IS THIS AN APOLOGY?
No Way!

This document is necessarily, but boringly, repetitious. That is because it is intended to be a documentation of recurring problems. I am sorry that this boring approach to life is necessary. But, I can not apologize for things I can not control.

Steve Langford

Play "Fool On The Hill" if you like! :))
(In MSIE you may need to hit the Stop button to kill it.)

                                                                     1/10
17 September 1996                                                        
Grant Woods
Attorney General
State of Arizona
Consumer Protection Section
400 W. Congress, South Bldg., Ste 315
Tucson, AZ 85701-1367

Dear Mr. Woods:

The following is intended to supply you with additional information regarding my complaint, submitted herewith, against Iomega Corporation.

This is a listing of directories related to my attempts to download subject Iomega Zip drive Tools 5.0 from the www.iomega.com site [here given as link, just above].

-------------------------- page break ----------------------------

                                                                     2/10
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 09:43:21 -0700                                    
From: "Stephen A. Langford" <s@theriver.com>
Organization: The River
To: Comments@iomega.com
CC: s@theriver.com, David Kirk <dkirk@eightof.tsixroads.com>
Subject: Iomega is not up to snuff in the support arena

11 September 1996

Customer Support
Iomega

I like my Zip drive well enough to be considering getting a Jaz drive as well. However, finding such sites as that at

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/surak1/iomegag.htm

together with my own experiences of not being able to reach anybody for help when I need it, makes me feel extremely fortunate that I sold my Iomega stock at a slight profit, rather than blindly keeping faith with a company that can not get its support act together.

Just a couple of days ago, I received a mailing from you advising me to come to this site to download an upgrade. While here, I have downloaded new drivers for Win95, in passing -- but you don't tell me what to do with them!

And, I have been trying sporadically for 2 hrs. to download your upgrade, repeatedly filling in the info requested before I can do that. I have decided that this is just not worth the effort.

I doubt that you will bother to reply, but I am always eager for such pleasant surprises. Please convince me that my opinion of your support should be changed, based upon your actions, not your promises. I could yet be convinced to buy more of your products, but the way things look now, your recent successes will be a flash in the pan rather than the beginning of a new and wonderful corporate era for you. Convince me I am wrong, please.

Be well, do well, and enjoy doing some good along the way! :))


				Sincerely,

					-Steve-

				Stephen A. Langford, Customer #053613
				9140 N. Shadow Mt. Dr.
				Oro Valley, Greater TUCSON
				Arizona AZ 85737, U.S.A.

Voice/FAX tel. 520.297.0448
s@TheRiver.com

-------------------------- page break ----------------------------

                                                                     3/10
                                        14 September 1996                
Iomega Support:

The last time I wrote to you, I lambasted you. This time is no different.

I have tried innumerable times to download the 5.0 Zip Tools upgrade. I have done it early morning, late night, and have even gotten up in the middle of the night. Today I have gotten farther than ever before, 2.4+M and then all the way up to 2.838528MBytes -- before losing the download feed, once again.

It does not matter whether I have Eudora Light checking email every 2 minutes or not, sometimes your site drops me immediately, sometimes after 744K, or after 876K, or after 2.4M or 2.8M ... the only consistency being that it drops me. I have your registration form memorized.

There is either something wrong with your server or with your sales approach. This boils down to bait and switch, as the only way I am going to get the software seems to be to give up and buy it -- which I refuse to do.

You are not making friends by not living up to your promises. You promise a free download, but your server screws me over every time I get started -- each time being an agonizingly long and difficult process. You are getting one of the worst reputations in the industry for lack of support.

This situation is abominable. I am now ashamed that you are an American company.

Suggestion:

Let me tell you what files I DO have, now, and you tell me what files I still need, and at what FTP site I can download each one, individually. If you like that suggestion, then create a Major Miracle and answer my email, for a change.

Or, break the download job into five separate download ZIP files, so that we all have some chance of getting something useful accomplished before you kill the feed.

There is definitely something rotten at your site, and it can not possibly be due merely to heavy traffic. Once I get a download going, yours is the only site I am having any troubles with, these days. Ain't my fault, ain't my system's fault, ain't my ISP's fault, and I seriously doubt that you can justifiably blame the Internet itself. The fault lies at your end, I am convinced.

Please fix it. If you bother to fix it, please tell me that you have done so.

                                        Stephen A. Langford
                                        s@TheRiver.com

Date: Sat, 14 Sep 1996 13:56:19 -0600
From: COMMENTS <comments@IOMEGA.COM>
To: s@theriver.com

Subject: Your download site for 5.0 Zip Tools simply does not work properly.-Reply

Thank you for taking the time to send your comments to us. We appreciate your feedback and use the information to help us improve our products.

If you are a Zip drive owner and have not upgraded to the new 5.0 Tools software, please go to our web site at http://www.iomega.martiz.com/io_mega (io[underscore]mega) and download the new free upgrade software.

We would also like to ask if you would take time to answer a 3 questions survey to help us provide even better software tools in future releases.

Send your survey to 'comments@iomega.com' and put "ORGANIZE_SURVEY" in the subject heading with all caps.

1. How do YOU organize YOUR computer files?

2. If you use a program to help you organize your computer files, what is it?

3. What programs do you know of that help with file organizing, and who makes them?

Thank you for taking the time to voice your opinions. Again, we appreciate your comments and thank you for your patronage. Comments Department

[Some space deleted to fit to page. S. Langford, 17 September 1996.]

-------------------------- page break ----------------------------

                                                                     4/10

I arose at 5:30a, today, Sunday 15 September 1996, once more to try downloading your Tools 5.0 upgrade. I repeatedly received the "There was no response ... " message, until about 6:20a; whereupon, I began the most successful attempt to download the software yet. However, it is now 7:20a, and all I got out of the first try of the day was 3,135,488 Bytes. That is not quite 50% of the 6.4M sought.

Now, I am back in the stupid "There was no response ... " mode, I have no way to resume downloading where I left off, and problems continue with your site. Even though it is Sunday, it would be nice to know that somebody is actually working on these problems and is not simply laughing at all the frustrated "users," out here.

All I can do, short of establishing a true dialog with you so that I can help you interactively to debug your site problems, is to log what I do and what happens. Times are somewhat approximate, because other activities are interspersed with this highly frustrating task:

 

DATE    TIME    ACTIVITY                          COMMENTS  
        PERIOD
------  ------  --------------------------------  -----------------------------
960915  05:30-  Trying to get download status.    Get more servers!  Get a less
        06:20a                                    generic message that lets 
                                                  people know if your system
                                                  is even running and, if so,
                                                  just what the problem/s might                                                           
be, as well as how long they
                                                  might need to wait before you                                                           
can resolve those problems.
060915 06:20-
       07:??  Downloading                         Only about 3.1M received                                                                
before job interrupted.
       07:15- Trying to get download status.      
       ??:??                                      How about some meaningful responses
                                                  to email from frustrated users?
  ******** This log will continue until successful download is done. ********

I shall spare the Office of the Attorney General the reading of every response to each of my messages, which has always been the same.


DATE    TIME    ACTIVITY                          COMMENTS  
        PERIOD
------  ------  --------------------------------  -----------------------------
960915  05:30-  Trying to get download status.    Get more servers!  Get a less
        06:20a                                    generic message that lets 
                                                  people know if your system
                                                  is even running and, if so,
                                                  just what the problem/s might                                                           
be, as well as how long they
                                                  might need to wait before you                                                           
can resolve those problems.
060915 06:20-
       07:??  Downloading                         Only about 3.1M received                                                                
before job interrupted.
       07:15- Trying to get download status.      
       09:00a                                     How about some meaningful responses
                                                  to email from frustrated users?

  ******** This log will continue until successful download is done. *******

-------------------------- page break ----------------------------

                                                                     5/10

DATE TIME ACTIVITY COMMENTS PERIOD ------ ------ -------------------------------- ----------------------------- 960915 05:30- Trying to get download status. Get more servers! Get a less 06:20a generic message that lets people know if your system is even running and, if so, just what the problem/s might be, as well as how long they might need to wait before you can resolve those problems. 060915 06:20- 07:?? Downloading Only about 3.1M received before job interrupted. 07:15- Trying to get download status. 09:37a How about some meaningful responses to email from frustrated users? 09:37- Downloading 10:18a "A network error occurred ..." This may or may not be due to a problem at Iomega. In any case, I send this message and point to the following note: ** NOTE WELL: ** ******** ******************************************************** ******** ******** ******** ******** This log will continue until successful download is done. ******** ******** Updates will be sent to Iomega at appropriate times. ******** ******** ******** ******** "FREE UPGRADE" implies that upgrading is possible and ******** ******** constitutes an implied contract. Not providing a system ******** ******** that reasonably delivers upon users' reasonable ******** ******** expectations constitutes a breach of contract. ******** ******** ******** ******** Therefore, in light of the extreme difficulties that ******** ******** I have experienced, while attempting to download ******** ******** Zip Tools 5.0, over the past several days, I am ******** ******** contemplating billing Iomega for time spent. If this ******** ******** billing is done, the rate will be a reasonable ******** ******** $35 per hour. ******** ******** ******** ******** Lack of response from Iomega to this message will be ******** ******** deemed to constitute tacit acceptance of any and all ******** ******** future such billings. ******** ******* ******** ******** ******************************************************** ******** ******** ******** ******** -- Stephen A. Langford, 15 September 1996 ******** ******** ******** ******** ******************************************************** ********

-------------------------- page break ---------------------------- 6/10

DATE TIME ACTIVITY COMMENTS PERIOD ------ ------ -------------------------------- ----------------------------- 960915 05:30- Trying to get download status. Get more servers! Get a less 06:20a generic message that lets people know if your system is even running and, if so, just what the problem/s might be, as well as how long they might need to wait before you can resolve those problems. 060915 06:20- 07:?? Downloading Only about 3.1M received before job interrupted. 07:15- Trying to get download status. 09:37a How about some meaningful responses to email from frustrated users? 09:37- Downloading 10:18a "A network error occurred ..." This may or may not be due to a problem at Iomega. 10:18- Trying to get download status. 13:18p I quit trying to gain download status. I again point to the following note: ** NOTE WELL: ** ******** ******************************************************** ******** ******** ******** ******** This log will continue until successful download is done. ******** ******** Updates will be sent to Iomega at appropriate times. ******** ******** ******** ******** "FREE UPGRADE" implies that upgrading is possible and ******** ******** constitutes an implied contract. Not providing a system ******** ******** that reasonably delivers upon users' reasonable ******** ******** expectations constitutes a breach of contract. ******** ******** ******** ******** Therefore, in light of the extreme difficulties that ******** ******** I have experienced, while attempting to download ******** ******** Zip Tools 5.0, over the past several days, I am ******** ******** contemplating billing Iomega for time spent. If this ******** ******** billing is done, the rate will be a reasonable ******** ******** $35 per hour. ******** ******** ******** ******** Lack of response from Iomega to this message will be ******** ******** deemed to constitute tacit acceptance of any and all ******** ******** future such billings. ******** ******** ******** ******** ******************************************************** ******** ******** ******** ******** -- Stephen A. Langford, 15 September 1996 ******** ******** ******** ******** ******************************************************** ********

-------------------------- page break ---------------------------- 7/10

Monday 16 September 1996: Efforts continue to download Zip Tools 5.0.

..... I arose at 5:30a, today, Sunday 15 September 1996, once more to try downloading your Tools 5.0 upgrade. I repeatedly received the "There was no response ... " message, until about 6:20a; whereupon, I began the most successful attempt to download the software yet. However, it is now 7:20a, and all I got out of the first try of the day was 3,135,488 Bytes. That is not quite 50% of the 6.4M sought.

-------------------------- page break ---------------------------- 8/10 ** NOTE WELL: ** ******** ******************************************************** ******** ******** ******** ******** This log will continue until successful download is done. ******** ******** Updates will be sent to Iomega at appropriate times. ******** ******** ******** ******** "FREE UPGRADE" implies that upgrading is possible and ******** ******** constitutes an implied contract. Not providing a system ******** ******** that reasonably delivers upon users' reasonable ******** ******** expectations constitutes a breach of contract. ******** ******** ******** ******** Therefore, in light of the extreme difficulties that ******** ******** I have experienced, while attempting to download ******** ******** Zip Tools 5.0, over the past several days, I am ******** ******** contemplating billing Iomega for time spent. If this ******** ******** billing is done, the rate will be a reasonable ******** ******** $35 per hour. ******** ******** ******** ******** Lack of response from Iomega to this message will be ******** ******** deemed to constitute tacit acceptance of any and all ******** ******** future such billings. ******** ******** ******** ******** ******************************************************** ******** ******** ******** ******** -- Stephen A. Langford, 15 September 1996 ******** ******** ******** ******** ******************************************************** *******

-------------------------- page break ---------------------------- 9/10 To: COMMENTS <comments@IOMEGA.COM> From: Steve Langford <@theriver.com> Subject: PROBLEMS: Update 0005 CC: "David Kirk, Moan&Groan, http://www2.tsixroads.com/Moan/default.html" <dkirk@email.tsixroads.com>

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday 16 September 1996: Efforts continue to download Zip Tools 5.0.

.....

DATE TIME ACTIVITY COMMENTS PERIOD ------ ------ -------------------------------- ----------------------------- 960915 05:30- Trying to get download status. Get more servers! Get a less 06:20a generic message that lets people know if your system is even running and, if so, just what the problem/s might be, as well as how long they might need to wait before you can resolve those problems. 060915 06:20- 07:?? Downloading Only about 3.1M received before job interrupted. 07:15- Trying to get download status. 09:37a How about some meaningful responses to email from frustrated users? 09:37- Downloading 10:18a "A network error occurred ..." This may or may not be due to a problem at Iomega. 10:18- Trying to get download status. 13:18p I quit trying to gain download status. 960916 05:18- Trying to get download status. 05:34a 05:34- Downloading! 05:54a I find the download halted after having yielded only 479,232 Bytes. 05:55- Trying to get download status. 06:05 Download starts. 06:06 Download aborts! Need I fill out the form AGAIN!?? 06:07a I fill out the form again. 06:08a Trying to get download status. 06:35a Download starts and immediately aborts. Work stops, in order to give Iomega time to fix things. * * * * * I again point to the following note: -------------------------- page break ---------------------------- 10/10 ** NOTE WELL: ** ******** ******************************************************** ******** ******** ******** ******** This log will continue until successful download is done. ******** ******** Updates will be sent to Iomega at appropriate times. ******** ******** ******** ******** "FREE UPGRADE" implies that upgrading is possible and ******** ******** constitutes an implied contract. Not providing a system ******** ******** that reasonably delivers upon users' reasonable ******** ******** expectations constitutes a breach of contract. ******** ******** ******** ******** Therefore, in light of the extreme difficulties that ******** ******** I have experienced, while attempting to download ******** ******** Zip Tools 5.0, over the past several days, I am ******** ******** contemplating billing Iomega for time spent. If this ******** ******** billing is done, the rate will be a reasonable ******** ******** $35 per hour. ******** ******** ******** ******** Lack of response from Iomega to this message will be ******** ******** deemed to constitute tacit acceptance of any and all ******** ******** future such billings. ******** ******** ******** ******** ******************************************************** ******** ******** ******** ******** -- Stephen A. Langford, 15 September 1996 ******** ******** ******** ******** ******************************************************** ********

Mr. Attorney General Woods, this has been a tedious chore, documenting all these repeated failures. Either Iomega is guilty of outright fraud or their level of incompetence has arisen to such a level as to constitute what is tantamount to fraud, whether or not they have criminal intentions.

Please do consumers the great kindness of taking my plea for help from your Office to heart and do something to fix what is broken at Iomega.

Incidentally, I tried once again this morning to download the file in question, but got only 540,672 Bytes of data before the download process was interrupted. This complaint is probably already too long, so I am not going to include a copy here of the email I just sent to Iomega or of the directory listing in support of my statement as to what just happened. The pattern is all too clear, already.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.


					Sincerely,


					Stephen A. Langford
					9140 N. Shadow Mt. Dr.
					Oro Valley, Greater TUCSON
					Arizona AZ 85737 U.S.A.



RETURN


©Stephen A. Langford, Oro Valley, Arizona, 17 September 1996.  
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  
This document may be freely transmitted in its entirety, 
so long as no monies are earned during the transaction/s.  
Permission is required for any and all other pertinent circumstances.

 (Metering for this page begun nn September 1996.)

IS THIS AN APOLOGY? No Way!

IS THIS AN APOLOGY?
No Way!