This page started as an index to various web pages I've written about my experience with
computing products I have bought. Since then I've added things to it that are not related to
computers, such as the incredible treatment I had by AVIS,
one of the world's leading car hire companies, and hotels and restaurants.
It's sad to note that most of this experience has been negative. In particular,
“support” departments seem to be an alibi function.
Acer PH530 data projector
I bought one of these projectors for our lounge room in October 2007. It's one of the cheapest
real 720p projectors on the market, but so far I'm quite happy with it. Read more.
AAPT telephones
On 28 August 2004, I received a phone call from somebody claiming to be from AAPT, which proved to be a player in the Australian telecoms
marketplace. He claimed that if I changed to AAPT, I would receive exactly the same conditions
as with Telstra (my local supplier at the timee), but
with a 30% discount off the bottom line. This proved to be fraudulent; the sorry story dragged on for 18 months. Finally they refunded all the
money I paid them, but of course they didn't pay for my wasted time.
ALDI
ALDI is a German retailer with operations in Australian.
Our experiences have been mixed.
Apple Macintosh PowerBook G3
In January 2005 I bought a second-hand Apple Macintosh PowerBook G3.
I had heard good things about MacOS X, always been meaning to find out more (in particular, if
it could do screen management better than Microsoft, and if it would do as well as BSD for more
demanding things). It wasn't the fastest machine in the world, but the price was right.
AVIS car rental
In November 2005 I hired a car from AVIS in Italy. They did
just about everything wrong that they could, including overcharging me by a factor of 5 and
refusing to even address my complaints.
I bought an HL-2700CN in April 2004. It's an exception to the rule that all things I buy are
bad. I'm very happy with it. Maybe for this reason I haven't written up a page on it; instead
there are references to it in my diary entries for 6
April and 10 April 2004.
Canon CanoScan 9900F
In late April 2004, I bought a new scanner to scan in my old slides and negatives. The CanoScan
9900F is advertised for exactly this. Unfortunately, the best I can say is “it works some
of the time”. The driver is supplied in binary form for Microsoft and Apple only, and has
great difficulty finding the slides or negatives on the platen, even going to the point of
ignoring what help the user tries to supply. They also supply no technical documentation about
the device, so I can't use things like SANE. Canon's
support team have admitted that the problem exists, but otherwise have shown themselves to be
completely unhelpful. Read more.
Dell Inspiron 6000
I've had lots of dealing with Dell over the years. They've
always been flaky, and they seem to be getting worse. I've started in mid-stream to document
what happened with my latest purchase in October 2005.
Digitrex GKX-9000 DVD recorder
I bought a GKX-9000 in March 2004. In my opinion it sets an all-time record for poor quality
and design. Initially one in three recordings failed with the recorder hanging itself up and
having to be physically disconnected from the power mains and then reconnected: there is no
power switch, though this machine is more in need of one than anything else I know. That's not
all; read the whole sorry story.
iCON IPX-3200 Satellite Internet terminal
“Terminal” is one of the three names used to describe this box, which is
effectively a modem for two-way satellite IP. The others are “modem” (of course)
and “consumer box”, which sounds to me like an engineering term which escaped the
development environment. This box is the only way to access the IPStar Internet service. It's one of
the most broken devices I have ever seen
Sonwa SV600 Video recorder
I bought a couple of ultra cheap Sonwa SV600 video recorders at Coles, an Australian
supermarket chain. Surprise: they're good!
Telstra “Big Pond” Internet
When we moved to Dereel, we lost our ADSL connection (thanks,
Telstra). After some investigation of satellite providers, I discovered Telstra's “Next
G” service and connected. Read on.
eBay auctions
I've been buying things on eBay since early 2000, and by and
large I've had good results. One case where I haven't has been with a person trading under the
name
west1255, who sold me a non-functional and incomplete camera
and didn't respond to my complaints.
