeley.edu (Dave Friedman)
Newsgroups: ba.market.computers
Subject: Re: Response to Hi-Tech USA Info
Keywords: Geneoa
Date: 4 Sep 92 10:56:30 GMT
Followup-To: poster
Distribution: ba
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: hailstorm.berkeley.edu

In article <181ejgINNslg@agate.berkeley.edu> jaffray@oreo.berkeley.edu (Alan Jaffray) writes:
>In article <15pl8qINNp6o@agate.berkeley.edu> chiu@ucsee.Berkeley.EDU writes:
>>
>>From what I've heard (from netlanders and friends) Hi-Tech's ads are misleading
>>at best, and some of their staffs have attitude problems. Stay away from them
>>like the plague.
>
>And then there are those of us who have bought from them, didn't find 
>anything misleading about the ads (unless you count not explicitly stating
>that the price includes only 8K cache), and beyond having to wait 30 
>minutes in their lobby each time, have had no problem with staff...
>They were quite willing to replace my video card even though it was a 
>minor problem that I couldn't reproduce for them, for instance.  There
>seems to be a minor problem with running Windows (I have to readjust
>the v height of the screen after running a non-windows app), but they
>gave me a BBS number which has the fix.
>
>BTW they only don't take *personal* checks.  Cashier's checks are fine
>and clearly paying $4 for such a check is no problem, you do not have
>to either pay 3% fee or walk in with $1500 cash.
>
>Just thought I'd mention that such exist.
>
>-- Alan
>

And then there are those of us that are still trying to fight for support
from them.  I bought a Hard drive for my computer which was supposed to be
under warranty.  (They charged me an extra $100 for a 5-year warranty).
The drive showed up with the warranty seal broken.  Since they had delivered
it to my dorm room, I had no chance to inspect it with the delivery person
still around.

I called Hi-Tech several times, each time being "accidentally disconnected"
by their operator.  When I finally got through to the most un-caring,
un-helpful, incompetent customer service person, I was told that if the
seal was broken, the warranty was invalid.   *NO MATTER WHAT*.

I finally got through to her supervisor, who explained that if I would
ship the drive back at my expense, they would look at it to make sure
it hadn't been tampered with, and then ship it back to me with a new
seal at my expense.  I decided it wasn't worth it.

I was wrong.  2 months after this happened, my drive failed.  I mean DEAD.
It stopped reading and writing.  I called their Customer Service people
and they said their technicians were all out of the office.  Great.  So
much for a customer service line.  (Incidentally, the CS number I had
for them was NOT toll free, and was not listed in the 800-directory.
In fact, they refused to give it to me -- I dug it out finally from an
old computer magazine.)  Their technicians were completely unhelpful
when I spoke to them, telling me that I must have done something to the
disk (yeah, like connect it to my computer) to break it.

After HOURS of haggling with them to accept it back for repair or exchange,
to no avail, I hung up on them, threatening suit.

The next day, I took my drive into a local shop, where for $50, I was told
it was a manufacturers error.  They shipped it back to Maxtor, who shipped
me a new drive NEXT DAY AIR, and sent me a certificate for $100 off my
next drive purchase, to offset Hi-Tech's incompetency.

I recently received a letter from Hi-Tech, asking me to extend my warranty
for another 5 years (I still have 4 years left, supposedly).  They wanted
over $100 for another 5 years.  I sent the letter back unopened.

Sorry for the long-winded follow-up, but I want to urge as many people
as possible to use Hi-Tech only as a LAST RESORT.  I realize that some
people may have had luck with them, but do you want to gamble with an
expensive purchase?

Dave Friedman
davidf@ocf.Berkeley.EDU