Negative reviews?

Seems like just yesterday I was using XP at work and at home. I kept XP on my recording machine until I had to upgrade because the amp sim I wanted didn't run on XP. Other than that it was great. I fired it up recently and still ran great.
 
Joking aside, I sell and rent radios, air, ham, marine, business, and I got an offer on a job lot of Motorola brand new radios, ten years in a warehouse. Crazy price so I bought them. Never thought about programming them. Needed an XP computer, I did have one with vista, but that refused to work. Gave up. Sold them all on ebay as unable to test, but just about recovered the amount i paid.
 
In the original post Dusty states that the value is a matter of opinion. 'Value' can be intrinsic or market. In this case the client and the service provider were not using the same definition.
A service provider often has to decide whether it is worth their time to take on a project using previous experience with similar projects and may determine that the particular project will not sufficiently pay for their time. Note; the provider's experience may tell them that your 'simple' job could easily turn out to be a nightmare. They won't tell you that as you may feel insulted. The 'value' of their time is theirs to choose.

Now one of my brothers is an EE who owns his own industrial electronics repair and design business. I have mentioned him on this forum before. He has to maintain several working versions of every iteration of Windows because many of his clients use systems that can NOT be upgraded without either spending so much that they would not be able to amortize the cost soon enough to remain profitable, their equipment is no longer manufactured or bespoke and can't be upgraded and various other roadblocks. Sometime he has to break the bad news that a client's problem can't be solved for a price that will allow them both to make money.

My point is that working with 'obsolete' hardware is almost always either going to be a self guided project or will require a (usually expensive) specialist-always with many 'we are not responsible for ....' clauses.

On the other hand, there are plenty of resellers online of these older machines that refurb and sell them and these are IME a great way to get spare parts and even whole replacements.

I have a couple of old Mac machines that I upgraded by buying stripped versions of later models with compatible parts and they are still going strong.

I agree that the provider could have handled it differently, but it's often the case that tech types aren't the best at customer relations. Not always, but often.
 
I guess a little side shoot to the flow of the conversation....

When I moved here the closest little town to my surprise had Radio Shack. Not that I had kept up with it but if someone had asked me I would have guessed Radio Shack no longer existed. I was kind of happy to see they were still around, as a business, and in a clutch you never know if it might be handy to have one semi close by. Never made it in there and driving by saw a sign for auction. Didn't see the details of the "open auction", date or anything. Almost seemed like a just by the entire lot type auction, if such a thing exists for such a business. It's kind of sad and unfortunate, I think the pandemic hit that town pretty hard and there are a lot of empty store fronts. They do have a big Walmart, of course, and there's now Amazon and online ordering to deliver right to your home. Industry is still there, so at least there is that, farming, and cattle.
 
Society has been conditioned to always buy something new.

I stopped by a close friend's house a couple of weeks ago. Her microwave oven was sitting on the dining room table. Apparently it stopped working, and she was told it wasn't worth the repair cost. Her new one was in the kitchen. The problem was that it was too heavy for her to lift and take to the waste center. I told her I would take it next time I stopped by, but I'll check it out to see if it was actually dead.

I picked it up Monday, unscrewed the 8 screws holding the cover, and pulled out my meter. Snap switches were all working. Checked the fuse and it was dead. I stopped by Home Depot and picked up a 2 pack of fuses for $5.38, put in a new fuse and PRESTO. The lights came on, the clock started flashing. I put in a bowl of water and told it to do a 1 minute cycle. Out comes a hot bowl of water. I guess the 30 year old fuse just gave up. I gave it a good cleaning, sucked out the bit of dust and kitty fur that collected on the bottom vent and put everything back together.

She told me that she probably should have called me first. Now the question is whether to keep it for a spare, or donate it. At least it isn't sitting in a dump somewhere.
 
My microwave died last month. Everything works, but wont heat. It acted up several months earlier when it "ran away" while heating something - wouldn't stop heating and no response from controls - had to unplug it, then everything seemed to reset to normal. Anyway, just went out and bought a new cheapo for $50 and it's been working just fine - I like it better than the old one.

I'm a bit leery of taking the outer shells of off these small appliances, though not for safety reasons. My first attempt was a countertop broiler oven that had a gawd awful alarm and bell when timers expired. I wanted to disconnect those, and did, but the cover could not be reinstalled. I would need at least 3, maybe even 4 hands to position it in it's proper alignment and attach screws to retain it before it sproinged apart. Something an automated assembly line does very nicely.
 
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spantini said:
My microwave died last month. Everything works, but wont heat. It acted up several months earlier when it "ran away" while heating something - wouldn't stop heating and no response from controls - had to unplug it, then everything seemed to reset to normal. Anyway, just went out and bought a new cheapo for $50 and it's been working just fine - I like it better than the old one.

I'm a bit leery of taking the outer shells of these small appliances, though not for safety reasons. My first attempt was a countertop broiler oven that had a gawd awful alarm and bell when timers expired. I wanted to disconnect those, and did, but the cover could not be reinstalled. I would need at least 3, maybe even 4 hands to position it in it's proper alignment and attach screws to retain it before it sproinged apart. Something an automated assembly line does very nicely.
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A very long time ago (30+ years) I used to do some domestic appliance repair professionally and I can say for certain that the dismantling and taking apart and putting back together (properly) for repair purposes of the old 80's generation self-cleaning GE ovens is one of the most tedious and complicated tasks that I ever had to do during that period. It was difficult even after you knew what you were doing and got used to it. Good grief I hated those things. I used to soooo badly feel tempted to tell folks "you just need a new oven". lol
 
Gtoboy said:
In the original post Dusty states that the value is a matter of opinion. 'Value' can be intrinsic or market. In this case the client and the service provider were not using the same definition.
A service provider often has to decide whether it is worth their time to take on a project using previous experience with similar projects and may determine that the particular project will not sufficiently pay for their time. Note; the provider's experience may tell them that your 'simple' job could easily turn out to be a nightmare. They won't tell you that as you may feel insulted. The 'value' of their time is theirs to choose.
Click to expand...
Maybe I expect too much from people but I would rather hear the truth or at least a reasonable explanation rather than, "Your machine isn't worth $80." That part really is a matter of opinion. At the most basic description, what are ALL computers made of? Metal and plastic, give or take a few other materials. Is ANY computer built with more than $80 worth of metal and plastic whether now or in 2008?
Gtoboy said:
Now one of my brothers is an EE who owns his own industrial electronics repair and design business. I have mentioned him on this forum before. He has to maintain several working versions of every iteration of Windows because many of his clients use systems that can NOT be upgraded without either spending so much that they would not be able to amortize the cost soon enough to remain profitable, their equipment is no longer manufactured or bespoke and can't be upgraded and various other roadblocks. Sometime he has to break the bad news that a client's problem can't be solved for a price that will allow them both to make money.

My point is that working with 'obsolete' hardware is almost always either going to be a self guided project or will require a (usually expensive) specialist-always with many 'we are not responsible for ....' clauses.

On the other hand, there are plenty of resellers online of these older machines that refurb and sell them and these are IME a great way to get spare parts and even whole replacements.

I have a couple of old Mac machines that I upgraded by buying stripped versions of later models with compatible parts and they are still going strong.

I agree that the provider could have handled it differently, but it's often the case that tech types aren't the best at customer relations. Not always, but often.
Click to expand...
Exactly. Like I said above, I have a problem with expecting too much from people. The guy didn't have to insult me to turn away my business. All he had to do was briefly explain what you and everyone else have explained. Nah, I think he insulted me on purpose because he knew it would be easier to get me off the phone.
 
Dusty Ol' Bones said:
Maybe I expect too much from people but I would rather hear the truth or at least a reasonable explanation rather than, "Your machine isn't worth $80." That part really is a matter of opinion. At the most basic description, what are ALL computers made of? Metal and plastic, give or take a few other materials. Is ANY computer built with more than $80 worth of metal and plastic whether now or in 2008?

Exactly. Like I said above, I have a problem with expecting too much from people. The guy didn't have to insult me to turn away my business. All he had to do was briefly explain what you and everyone else have explained. Nah, I think he insulted me on purpose because he knew it would be easier to get me off the phone.
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Dusty, it sounds like this guy is a tool so be glad he didn't take the job. You told him you wanted it fixed and he should have just told you that he doesn't work on XP machines. Done.
 
Apple had no qualms telling me my 2 year old macbook pro was now legacy, and the fact the battery kept going flat was due to it's age. That's more insulting than the XP thing, but when my recent battery backup was done - the computer bios date reset to 2003 - so it was brand new before perhaps the person in the computer shop was born? That's scary.
 
Dusty Ol' Bones said:
Maybe I expect too much from people but I would rather hear the truth or at least a reasonable explanation rather than, "Your machine isn't worth $80." That part really is a matter of opinion. At the most basic description, what are ALL computers made of? Metal and plastic, give or take a few other materials. Is ANY computer built with more than $80 worth of metal and plastic whether now or in 2008?

Exactly. Like I said above, I have a problem with expecting too much from people. The guy didn't have to insult me to turn away my business. All he had to do was briefly explain what you and everyone else have explained. Nah, I think he insulted me on purpose because he knew it would be easier to get me off the phone.
Click to expand...
What is it he said that you perceive as insulting you? Him telling the computer is worth next to nothing? The value of the computer isn't based on the raw materials it's made of, it's based on the capabilities of the computer's architecture relative to the overall marketplace which is very transitory. Also the components of a computer are subject to degradation over time - the RAM, the CPU, the power supply, capacitors on the motherboard etc. all have a finite lifespan.

I think what's tripping you up is you're in a time capsule bubble of awareness - it does what you need it to do but the majority of the marketplace needs/wants a lot more performance out of a system.

Search on eBay with the terms - Core2 Quad computer Windows XP - which puts it approximately in the same age category as your machine. Then click on "Sold items" and look what past items have gone for. Once upon a time a machine of that description would have been considered a screaming system.
 
brassplyer said:
What is it he said that you perceive as insulting you? Him telling the computer is worth next to nothing? The value of the computer isn't based on the raw materials it's made of, it's based on the capabilities of the computer's architecture relative to the overall marketplace which is very transitory. Also the components of a computer are subject to degradation over time - the RAM, the CPU, the power supply, capacitors on the motherboard etc. all have a finite lifespan.

I think what's tripping you up is you're in a time capsule bubble of awareness - it does what you need it to do but the majority of the marketplace needs/wants a lot more performance out of a system.

Search on eBay with the terms - Core2 Quad computer Windows XP - which puts it approximately in the same age category as your machine. Then click on "Sold items" and look what past items have gone for. Once upon a time a machine of that description would have been considered a screaming system.
Click to expand...
hank hill hwat..JPG
 
Both microsoft and apple computer OS are backwards but not compatible. Dump em and go Linux.
 
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