Bad experiences with IBM 755CX

[Ivo Welch <ivo@next.agsm.ucla.edu>]

I just wanted to share my experience with my IBM 755CX.

First time, the 755CX broke within 2 months of usage---the display had to be  
completely replaced.  Because it happened in the UK, I had to pay about $100  
to get the machine to and back from IBM, and lost a week's usage.

This time (4 months after purchase), the hard disk broke completely (lost  
about 10 days of work).  An engineer came out, took the hard disk with him.   
Got me a replacement hard disk within a week.  Get this: the replacement came  
without a system.  So, I got a copy of MSDOS and started building the  
system.  Unfortunately, the 755CX is not compatible with plain Windows for  
Workgroups (the mouse is moved, the hard disk locks up).  No go---I need to  
start again.

So, I spent the last 5 days, calling the service engineer, calling 5 1-800  
numbers through which was rotated around for hours, and I finally found out  
that there is a recovery disk (from Paul Rubin from this mailing list).  But  
of course, IBM wants $50 to ship me the CD-ROM.  If I do not have a cd-rom, I  
can now pay $100+s/h to ship the *entire* computer (not just the HD) to IBM,  
and I will get it back sometime.  It is not so much the money, but the way  
IBM is handling this---after 10 days of no machine usage, I have to spend not  
only time and effort to get the base machine back to how I bought it, but I  
also have to spend money.  What a fabulous 3-year on-site warranty!

Now, I hope that when the CD-ROM arrives, it will need to run off a PCMCIA  
installed MSDOS system, and replace it.  This will be an interesting  
experience in itself...

Well, I am going to recommend Toshiba next...

/ivo