ZENON: Has anyone dealt with them?
Mark
Pentium system & I just searched through the last 700 or so
posts to see if anyone has dealt with Zenon Technology (nope).
Their machines are well rated by PC World & PC Ragazine, their
components seem to be top-notch (e.g. a Supermicro MB), and
their prices are very competitive.
Has anyone out there had any experiences with this company?
I'd appreciate both good & bad feedback. Thanks.
Mark
Seth M. Landsman
: I'm not a regular here, but I'm considering purchasing a new
My lab is equipt with one of the first Zenon P5-90s (back in,
umm, early 1994, at earliest), and I have not had a problem. It runs
everything well, they took care of all of our "odd" needs (crystal eyes,
a dragon dictate board, a SPEA card, etc.), and did so well ...
Clear Skies and Moe
Seth
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We pray for one last landing,
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on fleecy skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth"
-Robert Anson Heinlein
"The Green Hills of Earth"
bc8...@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu
et. al.
________________________________________________________________________
ELIZABETH lEE
came out. Apparently Win95 was not fully installed and he could not even
boot. They said they had mailed the Win95 CD, till today he still has
not gotten it. I read from many articles Zenon, Comptrade, Quantex and
many others have very bad Tech support. I guess that is the trade off
for buying through mail order. If money is not a limitation, get
Gateway Pentium 133. It has the most for the price. Dell is okay, but
the problem is getting in touch with someone when you need help.
That takes some doing.
I hope the information I have provided gives you help in your
decision to buy a PC. The best bet if you want the overall better system
is check out the Magazines and see what they recommend. Also in the
larger libraries, the CD-ROM references contain multiple magazines. That
is more time efficient way to do a search for a model or company to buy
from.
Even with the Big 3 mail order companies (GW, DELL, Micron) not
everything will be perfect and calling would not be the most pleasureable
experience to fix a problem.
Then again "Nothing" is free.
Roger A. Kendall
>
> I'm not a regular here, but I'm considering purchasing a new
> Pentium system & I just searched through the last 700 or so
> posts to see if anyone has dealt with Zenon Technology (nope).
> Their machines are well rated by PC World & PC Ragazine, their
> components seem to be top-notch (e.g. a Supermicro MB), and
> their prices are very competitive.
>
> Has anyone out there had any experiences with this company?
> I'd appreciate both good & bad feedback. Thanks.
>
Zenon should be removed from the market...Zenon sells junk. Zenon is NOT to be trusted.
Zenon is foolish, stupid, unscrupulous, and you fill in all the other appropriate adjectives.
Avoid them.
Opinions from experience.
PsYcHoTrOn
Don't listen to this lame, Ignorant fool who probably doesnt know the first
thing about computers. He's probably bitter because he had a bad experience. I
have had no problems with my computer and have many friends who have never had
any problems with their Zenon Computers either. Sometimes it takes a little for
tech support but when they call back my questions are answered.
Hey Roger! Don't like your computer??! Buy a Fucking Macintosh!!
Mark Zidel
Mark Zidel
Tom
>Mark wrote:
>>
>> I'm not a regular here, but I'm considering purchasing a new
>> Pentium system & I just searched through the last 700 or so
>> posts to see if anyone has dealt with Zenon Technology (nope).
>> Their machines are well rated by PC World & PC Ragazine, their
>> components seem to be top-notch (e.g. a Supermicro MB), and
>> their prices are very competitive.
>>
>> Has anyone out there had any experiences with this company?
>> I'd appreciate both good & bad feedback. Thanks.
>>
>
>Zenon should be removed from the market...Zenon sells junk. Zenon is NOT to be trusted.
>Zenon is foolish, stupid, unscrupulous, and you fill in all the other appropriate adjectives.
> Avoid them.
>
>Opinions from experience.
Could you be more specific?
Tom
Roger A. Kendall
I would be glad to. We bought a Zenon P90 in April. It arrived with the defective math
co. Zenon initially would not replace it (remember, this is well after the Intel
debacle). They later did, after much aggrivated phone tagging. Then the CD ROM was
defective. Then, the motherboard itself. We were told it would take 6 months to get a
replacement from Taiwan. We opted to get an Intel Zappa...they would not, I repeat NOT,
give us credit for the original motherboard. We had to buy it new up front, or wait 6
months. Their techies were incompetent in diagnosis...their main 'manager' was abusive
and told me "even if you were Michael Jordan we would not deal with this differently."
They basically told us they had no intention of directly and immediately honoring the
lame on site service contract, and after 30 days all bets were off.
I have sent an appropriate message to the previous poster. I am a major player in
digital sound and a Professor at UCLA. I know this stuff. Period.
PsYcHoTrOn
Fact #1 No One, and I repeat No One will replace or give credit on a mother
board after 30days.
So if it was after 30days you would need to pay for any upgrade. They probably
would have given you a credit on your old motherboard, but here is a tip, don't
piss off the company you purchase a system from. I can speak from experience,
they will not be nice in return, and they will then follow the contract of the
sale by the book. If you had a problem and were diplomatic then this company
would be in the wrong.The fact you had a flawed P90 is no reflection upon the
company you purchased the system from and it is not their direct responsibility
to replace it for you since Intel was offering replacement. As far as the Cpu I
think they should have replaced that for you. Also a Note UPS is the worst
carrier they damage systems and other valuables all the time, spend the extra
$$ and send Federal Express(a little better, but who else can you go with?!)
As for lame on site service contracts, all onsite service is determined at the
discretion of the Company not the customer. On site service is usually more of
a headache than it is worth. I have had on site service technicians come out
and I knew more than they did on replacing hardware.
My Final Point would be. Just because you are a Professor at Ucla, with a
degree in Digital Sound hardly even brings you close to knowing anything about
computers or computer hardware. Just because a person can utilize high end
programs for Sound Analysis doesnt mean they are knowledgable about computers.
and computer hardware. When I worked as Computer tech for a company I had
plenty of Engineers calling for tech support with an attitude problem like
it was the system hardware giving them problems. The fact is 90% of those
calls ended up being a software or memory configuration they had set
incorrectly causing the problem. Those who deal with the "high tech" and
difficult programs often forget the little tweaks to fix the minor problems
when they were first learning about computers. The fact is no one knows every
little thing about anything. Especially those who proclaim they know plenty
about something, they usually know just enough to do their job very well and
beyond that mess everything else up.
The reason I tend to take most of what you say with a grain of salt is due to
the fact that I have seen numerous complaints from You in this newsgroup about
just about every major computer manufacturer. I find it hard to believe that
you've had bad experiences with every company. In your past whining posts I
have noticed nothing but a holier than thou attitude written as if you are the
computer Guru and all of these computer companies should be out of the market
and how you have been so wronged. Just because you have a Masters or PHd in
some field may give you a little advantage but being book smart doesn't
necessarily mean you can apply the concepts from college into real world
situations dealing with subjects which you had exposure to.
Tip of the Year: When dealing with computer companies or Technicians you will
be spoken to in the manner in which you speak to the other person; It's human
nature. Leave your attitude at the door.
You may be in the right and frustrated with the problems you are having but
don't take this out on a technician, because the next time you have a little
problem you may not find anyone willing to help you.
Exportman
<Ken...@UCLA.EDU> wrote:
***ZAPPED***
>I would be glad to. We bought a Zenon P90 in April. It arrived with the defective math
>co. Zenon initially would not replace it (remember, this is well after the Intel
>debacle). They later did, after much aggrivated phone tagging. Then the CD ROM was
>defective. Then, the motherboard itself. We were told it would take 6 months to get a
>replacement from Taiwan. We opted to get an Intel Zappa...they would not, I repeat NOT,
>give us credit for the original motherboard. We had to buy it new up front, or wait 6
>months. Their techies were incompetent in diagnosis...their main 'manager' was abusive
>and told me "even if you were Michael Jordan we would not deal with this differently."
>They basically told us they had no intention of directly and immediately honoring the
>lame on site service contract, and after 30 days all bets were off.
>
>I have sent an appropriate message to the previous poster. I am a major player in
>digital sound and a Professor at UCLA. I know this stuff. Period.
My company purchased over 20 systems from Zenon, none of them had a
major problem. We had those system for about 6 months. Aside from
some minor problems and replacements of minor peripherals (one floppy,
two hd's and one tape backup) everything has been very smooth when
dealing with them.
As per your complaint about the Pentium Replacement, ONLY INTEL WAS
AUTHORIZED TO DO THE REPLACEMENT. Oem's and system integrators where
not liable for the recall of the chip. Even though you purchase your
system after April, it does not mean that you would not get a flawed
pentium. I bought a personal system with a flaw pentium after the
april date! It was from a "major" brand (Don't want to give them any
free publicity). Anyways, if you understand how distribution channels
work, Intel started to do major replacement of Pentium chips around
march late april of 95. Also, Intel releases the chips in such a large
quantity that the current batch of pentiums is over 4 months old and
they are still in the distribution channel.
In short your complaint about the flawed pentium to me is very invalid
since every computer manufacturer in the world has been giving the
same answer for all Pentium replacements "CALL INTEL DIRECTLY FOR A
REPLACEMENT". I know this for a fact since I have friends, and
employees that have been told the same thing by many computer
manufacturer's of their PC's.
Your other complaints about Zenon, I can not comment since I have not
experienced it myself. Nonetheless, I have seen you complaint all the
time about them, It has been so long that all credibilty about your
complaint has been lost, at this stage of the game it looks more like
a personal vendetta with the company.
By the way, it pisses a lot of peple to "show off" your titles and
"your connections to the digital sound industry" I for one found it
very offensive and pompous on your part, and if this is the current
quality of UCLA professors, I it will really piss me off since I put
my two brothers through UCLA!
My two cents on this very tired subject of ROGER KENDALL vs. ZENON!
Roger A. Kendall
Fine. I was just trying to help out someone, which is apparently
unappreciated.
And yes, after being treated like dirt by Zenon I do have a vendetta.
I also don't like being told that I know nothing about computers when I
started working with them at the gut level in 1968, hence the tone of
my response. I do find it difficult not to sound pompous when these
kinds of sophomoric posts are made. After all, the guy wanted ANY AND
ALL opinions, and clearly had NOT seen the numerous negative posts, by
me and a legion of others, about the company.
By the way, I specifically placed in my order a request for a good CPU,
as the machine was to be used for numerically intensive statistical and
signal analysis research. Also, the 30 day period was money back, not
for any other warranty, which was for 1 year. I fail to see any merit
in your comments. Fortunately, I don't have to deal with them further,
as I can return to my excellent students and their sharp intellects.
best wishes.
Joseph Williams
>I have sent an appropriate message to the previous poster. I am a major player in
>digital sound and a Professor at UCLA. I know this stuff. Period.
Now, if you had been a professor at CAL, that would have been
impressive.
In any event, we've bought a number of computers from Zenon and have
had nothing but good luck. I wouldn't buy one from them just now
because I don't like what they are bundling, but that changes from
month to month I will certainly consider them for future purchases.
Joseph Williams
d...@lamar.colostate.edu
http://lamar.colostate.edu/~drj/drj.html
TPeirce9
>In short your complaint about the flawed pentium to me is very invalid
>since every computer manufacturer in the world has been giving the
>same answer for all Pentium replacements "CALL INTEL DIRECTLY FOR A
>REPLACEMENT". I know this for a fact since I have friends, and
>employees that have been told the same thing by many computer
>manufacturer's of their PC's.
Not Zeos.
Stephen J Berch
>My Final Point would be. Just because you are a Professor at Ucla, with a
>degree in Digital Sound hardly even brings you close to knowing anything about
>computers or computer hardware. Just because a person can utilize high end
>programs for Sound Analysis doesnt mean they are knowledgable about computers.
>and computer hardware. When I worked as Computer tech for a company I had
>plenty of Engineers calling for tech support with an attitude problem like
>it was the system hardware giving them problems. The fact is 90% of those
>calls ended up being a software or memory configuration they had set
>incorrectly causing the problem. Those who deal with the "high tech" and
>difficult programs often forget the little tweaks to fix the minor problems
>when they were first learning about computers. The fact is no one knows every
>little thing about anything. Especially those who proclaim they know plenty
>about something, they usually know just enough to do their job very well and
>beyond that mess everything else up.
While I agree with much of what you write, you overlook the basic
principle of the marketplace: "The customer is always right." More and
more companies disregard this until their business suffers, then they try
to do a turn around in attitude. Courteous behavior is always
appropriate but getting the product and service that one pays for should
depend upon it.
If a tech can't stand the "attitude" of callers, then that person
shouldn't be dealing with people. There are many examples of personality
mismatches and this sounds like a perfect example. Calls for help are
usually made by frustrated people and they shouldn't be angry but often
are. Many companies realize this and offer special training to support
people to help them soothe angry customers and calm down an emotional
caller.
I've called my share of companies and I know how to deal with people on
the telephone. Some companies have better people on the phone than
others. In general I find the first line of phone people to be the least
prepared, both emotionally and intellectually to handle their job. When
I get to the supervisor is when I get reasonable help.
SB
Stephen J Berch
>By the way, it pisses a lot of peple to "show off" your titles and
>"your connections to the digital sound industry" I for one found it
>very offensive and pompous on your part, and if this is the current
>quality of UCLA professors, I it will really piss me off since I put
>my two brothers through UCLA!
Why are you so sensitive? Have you taken some survey on this that you
can speak for the rest of us reading this group that Kendall's titles and
connections are offensive?
There are others reading this group who may understand why someone would
add titles of even "show off" without taking offense at it.
SB
PsYcHoTrOn
>
>bl...@blahblahblah.com (PsYcHoTrOn) writes:
>
>
>>My Final Point would be. Just because you are a Professor at Ucla, with a
>>degree in Digital Sound hardly even brings you close to knowing anything
about
>>computers or computer hardware. Just because a person can utilize high end
>>programs for Sound Analysis doesnt mean they are knowledgable about
computers.
>>and computer hardware. When I worked as Computer tech for a company I had
>>plenty of Engineers calling for tech support with an attitude problem like
>>it was the system hardware giving them problems. The fact is 90% of those
>>calls ended up being a software or memory configuration they had set
>>incorrectly causing the problem. Those who deal with the "high tech" and
>>difficult programs often forget the little tweaks to fix the minor problems
>>when they were first learning about computers. The fact is no one knows every
>>little thing about anything. Especially those who proclaim they know plenty
>>about something, they usually know just enough to do their job very well and
>>beyond that mess everything else up.
>
>
>principle of the marketplace: "The customer is always right." More and
>more companies disregard this until their business suffers, then they try
>to do a turn around in attitude. Courteous behavior is always
>appropriate but getting the product and service that one pays for should
>depend upon it.
>
>If a tech can't stand the "attitude" of callers, then that person
>shouldn't be dealing with people. There are many examples of personality
>mismatches and this sounds like a perfect example. Calls for help are
>usually made by frustrated people and they shouldn't be angry but often
>are. Many companies realize this and offer special training to support
>people to help them soothe angry customers and calm down an emotional
>caller.
>
>I've called my share of companies and I know how to deal with people on
>the telephone. Some companies have better people on the phone than
>others. In general I find the first line of phone people to be the least
>prepared, both emotionally and intellectually to handle their job. When
>I get to the supervisor is when I get reasonable help.
>
>SB
>
I completely agree with what you are saying. I was just advising those people
who fit that description and who sometimes don't get calls returned, because of
this mismatch in personalities. Realistically if the tech can't handle it, sure
they should get out of the field, but there are some who become frustrated
easily who don't and should.
Advice to technicians reading this: If you find yourself getting frustrated
with a customer, put them on hold for a few seconds take a deep breath and try
to remember the first time you used or tried to upgrade a piece of hardware.
Have a Great New Year
Tony Schreiner
PsYcHoTrOn (bl...@blahblahblah.com) wrote:
: Fact #1 No One, and I repeat No One will replace or give credit on a mother
: board after 30days.
What about something like a modem? I bought a system with a 28.8k modem
and it cannot connect to my school faster than 9600 baud, which is the only
thing that I call. My school has 192 rack mounted US Robotics Total
Control modems which support v.34, v.fast, and are supposed to be some of
the most compatable modems in the industry. My v.34 28.8k modem refuses
to connect - even at 14.4k.
Line noise is not the problem, either.
More important, though, is that my CD-ROM drive broke about a week ago.
I have been constantly (and rather politely and patiently) calling the
company (I even faxed twice so that I could get through) and have not
been able to talk to anybody beyond the operator. Essentially, I've been
told that the tech support is very busy, and that I cannot expect them to
get back to me "anytime soon."
The system is >$3000 and about 6 months old. It also is under warrenty
for a full 4 years.
What should I do? I happen to use my CD-ROM drive.
--
...........................................................................
: Tony Schreiner : Phone: (970)495-5222 :
: tsch...@holly.colostate.edu : INTP. TKD. Major: Computer Science :
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Mark Manville
>[all snipped]
>
>Fine. I was just trying to help out someone, which is apparently
>unappreciated.
As the original poster starting this thread, I'm not sure why you're
saying this. When you sent your original post to me via email, I
believe I responded with thanks. If somehow that got lost in the mail
please accept my thanks now.
>And yes, after being treated like dirt by Zenon I do have a vendetta.
>
>I also don't like being told that I know nothing about computers when I
>started working with them at the gut level in 1968, hence the tone of
>my response. I do find it difficult not to sound pompous when these
>kinds of sophomoric posts are made. After all, the guy wanted ANY AND
>ALL opinions, and clearly had NOT seen the numerous negative posts, by
>me and a legion of others, about the company.
>By the way, I specifically placed in my order a request for a good CPU,
>as the machine was to be used for numerically intensive statistical and
>signal analysis research. Also, the 30 day period was money back, not
>for any other warranty, which was for 1 year. I fail to see any merit
>in your comments. Fortunately, I don't have to deal with them further,
>as I can return to my excellent students and their sharp intellects.
Actually, I also agree with the other poster, that it is my recollection
that very few vendors did the replacement themselves, they deferred to
Intel. ALthough you're right, Zenon should have given you the good one
in the first place, since you asked explicitly. Hopefully you finally
turned around and called Intel?
Some of you may be surprised (and in your case, Roger, shocked) to hear
that I finally ended up going with Zenon in the end -- I just got the
machine Wednesday. SO far I'm happy with it. Although I don't doubt
that they've given bad service, I also got some replies (privately and
posted) that they have given good service. Frankly, as far as I can
tell, EVERY company has some detractors in this news group, and as a CS
grad student, my emphasis is on value/performance over tech support
anyway. The last machine I bought was from Insight, whom PC Ragazine
rated as one of the worst customer-service companies last summer, but
I only once had to confront this problem because I usually am able to
sort out problems quite a bit myself. By the time I get done configuring
this machine with os/2, linux, dos/win3.11 & win 95 (maybe), i doubt i'd
get much help from even the microns or the dells of the world anyway; not
that I found dell all that helpful anayway -- i was all but decided to
buy their machine, but the sales rep & the unresponsive tech guy he
referred me to when i had the temerity to ask what components i was buying
(i apparently was taking more time than his commission was worth) changed
my mind in a hurry.
Anyway, thanks to one & all for your posts & info, and I hope you don't
feel I mean any disrespect by not following your advice, Roger (and
others). Time will tell on the warranty/tech support. In the meantime,
Zenon's bang for the buck looks hard to beat.
MarK
Chris Stout
consultant) bought a Zenon last year and we have been mostly pleased
with it. One small hard drive problem which *may* have resulted from
improper configuration at Zenon's shop but that has not been
determined.
I ordered another Zenon just a couple months ago for another client of
mine. I've been very pleased with the performance and quality but it
did arrive a bit late and the order was wrong (I got a 90MHz instead
of a 100 and I got the wrong software bundle). Those problems were
taken care of promptly and professionally by Zenon with their
apologies.
Chris Stout