A Good Experience..?

I was editing a film I'd recorded the other night, and the remote control on my 2+ year old Targa DRH-5300x recorder started to give problems. It had done this once or twice before recently, but this time the iffy buttons were definitely becoming an annoyance.

So this afternoon I dragged my lazy arse to the back of the machine to note the serial number down, and then I phoned the Targa hotline. A female voice answered sounding reminiscent of Sabine Schmitz [Top Gear]. It was my first ever call to the hotline, so the machine's details were recorded.

I then described the fault. To my utter astonishment there was no quibbling, no hesitation, just a friendly apology that the machine had let me down at all, and that a new remote control would reach me in 5 days. She asked me to test it on receipt and to bin the old one responsibly [i liked that bit - German environmentalism..!].

I'm writing this still slightly staggered. I was all geared for an argument, but this is proper after sales service. A guarantee [standard 3 year] that actually means something, and no cost or fuss to me. Of course, as soon as the new remote proves perfect, I shall be diving into the old one to fix it, but what the hell.

I almost want something else on the machine to go wrong..!

Sounds like Netgear.....or the complete opposite of should I say

Sounds like Netgear.....or the complete opposite of should I say

Are you telling me that I should never phone the Netgear hotline mate..?

Oh btw, I rang the Targa number and barely put the phone to my ear and it was answered. How about that for a technical support response..?

St Landrew would that be the one from Lidl they had on sale for £99 last July by any chance, got the same model myself pleased as punch with it so far.

I had similar service when I phoned the Western Digital Netherlands office for a replacement power supply for my external HDD. Even though I had lost it rather than it having a fault, they sent me a free one which arrived in three days.

I bought a Targa PC from Lidl 6 or 7 years ago, still a reasonable spec machine today tho' the hard drive has just gone Pete Tong. They sound like nice people those Germans, do you think they'd give me a new one?

St Landrew would that be the one from Lidl they had on sale for £99 last July by any chance, got the same model myself pleased as punch with it so far.

It would be, you lucky bugger. I had my antenna up last July for thesaint_sfc, but they'd all gone, which was a sickener for him. I paid £150 for one 18 months earlier, so I've had 2 years trouble free use up until now. The machine itself still works faultlessly [it is schedule-recording something as I type], but the remote control has definitely gone slightly dodgy. As you know, this severely cramps the style of the Targa, as most of the finer controls are not duplicated on the machine itself.

I bought a Targa PC from Lidl 6 or 7 years ago, still a reasonable spec machine today tho' the hard drive has just gone Pete Tong. They sound like nice people those Germans, do you think they'd give me a new one?

You could always try them, but I suspect £30-35 spent at Novatech would be more successful.

You could always try them, but I suspect £30-35 spent at Novatech would be more successful.

Thought I may be pushing me luck....or maybe you could ask 'em for me...:smt023

Thought I may be pushing me luck....or maybe you could ask 'em for me...:smt023

What something like... ?

Err.. hello, remember me..?

Yes... I'm calling again, but not not for my HDD/DVD recorder this time... Err yes.. the new remote control is 100%, and thank you very much indeed for the great after sales service. No.. what I'm asking for is a new hard disk for a bloke I know on my website who has a Targa PC he bought from Lidl a few years ago and the HDD has gone west. Would you send him another..?

Oh..! :confused:

Oh..!

Oh, you will..? That's fantastic..!

His address..? :confused:

I don't know..!?!

What something like... ?

 

Err.. hello, remember me..?

 

Yes... I'm calling again, but not not for my HDD/DVD recorder this time... Err yes.. the new remote control is 100%, and thank you very much indeed for the great after sales service. No.. what I'm asking for is a new hard disk for a bloke I know on my website who has a Targa PC he bought from Lidl a few years ago and the HDD has gone west. Would you send him another..?

 

Oh..! :confused:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh..!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, you will..? That's fantastic..!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His address..? :confused:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know..!?!

Oh well, guess Novatech it is then......

Oh well, guess Novatech it is then......

Presumably being 6 to 7 years old, it will still predominantly have a PATA connection, and not a SATA. £35 gets you a lot of HDD at Novatech these days, but don't fall into the trap I seem to do every time I need a HDD. Every time I say I'm NOT going to buy a Maxtor, and then the Maxtor spec is superb and the price is excellent - but they always let me down. And this last time a Western Digital HDD has let me down too. So who do we have left that still have that reputation for quality..? Seagate, that's who. They have always made good, quiet HDDs that sadly weren't as cheap as everybody else, even usually being more expensive than Western Digital. But that's probably why they last. But £35 still buys a heck of a Seagate HDD.

PATA: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?SG-79P250

SATA: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?SG-71S258

They may not be the highest spec HDDs, but they are now my everyday HDD of choice.

Presumably being 6 to 7 years old, it will still predominantly have a PATA connection, and not a SATA. £35 gets you a lot of HDD at Novatech these days, but don't fall into the trap I seem to do every time I need a HDD. Every time I say I'm NOT going to buy a Maxtor, and then the Maxtor spec is superb and the price is excellent - but they always let me down. And this last time a Western Digital HDD has let me down too. So who do we have left that still have that reputation for quality..? Seagate, that's who. They have always made good, quiet HDDs that sadly weren't as cheap as everybody else, even usually being more expensive than Western Digital. But that's probably why they last. But £35 still buys a heck of a Seagate HDD.

 

PATA: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?SG-79P250

 

SATA: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?SG-71S258

 

They may not be the highest spec HDDs, but they are now my everyday HDD of choice.

Cheers St L, I've actually already checked out Novatech for replacing the original 'Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 120GB ATA' (and having looked back it's 6 years old) which I've read some pretty ropey reviews on recently. Appears Maxtors were reliable HDDs until they reached about 80GB, now it seems best avoided.

Just received my new remote control. That is under 3 days since my telephone call to Targa's technical support to report the problem with the old one. Brilliant service - take note British companies.

Just to pick up on alehouseboys point about Maxtor HDDs. You're right about their perceived reliability problems, but I don't think it is confined to them. They may be the worst case though. Years ago, before today's multi gigabyte drives were common, HDDs were quite unburstable, although Connor, Quantum, and Fujitsu drives were seen as the ones to pass over if possible. But even they were OK. Eventually, Connor merged with Seagate, and Fujitsu teamed up with Siemens, and Quantum went to Maxtor, who since, have also been acquired by Seagate. Here's a list if you are curious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_hard_disk_manufacturers

So we are left with the headline HDD manufacturers of Seagate, WD, etc... with Hitachi, Samsung and a few others taking up the slack.

The point I'm making, is that system HDDs are now pushed so hard, that IMO, they inevitably fail just that bit quicker than they used to. Although aside from fans, they are the most important moving part in a computer, and they are still generally incredibly reliable - even Maxtor drives.