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Dear fellow Thinkpaders, As some of you know, I started having major problems with my TP701C at the end of November - an intermittent error where the HD (and sometimes the configuration utility) would disappear as far as the system was concerned, usually after 30 minutes to an hour of operation. The machine went back to EZ-Serve a couple of times - they replaced the bottom system board, then (for no discernible reason) they replaced the IR port, and later tried a drive swap. Each time the machine would work well for a day or two after its return, then deteriorate to a worse state than before the repair. Finally, they gave up and sent me a replacement remanufactured machine. (I objected to this when they told me their plans, since I've had mixed sucess with refurbs from other companies, but they told me there was no alternative, besides which they assured me that the refurbishment was to original factory specs.) This was a duplicate of my original machine, including small HD, old BIOS and a Nicad battery. I worked hard over the weekend reinstalling all the software I regularly use, and was preparing to transfer one last file, when a problem arose - the new multiport died. I still hadn't sent back the old machine, and the multiport from that one works fine on the replacement machine, but the one that came with the new machine has an electronic fault (ports no longer appear in the config utility). This was just the sort of thing I'd been afraid of, and when it happened I was furious. I called IBM and griped rather loudly - here I'd been without reliable use of the machine for two months, and the replacement they'd sent over my objections was also defective. The IBM rep feigned sympathy, but when I suggested that IBM owed me *something* for my pains, he got snitty, and told me that his only obligation under the warrantee was to make sure I had a working machine, which I had (provided I kept the working multiport). Am I being unreasonable here? Based on my wife's experiences getting repairs on the IBMs in her office, and my own experience with some screen repairs on my 701C last summer, I used to use words like "fabulous" when referring to EZ-serve and IBM customer relations. No more. BTW, this has already cost IBM a certain amount of business. I'd budgeted in my current grant for a new high-end laptop, and had planned to get a TP760; because of these problems, I bought a Micron. My wife cancelled *her* order for a TP, and is now getting a TI. (In her case, the decision was reinforced by the fact that a new IBM730 desktop she'd ordered arrived malfunctioning [and has still not been fixed several weeks later].) While I'm personally only responsible for one or two system purchases annually, I have some influence over many purchases, and will likely recommend against IBM, more because of their attitude here than because of their reliability record (which I don't think is much worse than other makes). - David R. (ross@math.hawaii.edu)