FTC Complaint against IBM

[chess9]

I've filed a complaint against IBM with the FTC. I sent a copy to my representatives in Congress, and my lawyer. I'm ticked!
As some of you may know, my daughter's puppy chewed her monitor cable. It's a G94 monitor made by IBM. When new, it was about $1000 two years ago. I picked it up for about $500 7 months ago. Anyway, a call to IBM tech support produced this response: "We don't provide parts support for our monitors, and we can't tell you who does."
That is an unsatisfactory response for obvious reasons. Let's hope automobile manufacturers don't take this approach!
In my efforts to find the cable, I contacted a very nice cable company in England, who informed me that my story was among many they had heard about manufacturers refusing to support monitors. One fellow lost the cable in a move to his new $3000 Gateway LCD and was told by Gateway he had to buy a new monitor because they don't provide cable replacements.
I'm waiting for Hitachi to get back to me about a possible replacement cable since they made the CRT. Perhaps they will be of some assistance.
IBM has come a long way under Gerstner, but I'd say they have a long journey left.

 

[Xanathar]

Almost every town has a monitort repair place within 50 miles, it should cost you 45$ for them to open it up and replace the cable. <the 45$ is usually a flat fee> almost all of them have flat fee services where its close to 150$ for tube or electronics problems, but cables are seperate due to the majority are just unplugging them.

 

[chess9]

Xanathar: This cable has 3 connectors inside the monitor. Most monitors have two. My local repair shop didn't want to do it because they didn't think they could find two of the connectors, a 7 pin and a 10 pin without a lot of hassle. Also, why should I pay $45 when this is really a $2 (at cost) part, which IBM could sell to me for $20? I'd pay $45 if that's all it would cost, believe me. I can mail it to a company in Redmond, Washington to fix, but haven't gotten a price quote from them. They want to simply solder the chewn ends together! Several sites HAVE suggested that solution will work, but it is not very elegant or reliable. A new part should last for the duration of the monitor. A soldered cable is more likely to break, as well.

 

[Scorpion]

Good luck with your fight. That's pathetic that they can't provide support for something as simple as a Monitor cable. Then again, can't you walk down to the local Computer store and buy one? Or is it some kind of special cable? I'd be ticked as well though, that's an unsatisfactory response to a customer. Sheesh, it's a fricken monitor cable. I would think they could send you some information on contacting whoever provides them with the cables at least.

Well, good luck...

 

[Ulysses]

I'm sure the FTC is going to jump right on this !

In the meantime try a repair shop.

 

[chess9]

Ulysses: Yes, I expect investigators at my door momentarily.

I've tried the local shop route. Check my post above. This cable is a bit unusual. But this just points out how pathetic and money grubbing some of these big computer companies are. Doesn't Compaq have several parts suppliers for their old machines? The prices are ridiculous, but at least the parts are available. Why is customer support such a hard concept to understand?

 

[larrymoencurly]

Replacement cables are a standard repair item, and somebody in sci.electronics.repair should be able to tell you where you can order one. Even if an exact replacement can't be found, somebody with a crimping tool and some connector bodies and pins can make or modify a video cable to make it fit the monitor. But if for some reason that's not possible, they could at least cut off the existing cable real short and put a video connector on the end of that.

 

[chess9]

Someone else suggested sci.electronics.repair, but I haven't posted there yet. I will do so if Hitachi doesn't come through by next week. Meanwhile, don't go long on IBM stock.

Thanks for the help, though.

I'd really like a new cable.