More from the WSJ's Mossberg in today's column on Dell service and USB 'caveats'...
December 2, 1999
What Does 'On-Site' Mean
To Today's Makers of PCs?
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG
There's no other major item most of us own that is as confusing,
unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers.
Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help. Here
are a few questions about computers I've received recently from
people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the
questions a bit, for readability.
This week my mailbox contained
questions about on-site repairs, USB
cables, and Lotus 1-2-3.
Q. My Dell personal computer won't
boot. I have a three-year next-day on-site
warranty that I paid extra for at the time I
purchased the computer. I called Dell and asked them to send
someone to fix my PC on-site. The person told me that I would
first have to "troubleshoot" the problem over the phone with the
technician. After an hour, he still couldn't get my computer to boot.
Then a second technician came on the phone and said to take all
of the cables out of the computer, take the cover off, take all of the
cards out and then see if I could reboot it without any of the
cards. I refused, told him that this is why I paid for the on-site
warranty and said that I wanted someone to come here tomorrow
to fix it. He again said no. What's going on here?
A. I spoke to Dell about your case, and the company said the
technicians in your instance went too far in making you diagnose
the machine before sending a repair person to your site.
However, you have stumbled onto a dirty little secret of the PC
industry: Most companies make you jump through all sorts of
hoops on the phone before agreeing to honor on-site warranties.
This is reasonable only up to a point: Before dispatching a
technician, the companies want to make sure what's wrong isn't
something simple, like a loose plug or cable, and they want to
make sure it's a hardware problem, not a software problem,
which usually isn't covered under such on-site warranties.
But in many cases -- such as yours -- the companies are being
unreasonable. They want to avoid the expense of sending out a
technician, and they still labor under the outdated assumption that
most owners are techies. They think you have the time, skill and
interest to go through the lengthy process of stripping down a PC
to test it over the phone. But increasingly, users don't want to
participate in diagnosis and repair beyond answering a few
reasonable questions. They just want the PC fixed, and that's why
they buy on-site warranties.
Also, in the PC business, it's often impossible to know whether a
problem is due to a flaw in hardware or software, since the two
are so closely intertwined. My attitude is that PC makers should
stand by the whole package, including pre-loaded software, and
that on-site warranties should be more inclusive.
Q. In a recent column, you said buyers of "legacy-free" computers
that only have USB connectors might have to buy special adapter
cables to connect older hardware, like printers. Well, this was my
problem with my new Dell. I was searching for a USB adapter
cable to connect my older Okidata printer and my six-month-old
H-P scanner, but CompUSA told me they've never seen such a
cable. When I called H-P, I was also told these cables don't
exist. And Okidata said there is no such thing as a bi-directional
adapter cable. Can you tell me about adapter-cable sources?
A. There certainly are adapters -- some
in the form of cables, some in the form of
little boxes called hubs -- that can link a
parallel printer to a USB port on a PC.
Some are, indeed, sold at CompUSA.
Two accessory companies, Belkin and
Entrega, also sell them at
www.belkin.com or www.entrega.com.
However, these adapters don't work with every printer, and even
when they do, they don't support every feature on those printers. In
particular, they don't support so-called "bi-directional"
communication, just as Okidata told you. That means that with
some printers you may lose some of the information displays on
your PC screen that tell you when the printer's out of ink or paper.
Printing still works. And devices other than printers -- such as your
scanner -- may not work at all.
Q. Is Lotus an endangered species? Yesterday in a bookstore I
noted shelf after shelf of books on Microsoft products but found
only two books on Lotus products. I have received no
correspondence from Lotus regarding new products or support in
more than a year. Is Lotus 1-2-3 about to go extinct? I have
invested more than 15 years in Lotus products, but will I be
consigned to a dead end if I persist?
A. Lotus continues to upgrade and sell its 1-2-3 spreadsheet,
which is part of a productivity bundle known as SmartSuite, and
hasn't made any moves to cancel it. But for a couple of reasons,
the company has maintained a much lower profile in the
consumer market in recent years. Some years ago, the Lotus
suite was trounced in the marketplace by Microsoft Office, and
the company turned its attention to its corporate groupware
product, Notes. Then Lotus was acquired by IBM; since then it
has treated SmartSuite as something mainly to bundle with IBM
PCs and to sell into corporate channels. However, as I said,
Lotus is still offering it to consumers. For information, see
www.lotus.com/home.nsf/welcome/123.
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