ATTENTION For the producing companies mentioned on this page, you got a spot here for a reason. A word of advice to consider: 'Using your customers as guinea pigs is no way to do business'. And if you want off this page, prove that you can make an honest buck with good product/equipment, workmanship and Support, otherwise shut up and go whine elsewhere!

BEWARE OF THESE COMPANIES

IMSI SOFTWARE: Nope they're not broke yet, but hey if you don't support your customers in a decent way, you're working your way home! They don't have a helpdesk service anymore for several products. Formtool is supportless unless you pay a buck a minute, they do have a discussion page, and that's all the support you get, and the support is from people like you and me that had to figure out the details and quirks to help someone else out. According to me you may make illegal copies immidiately and you don't have to wait the ninety day period such as for Microsoft products.

Microsoft Stuff: Yup, they deserve a spot on this list too. They use you as the Giunea Pig to test their products, and most of their products are 80% mature in the shop, you do another 15% of debugging and tuning, and then they come out with something new to set you back to square 1. If it works stick to the stuff you've got because it works and wait the extra 18 months for all those patches to come out before buying, unless you want to help Bill add a couple of extra $$$ to his account!

Computer stuff you shouldn't buy, unless it's for the inlaws and/or your greatest enemy:

SoftModems, no matter who makes them. Usually there's no manual or something that resembles a butt wipe. Most have no setable options. They are V90.unreliable. The concept is great, however relies too much on line voltages and other Telco dependant tune-ups. Get a real one...Too bad Hayes went out of business!

Motherboards with SIS chip sets: Junk, not just budget stuff but Crap. Usually it's an ALL SHIT ON-BOARD motherboard, don't even consider an upgrade of anything. Video memory is shared working memory!

Motherboards, usually with the above mentioned chip sets. They are very incompatible with almost any off the shelf software, and hey, they're cheap, and grey hair & heartburn is thrown in for free. And if you're out for a bargain and think you can barely afford this junk, RECONSIDER for the sake of your loved ones!

Budget SDRAM memory: stick to stuff the factories with real cleanroom facilities make. Usually those budget factories make products that are ample within specs and will be off-spec after a year, or when it rains/freezes.

Arita CD-R's: I recently replaced a customers cd player that had been destroyed by a shattering Arita CD-R in a 50 speed drive... Seems Arita uses a base that goes hard and cracks around the hub hole as soon as temperatures are below 15°C or putting them back in boxes with a tightly fitting hub

XEROX Color Inkjet PHOTO Paper High Gloss: Ahh this is a neat one...The glossy layer of this paper seems to be sticky for ever, and detaches from the paper by just rubbing it, Ok, ok, you shouldn't rub foto's, but it happens. If you did buy this product Go for the XEROX TOTAL SATISFACTION GUARANTEE...I did, and I'm still waiting for a replacement shipment....

Why bother using a heatsink, when you leave guarantee seal on the CPU as an insulator.
This PC came in for service for intermittent errors....Ahh well it was a PCCHIPS motherboard and SIS chipset. Why bother!
Advice: Buy a new motherboard and CPU of a wellknown manufacturer instead of setteling a deal with this geek that tells you it's the last model they have and next shipment is due in four weeks. Go shop elsewhere at a no nonsens hardware shack!

New on the list is Hercules/Guillemot and ATI. Why: For selling products that need more than average effort to be installed, and even more effort to keep the system stable. The Product is the ATI All In Wonder 9000 Pro. Software is buggy and hangs, even when you're not even using any functions but leaving it dormant in the taskbar. After a crash, you have to completely re-install your windows because you can't un-install the drivers enough to be able to re-install the ATI software called Catalyst...Just the name is a catalyst to get me steaming. Ok, it's an advanced product, with lots of possibllities, but the software just doesn't get you there. The Guillemot/Hercules Helpdesk is non-existant, and the ATI desk needs plenty of time to respond with things I had allready tried, standard solutions for products I'm not even asking about...yes automated response sucks, especially if it's not detailed and focussed on the product. It shows you they actually can't be bothered by detail, it's your task to sort out the shit they shovel into your mailbox. I feel sorry for the novice computer user that goes in the deep with ATI/Guillemot or Hercules. Don't forget...look at the box....reconsider....put back the box...next shelf....nVidia.....And if you want the added video recording hardware...How about Pinnacle? Pinnacle is a good choice!
Well good luck doing business you ATI/Guillemot/Hercules guys and gals, but never forget, the customer makes and breaks your business, so just don't loose intrest. Don't bother about me, you lost me totally and I couldn't be bothered if ATI/Guillemot or Hercules aren't around in a couple of years. By the way...Hercules went broke several years ago, hmmm, they were slow on keeping pace with technology and paying attention to their customers requests. The Phoenix out of the ashes....Hmmmm...didn't go as expected guys!

The new kid on the block. ABN-AMRO is a greedy slow and lazy mastodont bastard bank. Service is non existent and a majority of the staff is rude. Trying to get a morgage quote on time seems impossible, they actually wait 'till the expiration date to force you into a deal you cannot get out. They charge you for being late while you were more than on time with payments, and there's no way back. Unless you enjoy to be abused, treated like shit, cheated and over charged (any of the above single, sorted or all at once) you should avoid this greed pit. There are still plenty of honest bankers out there that do a fair business. If you need to pay bills and there are other bank accounts you can deposit on, please do me a favour, pick any other!

WHO GOT OFF THE LIST:
SANDISK. They finally sent me a fixed solution that would allow the USB smartmedia reader to remain plugged without crashing the system on shutdown. This file can be downloaded on their web site @ WWW.SANDISK.COM