🚀 go-pugleaf

We recently purchased two ZEOS Panterras (90 Mhz Pentiums) because PC
Magazine rated the ZEOS machines as the best "bang for the buck."
Well, we have had a **TON** of problems with the ZEOS..

1) Tech Support

In PC Magazine, they claim that the tech support of ZEOS is one of their
strong points.  This is entirely WRONG.  First, they say that they'll get
back to you within 48 hours (which is ridiculous in the first place), but
after leaving a message on a Sunday night, then leaving a followup
message on a wednesday night (I left two separate message topics so I
would know which one they were responding to when they called me back)..
and I didn't get a call back til the following Sunday--regarding the
FIRST message.  It took them 1 WEEK to respond.. this is ridiculous

2) Cracked Case

We received one of the ZEOS with a cracked case.  The shipping box was
not damaged at all, so this happened at their "quality control" plant.
Fine, things happen.. so we called them up, and they said they'd send us
a new plate. That was THREE WEEKS ago.  We called three days ago, and
they said "We'll have someone get back to you."
No one has gotten back to us.

3) Monitor Problems

One of the monitors seems to be misaligned within the plastic case. We
reported this, and, again, it was three weeks ago. The same old BS..
"We'll _definately_ get this straightened out."

4) On board SCSI problems

When we talked with a sales person on the phone, we told them that we
would be hooking up external devices to our systems.  They said that
their onboard SCSI devices have an external connected on the back of the
PC.  It didn't. We called back and they said "That's a $29.00 option." We
were not told of this, but, fine.. we let it go..

Then, we're having problems with connecting SYQUEST removable drives to
the SCSI controller.  Actually, they hook up fine.. but when we try to
read a cartridge formatted by Corel, it cannot read it.  We called ZEOS
again, and they had the manufacturer of the chip call us.  They said
"This is the 77th time this week that ZEOS has referred customers to us.
We just make the chip.  This problem is driver related, and it has
nothing to do with our chip.  ZEOS screwed up."

5) Computer "beeps" every so often while typing

It seems that others have this problem... but no one at ZEOS is aware
of it... the computer "beeps" every so often while typing.  Someone
said it's keyboard related.. I don't know... all I know is it shouldn't
do it, and no one at ZEOS is scambling to fix it...

6) Disk Drive Problems

This one is really ridiculous.  We receive updats to a software package
regularly in the mail.  We go to read these disks in the ZEOS (they're
double density) and ZEOS reports "sector not found."  We take these
same disks to two IBM PS/2s, a Dell and a Micron.. and they work fine.
Other disks that we have work on the ZEOS, but not these.  AND, we
can't install OS/2 via disk because it also says "Sector not found", yet
when we tried it on another machine just to test it out... it worked.

So, we call ZEOS... they sit on the phone with us (after waiting 6 days
for their phone call) and they can't figure out what it is.  Then, later
in the week.. we call them back (we sure weren't getting a call from
them..) and they said others have complained about this, and it is
something screwed up in their BIOS.  "We're working on it.", they
said.  Why am hesistant to believe them?

7) (Potential) Parallel port problems

Even though I have not experienced this yet (because we don't have a
fully functional system..) people have reported that the Panteras have
trouble printing long documents in Windows and OS/2 because of
something to do with an IRQ problem with their motherboards.  Who knows.
I don't think we'll be keeping these pieces of *#@*! long enough
to find out.



Moral of the story: Don't buy ZEOS.  Go buy a computer from a good
company like Dell or Micron.  The first thing you hear when you
call their number is "Press 1 if you'd like to talk with someone
regarding QUALITY Zeos Systems."  Yeah, right.  The way this
company is going, they'll be out of business so enough.

You just don't treat people this way.  We spent over $6700 on two
systems, and we feel like we've been stranded.  No one gets back you,
most every there lies to you.. and you end up with a computer that
doesn't function well.  Well, tomorrow, we're getting our RMA #'s for
the machines, and having these things shipped back.  Caveat Emptor.

Dave Pfrommer
pfrommer@scus1.ctstateu.edu