Re: Hi is this critical??

[Daniel Berlin]

On Tuesday, September 17, 2002, at 07:09  AM, Russell King wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 17, 2002 at 11:41:44AM +0100, Alan Cox wrote:
>> On Tue, 2002-09-17 at 09:20, Andre Hedrick wrote:
>>> MORONS that think the drive vendors are not clued into the issue.
>>> I have to read and vote on NASTY proposals, whose intent is to check 
>>> for
>>> G-Force damage.  If you think that record is not findable, even if 
>>> you
>>
>> Sounds good news for honest users. What it does want though is the
>> ability of users to check that data when the disk arrives, because we
>> have delivery people, and they think that if looks like a box its
>> probably a football.
>
> No.  Sounds _bad_ news for honest users.  Lets be realistic here.
> Parcel company uses package as a football, then delivers it.
>
> How many parcel companies will wait while you unpack the hard drive,
> dismantle your machine, connect the drive, power it up and check to
> see if the drive has suffered too much shock?
>
> Yep, that's right, none.  If you try to, the parcel delivery person
> will get really ratty.  So you sign for it after checking that the
> outside box is undamaged.
>
> Then you find out that its been used in the world cup.  You try to
> return it to the vendor, but the vendor says its your fault for
> dropping the drive.  You protest, but the vendor refuses to listen
> because they've got their technology that says so in their product.
>

Then you notice that nowhere did you agree that your warranty validity 
is dependent on some little piece of technology.
You ask them to point out where you agreed to this.
They can't.
You threaten them, they ignore you.
You start a class action suit (cost to you: Zero in straight money, but 
a *lot* of time)
You win 7 years later (average time to resolve a lawsuit these days).
They get a big black eye.

If you don't want a class action, you take them to small claims court.
You'll win much quicker.

In short, they need to be able to prove that *you* damaged the drive.
They can't.

--Dan