Maxtor support conundrum

I bought a Maxtor One touch II drive. This is the one with the eye catching ice cold colored plastic side panels. This is a classic example of form over function. There are horizontal cooling vents on the side panels but they do not help to dissipate the heat. If your computer locks up while backing up you too have an overheating problem. Don't expect Seagate's support group to point this out. I spent hours on the problem before it dawned on me. Side panels should be metallic even with heat fins and there should be metal to metal contact all the way back to the drive itself.

I have been trying to contact Maxtor urgently (or Seagate for that matter, as they seem to have taken over Maxtor), but there seems to be no way of doing this. I purchased a 500GB Personal Store 3200 external hard disk from the PC World chain in the UK, and was amazed to find that there was a trojan horse virus on the new disk, sitting in a hidden file. Having had no response from PC World, I felt it important that Maxtor was aware that they were distributing viruses with their new hardware: maybe I'm a bit stupid, but I can't see how to do so. Perhaps they don't care? Seems like it to me!

Piense, Good to hear from you as well. This should be a really fun blog. I get to write about good and lousy product quality and design. And I have lots to write about! Well, you get some visibility here for the non-responsive Halloween costume company. Who was it?

John, It's great to see you back on the web! Difficult return policies certainly are irritating. Let me tell you a story of difficult customer service for a completely unrelated product. My mother went online to order halloween costumes for my children (ages 1 1/2 and 2 1/2). The oldest is a bit small for his age and the youngest is a bit big. The Cookie Monster costume that she wanted to order as it would compliment an Elmo costume that we already had was sold out. She then decided to go a different direction and purchased two monkey costumes. The transaction went smoothly and the costumes arrived promptly. The problem was that there were two sizes available 2/4 and 5/6. Due to the ages of my children she, of course, selected 2/4. The costume barely fit the youngest and was way too short for the oldest, who again is small for his age. Upon reviewing the return policy she finds out that they charge a 15% restocking fee on ALL returns. My mother, who is a writer, drafted an email explaining the situation and her discontentment with the return policy. What response do you suppose she received from this company? NONE! Needless to say, next year we will be purchasing their halloween custumes from some place else. Had they been more accomodating or at least responded to an email, they could have recieved orders for custumes for the next several years. Service is what brings customers back...too bad many companies haven't figured this one out.