Another View
I read with some degree of bemusement the rave reviews of the new G3 series of Macs. Sometime in April I found myself in the position of needing to replace my old and trustworthy Centris 650, it being no longer capable of processing the large files that I was trying to create for my web pages. Looking around at the various options, second-hand, 604's, etc., I was amazed to discover that I was in the fortunate position of being able to afford for the first time some state of the art gear, and plumped for a 233 Desktop G3. 

My Centris had gone the distance for 5 years and I assumed that this new technology would show the same degree of longevity. I took delivery of my new pride and joy on the 18 April, and dutifully informed all my PC owning acquaintances of the fact, to many oohs and aahs. However this joy was to be short lived. Within two weeks I had had suffered several tumultious crashes until finally the machine decided enough was enough and refused to start up altogether, giving the dreaded flashing disc icon. Various calls to the supplier proved fruitless, it was Apples responsibility, and calls to Apple were met with, speak to your supplier. Foreboding to say the least. Attempts to start up from the System CD failed, zapping PRAM didn't help, but finally somehow I managed to get it going and immediately ran Disk First Aid.  Guess what? The hard disc appeared to be OK. I then ran Norton Disc Doctor and discovered that the System had damaged resource forks. Another call to Apple had someone suggest that this was maybe a SCSI problem. Do these people have stock answers to slough people off? A clean installation of the System proved necessary to get back to normal. Normality resumed, but confidence badly shaken. Several more crashes and reinstallations later and we arrive at the evening of Saturday 23 May, the middle of the May Holiday weekend, and more flashing disk icons and another reinstallation.  The difference this time is that not two minutes after installing the system software and whilst re-installing some 3rd party software the CD Rom Drive gave a ominous croak and then a mighty bang as it ground to a halt exploding the disc within it.

Are Apple available during  Holidays? Not a chance. I am now snookered, if the machine crashes again there is no way to get it going again. I would mention that this machine is for business use, I rely on it totally for email, accounts, updating my web page etc etc, and so it is critical to have it working at all times. Patiently I waited for Tuesday morning, and finally managed to speak to someone at Apple.  Is there any relevance to the fact that Apple play Dire Straits whilst they keep you waiting interminably? This time Apple seemed to be more willing to act, spare parts would be put on order, logic board, CD Rom and Hard Disk, and an engineer would visit to fit them.

Fine, thought I until I spoke to ICL who supply the engineer. The parts are in short supply and there may be some delay in getting them. Four weeks later an engineer arrived and set to with his diagnostic software. On cue the machine crashed irretrievably, and he promptly replaced the logic board and CD Rom, but not the Hard Drive. The machine has been working since he visited, but I am still not convinced about it. The number and frequency of crashes, Type 1&10 Errors especially are worrying, as is, not being able to eject floppies without re-booting, and this weekend (11/7/98) the dreaded flashing disc icon emerged again.

Apple has now re-ordered a new hard drive but will give no promise for a delivery time for fitting, or assistance with transferring data, and so I have had to shell out £50 for discs to back up the 4gb drive, before the engineer arrives. If there is still a problem they will consider cabling faults. If there is still a problem I will consider court action. Surely it would be less trouble to all concerned simply to swap out the machine for one that has been tested thoroughly, and take my pile of junk in, find out what is wrong with it once and for all, and be prepared for more cases to come along. Could it be the processor? At no time has any mention been made of this and yet consistently the problem has been a damaged resource fork in the System Folder. Perhaps Apple already knows there is a problem but corporate damage limitation forbids them from coming clean. 

Imagine their new gleaming profits being dented by the revelation that the G3 machines are faulty. I was always under the impression that America invented the 'Have a nice day' and let me kiss your ass type of customer service. Perhaps someone should tell those people at Cupertino. This week I received a mail shot from Dell, which promises free 4-hour response repairs if I purchase a Pentium machine before the end of July. If they even come close to that level of service even I could live with Windows. Suck on that Apple. I swear if I ever have to forcibly listen to 'Walk of Life' again I will seek out Steve Jobs and insert my G3 into somewhere painful. This incidentally was typed on a Windows 95 machine because this morning my super-duper Mac greeted me with, yet again, a flashing disc icon.

Yours faithfully

David Bremner
screen shot showing three levels of screen merging and random interference.

David Bremner - Director
WhiskyNet Ltd 
www.whiskynet.com

I have forwarded this letter to Apple UK and will post the response if there is any. Remember our promise of truth and information. 
Darren