[TriLUG] OT: Diagnosing APC Back-UPS Misbehavior

[Peter Neilson]

On Tue, 19 Mar 2013 07:57:45 -0400, Scott Chilcote <scottchilcote at att.net>  
wrote:

> APC is being highly nuanced in their responses.  They aren't outright
> saying that the two UPSes are bad, but they did say that they do not
> recommend returning the batteries.  They are instead offering a discount
> program on replacement UPSes.  This seems generous for UPSes that are as
> old as these, and it makes me wonder if there might be something afoot
> with these UPSes.

I'd go with the discount on the new ones. It's quite clear they want to  
stop any bad-mouthing that might possibly occur, regardless of where the  
fault may lie. I'll bet they have considered the question, "Why should  
somebody buy a UPS from us, rather than from someone else?"

In my wife's career as a quality engineer she worked for a while at  
Gillette. Their official attitude towards customer complaints was that  
each one was a piece of gold thrown over the transom into their money bin.  
Why? Because every person who reported dissatisfaction represented a  
thousand others who didn't bother talking to Gillette but instead talked  
to their friends.

I have several APC UPS thingees (I don't know the right plural for UPS)  
and have never had any trouble at all that could not be solved by  
replacing the battery. I do not have the 800, though. They seem like a  
solid company.

Ha! The plural for UPS is like the plural for mongoose. "Send me a  
mongoose. While you're at it, send me another one."