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Why the Sony SuperStation tape drive is garbage
The Sony SuperStation tape drive is advertised as an EIDE/ATAPI compliant
device although it clearly is no such thing. EIDE/ATAPI is a standard.
The word, standard, means something. In the computer arena, it
means that anything that complies with a given standard can interoperate
with anything else that complies with the same standard. And the Sony
SuperStation does not. It will only work with it's specific software on
specific operating systems, when, if it were truely an EIDE/ATAPI
compliant device, it would operate with any EIDE/ATAPI compliant software
on any operating system that supported the EIDE/ATAPI standard. Furthermore,
this drive isn't even really a Sony drive. The origional equipment
manufacturer (OEM) is a company named Aiwa. Basically, Aiwa bastardized
the EIDE/ATAPI standard in order to make a cheaper drive that would come
to be known as the Aiwa Bolt drive. Sony, apparently seeing an opportunity
to market something similar to an EIDE/ATAPI tape drive, at a
much lower price point, and with an excuse to call it an EIDE/ATAPI
drive, snapped up the opportunity to smack their name on it and make a
killing duping consumers.
Sony has pulled a slick one here. Since their drive is almost
EIDE/ATAPI compliant, they market it as an EIDE/ATAPI compliant device.
Very smooth. Nowhere in any of the product literature, not even in fine
print, is the fact that it utilizes a bastardization of the EIDE/ATAPI
standard even mentioned. Sony just passes it off as something
it simply is not. Now, I don't know the laws in every state, but many
states have legal sanctions against such specious and dishonest marketing
tactics.
Why Sony Sucks
At the beginning of 1999, when the drive was just hitting the market, I
was one of the many suckers that bought the Sony SuperStation drive. It
seemed like a great deal of course, according to the marketed specifications
for it. So, like a good sucker, I actually bought two of these paper
weights from an online merchant, along with a handfull of the special
tapes they require. Special tapes? Boy, was I stupid. That should
have tipped me off to the rotten truth. But, alas, I was a starry eyed
consumer.
Now, I tried for a long time (as well did many others) to make more of
the SuperStation than a paper weight. All efforts met with no avail.
Most of my co-victims, quickly returned their worthless drives, trading
them in on good products from companies like
Tecmar and
Hewlett-Packard, companies
selling products that are
actually what they claim to be. They are a touch more expensive than
Sony's SuperStation, but I guess there's a small premium involved with
doing business with an honest company. I, on the other hand, posessing
a bit much fortitude, determined to bang my head against the wall for
a good year attempting to get some value out of the SuperStation. Of
course, to no avail.
Even I get tired of wasting my time in fruitless endeavor at some point
however, so I determined, at long last, to write Sony requesting one of
several resolutions to this nightmare. I would have contacted the
company I bought this garbage from, requesting a refund, but being the
idiot I am, I spent a year trying to make use of it and thought it was
unreasonable to do so. The perpetrator of the problem was Sony, after
all, so, like a good idiot, I actually expected them to step up to the
mat about it. Not so. The email I wrote to them follows, and their
terse response (essentially screw you), is after that.
My email to Sony
Subject: Unhappy Customer
Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2000 08:50:17 -0500
From: Kyle Amon <amonk@gnutec.com>
Organization: GNUTEC Information Technology Solutions
To: superstation@techsupport.sony.com
I am still waiting for a response.
- Kyle
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Unhappy Customer
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 00:43:12 -0500
From: Kyle Amon <amonk@gnutec.com>
Organization: GNUTEC Information Technology Solutions
To: superstation@techsupport.sony.com
To whom it may concern,
I bought two Sony SuperStation drives (and a handfull of tapes)
a year ago under the impression that these were, as advertised,
standard IDE-ATAPI complaint devices. This is not the case.
As a result, I am still unable to use this hardware.
Linux supports IDE-ATAPI standard compliant tape drives.
IDE-ATAPI is a standard and nothing that does not conform to
the IDE-ATAPI standard is an IDE-ATAPI device, no matter how
similar.
At this point, I would like one of several things...
1. For Sony to provide all necessary assistance to the Linux
community so that driver support for this bastardized
"IDE-ATAPI" device can be implemented for Linux (including
shipping a SuperStation drive and tape to Gadi Oxman
<gadio@netvision.net.il>, author of the Linux ide-tape
driver).
2. For Sony to provide their own Linux driver (a closed
source module, if necessary) for this unit.
3. For Sony to refund my purchase price for the above
mentioned hardware.
4. For Sony to replace both of my Sony SuperStations (and
tapes) with hardware that actually is IDE-ATAPI complaint.
Sincerely,
Kyle Amon
P.S. I am very unhappy with Sony's misrepresentation of the
SuperStation as an IDE-ATAPI compliant device. It simply
is not. And had it not been advertised as such, I would
never have bought one of them, let alone two (and a
handfull of tapes), in the first place.
I thought my email was rather nice, professional and direct. Above all,
I thought I was being quite reasonable in allowing four possible
resolutions. If not, someone please point out how all four of them are
wild and outrageous.
Sony's rather pathetic response
Subject: Sony Technical Support Center
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2000 16:35:43 EST
From: Newimage2@aol.com
To: amonk@gnutec.com
Dear Kyle:
I regret to inform you that none of your requests can be granted
due to the fact the box clearly states it operates with Windows
95.98 and NT Workstation only. It does not mention Linux
information in any form. The Superstation is IDE-ATAPI compliant
but only with the above mentioned software. If you have any other
questions or problems please feel free to e-mail or call us at:
1-888-369-0685. Thank You for choosing Sony! Have a nice day!
Sony Technical Support Team
Of course, I didn't see a box before I purchased this garbage because I
bought it online. All I saw was that it was marketed as an EIDE/ATAPI
compliant device. Had it actually been such, there would certainly have
never been a problem. As evidence, alot of devices have worked with Linux
for a decade now (like my Seagate EIDE/ATAPI tape drive that was also never
marketed with mention of Linux -- merely it's actual compliance with
the EIDE/ATAPI standard) and almost none of the devices that have worked ever
mentioned they worked with Linux until very recently. What we in the
Linux community had to do was read (and rely on)
the technical specifications for these devices. When they met open
standards, they worked. It was, and is, that straight forward.
Fortunately, most companies today are scrambling to be part of the
Linux Community, and many of them, as you are likely aware, are beginning
to mention Linux in their marketing efforts and such. Heck,
most companies are actually in a frenzy to port their stuff to Linux,
provide, or help provide, device drivers and all manner of things. The
big push these days is to be seen as a "Linux Leader". So
what's up with Sony?
The Future
My response to their essential disacknowledgement of the issue was to
put up this web page to document the facts (perhaps with a bit of poetic
license, but the facts just the same). After writing this page, I emailed
a response to their screw you email (carbon copying another Sony
customer service address and a handfull of press types as well -- bet the
press types won't care for this web page much). Anyway, here is my response...
Subject: Re: Sony Technical Support Center
Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2000 03:40:17 -0500
From: Kyle Amon <amonk@gnutec.com>
Organization: GNUTEC Information Technology Solutions
To: Newimage2@aol.com,
custserv@info.sel.sony.com,
Mary.Abram@am.sony.com,
howard_stringer@sony.com,
lisa_young@mail.sel.sony.com,
Kevin_Allen@mail.sel.sony.com,
brian_levine@mail.sel.sony.com,
laura_whitaker@mail.sel.sony.com
References: 1
Whomever (a.k.a Newimage2@aol.com),
Although you didn't even bother to mention your name (as in
Business 101), you are obviously someone of no consequence at
sony (you don't even merit a 'sony.com' email address) and
are evidently unable to resolve this problem as a consequence.
Since our conversation is therefore about to reach a larger
audience, I have archived my original email requesting customer
assistance in order that more significant Sony personell may,
by reference, be enlightened as to the nature of our problem.
Although inefectual, I thank you for your best.
The problem and history is outligned at the following URL...
http://www.gnutec.com/~amonk/sony_superstation.php
Sincerely,
- Kyle (Unhappy Sony Customer)
Now I'm just going to make sure this page gets added to alot of search
engines. I'll come back and clean it up a bit too, from time to time,
adding some good links, supporting documentaion, proofread grammer, etc.
I'll continue to chronicle my miserable experience with Sony and their
SuperStation drive here as the saga unfolds. I have determined to make
this a pet project of mine. I'll call their corporate headquarters,
email high level personell as I find them, call them as I can. Heck,
I'm probably going to get quite well known within a certain circle of
the company as time goes by. The effort involved in getting a little
consumer satisfaction is often so rediculous it's no wonder so many
people are blithely screwed. We simply don't have the time. Well,
guess what, Sony, you're the lucky object of my new pet project! :-)
And, by the way, I'm a pretty senior professional computer geek
with considerably more money than required, and if I loose data while
unable to make backups due to Sony's dishonest dealings, I guarantee
Sony will get sued for damages. And I'll post the whole case here
for fun and enjoyment as it happens. :-)
Bye, bye for now.
SAME DAY -- Back again already. Here is some disheartening news. It's no wonder Sony wants to forget they
ever pawned these things off. Be sure to buy your dead drive today,
everyone, because Sony is still selling them, and doing so as if they were
actually EIDE/ATAPI compliant to boot! :-(
April 20th, 2000 -- A was telling a friend about
my new Sony SuperStation is Garbage web page but couldn't remember
the URL I gave it at the time. I sent the URL to him later and, after having
a look, he made a good suggestion. Here is my response to his suggestion and,
below that, his suggestion.
Subject: Re: Sony Superstation URL
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 11:17:11 -0400
From: Kyle Amon <amonk@gnutec.com>
To: Steve Mann <mann@eecg.toronto.edu>
References: 1
Good idea. I'll do that, time permitting.
- Kyle
Steve Mann wrote:
>
> > Here is that URL I couldn't remember...
> >
> > http://www.gnutec.com/~amonk/sony_superstation.php
>
> interesting; why not post the viruses that came with the
> product, along with the operating virus that they suggest
> makes it compliant, and take a poll or survey of people who
> think it's compliant.
>
> that way, various people on the net can download the virus
> and run experiments and place a vote on whether or not it's
> compliant.
August 17th, 2000 --
I just got this email from a similarly
duped consumer who seems to be in complete agreement about Sony and their
SuperStation.
Subject: great job !!
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 22:32:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: "M.A Kalam" <makalam@yahoo.com>
To: amonk@gnutec.com
I too bought a piece of this junk (sony superstation).
What surprises me is that a company like sony can make
something like this. But obviously now I know, that it
was made by AIWA. Just a co-incidence, but I always
hated that company for their sub-par products.
You did a great job with the web page and everything.
Just a couple of lines so that you know that your
submissions to the search engines are working !!!
take care.
(no business 101 here)
August 20th, 2000 --
And here is another email that just
came in. It looks like some of my fellow shmucks are finally starting
to find this page. Hmm, why is it that we all seem to agree about
this device? Could it be that there is some truth here? Na, that's
rediculous, right. Well, I've got some bad news for you, Sony, this
doesn't shine well on your company and people are obviously reading it.
I wonder how many of us have purchased another Sony product since
getting so screwed on this one. As for myself, I can assure you that I have
not bought another Sony anything, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
Anyway, without further soap-boxing, here is the email I received today.
Subject: 100% Dittos!!!
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 21:31:39 -0700
From: "Donald P. Domke" <aztech@theriver.com>
To: amonk@gnutec.com
Read your diatribe against the Sony SuperStation, and couldn't
agree more!!!
I'm not into Linux, but, even under Win98 it's a real pain in
the ass. Sounded like just the solution I needed. Bought into
it hook, line and sinker, even got 3 of their $36 tapes. (One
of the tapes broke the second time I used it!) What a total
waste! I'm now trying to find some decent software to replace
that lame Seagate crap that came with it. Any suggestions?
Remember, I'm one of those Windows types.
Right on! and best regards,
Don Domke
Rio Rico, AZ
August 21st, 2000 -- And here is what
I responded to Donald's question about the use of possible alternative
backup software above.
Subject: Re: 100% Dittos!!!
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 01:20:42 -0400
From: Kyle Amon <amonk@gnutec.com>
Organization: GNUTEC Information Technology Solutions
To: "Donald P. Domke" <aztech@theriver.com>
References: 1
Thanks! Good to hear from a fellow sucker. :-)
I added your email to the webpage.
Regarding software: I don't believe the Sony SuperStation will
work without the supplied software. I was told by one of their
tech support guys that they shipped a version of Seagate backup
that was modified in some non-standard way in order to make it
work with their piece of shit, non-standard, ALMOST EIDE-ATAPI
tape drives. So, unless/until (maybe in the Linux community at
some far off date, if ever) someone writes some other backup
software containing special code just to make it work with their
specific drive (which should NEVER be required), you are simply
out of luck when it comes to software alternatives. Sorry about
the bad news on this, but what else did you expect at this point?
-- Kyle
September 27th, 2000 -- More email
from a similarly duped and unhappy Sony customer came in today.
Subject: Sony Stuperstation
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 09:45:44 -0700
From: Rich Hall <rich@sol.netlynx.com>
To: amonk@gnutec.com
Hi there,
I found your email on the net about the Sony Stuperstation tape
drive. I too have one of these loads and found it does not work
with anything. I unfortunately lost the Seagate Software CD that
came with it. Would you happen to have a copy of the software
that you could send me so that I can at least use this thing on
my portable as it does not work on my Linux box. I tried every
PPort driver on my RH 6.2 installation and not a damn thing works
with it. Sony and Seagate both have no direct support for the
thing in any software package.. can't even find it on the Sony
site. Seagate says it was an OEM and they do not support the
thing directly because of that.
I can handle email attachments to 20 Mb.
Regards,
-Rich
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Rich Hall - http://www.netlynx.com/rich
emailto:rich@netlynx.com
amateur radio: KF6ARX
-----------------------------------------------------------------
September 29th, 2000 -- And here is my
response to Rich.
Subject: Re: Sony Stuperstation
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 07:20:11 -0400
From: Kyle Amon <amonk@gnutec.com>
Organization: GNUTEC Information Technology Solutions
To: Rich Hall <rich@sol.netlynx.com>
References: 1
Sorry, but I don't have the CD that came with the piece of
junk either. I may be able to get my hands on it though.
It is probably floating around my parents house somewhere.
I'll look for it this weekend and if I find it, I will post
it on my Sony SuperStation web page so that others can
download and archive it for my backup purposes. :-)
- Kyle
September 29th, 2000 -- And Rich responds
to my reply here.
Subject: Re: Sony Stuperstation
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 10:18:52 -0700
From: Rich Hall <rich@netlynx.com>
To: Kyle Amon <amonk@gnutec.com>
References: 1
Thanks! Let me know when/where and I will grab a copy and put
it up over here. Since it is copyrighted we can not make it
visable to the public, but I can at least archive it here.
-Rich
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Rich Hall - http://www.netlynx.com/rich
emailto:rich@netlynx.com
amateur radio: KF6ARX
-----------------------------------------------------------------
September 29th, 2000 -- And here I respond
to Rich again.
Subject: Re: Sony Stuperstation
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 15:12:08 -0400
From: Kyle Amon <amonk@gnutec.com>
Organization: GNUTEC Information Technology Solutions
To: Rich Hall <rich@sol.netlynx.com>
References: 1
I'll make it visible. Until Sony comes clean on this deal
(never), they can kiss my ass. Like I said, it will be for
offsite backup purposes. Everyone who downloads it will have
an offsite backup for me. Excuse my french, but fuck 'em.
Let them sue me. I can afford it.
- Kyle
September 29th, 2000 -- And Rich's
last response is here.
Subject: Re: Sony Stuperstation
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 16:42:31 -0700
From: Rich Hall <rich@netlynx.com>
To: Kyle Amon <amonk@gnutec.com>
References: 1 , 2
Ok. I certainly understand the issue. I have tried to use the
turd under Win2K and it does not work there either. It gets
found as a SCM PPort device, but nothing more happens beyond
that. So back to trying to make it work on the laptop under 98.
Sigh.. I too thought that it was a "real" tape system and that
there would be some support from the Sony Bastards. You can't
even find any references to it on the Sony site. They have
buried it in amongst very obscure crap on the website and only
to let you know that it is not a supported product anymore.
Let me know when you get it online and I will put it into the
pubs dir on the machine here.
Later Daze.
-Rich
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Rich Hall - http://www.netlynx.com/rich
emailto:rich@netlynx.com
amateur radio: KF6ARX
-----------------------------------------------------------------
November 18th, 2000 -- And here's another
email that just came in today. My fellow suckers are really starting
to chime in now with a unanimous opinion. I wonder why we all feel so
screwed. Could it be that Sony screwed us all and damn well knows it?
Subject: Sony SuperDoorstop
Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2000 22:08:39 -0600
From: "Tom McKigney" <mckigney@mcia.com>
To: <amonk@gnutec.com>
I too got one of these things. No wonder CompUSA was dumping
them for $100. Set it up and ran a backup (I thought till I
needed a file). It was past the 14 day grace period so they
told me to take it up with Sony. Got three tapes and they run
but then tell me they are not formatted. I try to format and
they give a seek error and suggest that I format them. Circular
Logic? I guess I waste another $40 for a new tape just to make
sure it is not the media. The genius at CompUSA had an alarm
devise on the tape box that they deactivate with guess what?
A magnet. I wonder it this might have messed up the formatting?
I'm running Win98 V2 on a AMD K7 650 with 128meg ram so I don't
think I'm under powered for this piece of junk.
BTW I just went to the AIWA site and it appears they are out of
business and referring people to Sony. LOL
I'll let you know if I ever get this thing working.
Tom McKigney
Another Unhappy Sony Customer
mckigney@mcia.com
December 3rd, 2000 -- Wow! Here is an email
from a guy who, although he agrees the drive sucks (of course), has managed
to get the external version working well with M$ Windows ME. No kidding!
He credits his success to the efforts of Veritas. Sony?
Certainly not. Seagate? Wrong again. It makes some sense
too. Veritas, a company that had
nothing to do with the creation of the Sony SuperPieceOfShit, has been a
solid company as long as I can remember. But even a good company can only
do so much with crap, so I can't help but wonder just how long this guy's
luck will hold out even with Veritas' software. And by the way, this is
commercial software that you will have to shell out yet more money for
(around $100) just to get your Sony SuperPieceOfShit to work, maybe, for
a while, with Windows ME only. Since there is a 30 day time-limited demo
available for download however, it would certainly be a good idea to try
the demo first for a month if you're willing to sink yet more money into
your disfunctional drive on third party software in the event the demo
works for a month. Lot's of luck.
Subject: Sony Superstation
Date: Sun, 03 Dec 2000 00:00:41 -0800
From: Ross King II <rossk2@pacbell.net>
To: amonk@gnutec.com
I agree the drive sucks but I have gotten it to work great by
using the program Backup Exec Desktop from www.veritas.com.
They are the ones who bought the crappy Segate program and
upgraded it to a nice piece of software. I was able to format
the tapes and use them no problem. Let people know of this on
your site please.
PS They may have a Linux version as well?
December 8th, 2000 -- Here is my response to
Ross (above) regarding the possibility of a Linux version of Veritas' Backup
Exec Desktop software. Although I had not done so yet at the time of my
response here, I have since checked into this, and, as I strongly suspected,
there is no Linux version.
Subject: Re: Sony Superstation
Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 01:06:04 -0500
From: Kyle Amon <amonk@gnutec.com>
Organization: GNUTEC Information Technology Solutions
To: Ross King II <rossk2@pacbell.net>
References: 1
Thanks, I'll add this info to the webpage soon. And I'll check
out the possibility of a Linux version of Backup Exec Desktop
from Veritas as well, but I'm not holding my breath since it
would be necessary to modify the ide-atapi tape driver in the
kernel specifically for the Sony SuperGarbage as well in order
for such a thing to actually work.
- Kyle
December 26th, 2000 -- Here is an email from
another unhappy Sony customer. Notice that this one came in the day after
Christmas. There is a joke in here somewhere. Merry Christmas to all the
unlucky new owners of Sony SuperGarbage tape drives this holiday season.
Subject: Sony Suckerstation
Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2000 11:43:05 -0500
From: "Mike & Joy Leverich" <leverich@erinet.com>
To: <amonk@gnutec.com>
Just read your web page. I actually bought this product for
a client of mine (I do computer services for small biz and
residential customers) along with two 10 Gig tapes. I've had
partial success performing backups with one tape, but after it
runs for a couple of months the tape backup s/w starts reporting
"seek errors". Reformatting the tape allows it to run error
free for a couple of backups and then it begins all over again.
I have a second 10 Gig tape that has been returned to Sony for
replacement about 5 times. For each new tape I have received,
the backup software can't even read the media header. The tape
"shoeshines" endlessly (drives drags the same section of tape
across the head repeatedly trying to read header. I can't even
reformat it. The backups are slower than molasses. When I
contacted Sony about the problems, they suggested I spend more
money on a cleaning cartridge, which really pissed me off.
I consider myself to be technically competent. I too have
messed around with this product for a year, trying to get it
to work for my customer. I have updated the driver, cleaned
the heads, returned countless tapes, read every technical
bulletin I can get my hands on and tried every customer support
tip available from Sony. Nothing works, and I'm not doing
anything wrong. This product is obviously defective and
customer support is non-existent. Sony has done nothing to
help me. Based on my experience and that of others that have
posted material on the web, they simply don't care. Incidentally,
there are product reviews on the Superstation (most of them
negative) posted at SysOpt.com. I plan on submitting one myself
so no one else gets screwed buying this.
Has anyone out there submitted these problems to their state's
board of consumer protection? Not all state's have one, but I
know when I lived in Maryland that they had a very active one.
Perhaps a National consumer protection agency? Any suggestions
out there let me know. I'm not dropping this issue.
Feel free to add my diatribe to your site. Keep up the good
work. Replies on this issue are welcomed.
Mike Leverich
Consultant, MITECH Solutions
mitech@workmail.com
December 28th, 2000 -- And here is my response to
Mike above. It's mostly about his question regarding consumer protection
legal action.
Subject: Re: Sony Suckerstation
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 18:44:54 -0500
From: Kyle Amon <amonk@gnutec.com>
Organization: GNUTEC Information Technology Solutions
To: Mike & Joy Leverich <leverich@erinet.com>
References: 1
Mike,
I added your email to the webpage. As far as whether anyone has
persued any consumer protection type legal action regarding these
falsly advertised peices of junk, I'm not aware of anyone having
done so. It might be a good idea though. Maybe I should start
collecting names of visitors to this webpage interested in joining
a class action suit against sony. If so, I should probably write
a cgi script to collect and display the list. Maybe some attorney
who purchased one of these paper weights will find the list of
people signed up and decide to take up the case. Stranger things
have happened.
-- Kyle
P.S. BTW, that link you sent is dead. I even tried to find it
in case it had moved elsewhere on the SysOpt.com website.
No luck.
December 30th, 2000 -- Boy, people are
starting to come out of the woodwork now. Here is another unhappy
customer.
Subject: Sony Superstation Sucks!!!
Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2000 10:39:14 -0800 (PST)
From: wrutnam@excite.com
To: amonk@gnutec.com
Hello Kyle,
I just saw your website. I too am one of the suckers that
bought a Sony Superstation drive some time back. I bought it
last year and it did work at first. I was actually able to
talk with someone and the person on the line was very helpful
ingetting the drive to work. But after I added some new hardware
and software (I can't remember what) it stopped working. I then
passed the drive to two of my friends and they couldn't get it to
work on their computers either. I finally decided to send it
back to another company affiliated with Sony and they sent me a
new one. But this one didn't work either. I thought it was the
tape so I foolishly bought a new one from CompUSA at $40 (ouch),
but that didn't solve the problem either. I have tried many
times trying to contact Sony Superstation tech support at the
numbers on the following website
http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/rmeg/support/
but I could never get through. It seems that they don't want
to help all of us who have bought those stupid drives. Even
Sony's website doesn't talk much about the Superstation drive.
My friend who owned an Aiwa bolt drive, the same one that Sony
purchased and renamed Superstation, and he started having
problems too. But his was due to the Seagate backup software
which also sucks. Well I just wanted to voice my own opinions
and hope some day we can get Sony to reimburse us all. Who
knows if that will ever happen though. Oh by the way, I was
using my drive on a Windows 98 machine like another person
mentioned on your website. Well let me know if you have heard
anything from Sony and I will do the same. Thanks for the
updates.
- Bill
January 7th, 2001 -- Here is an email from
another unhappy Sony SuperStation customer to ring in the new year. He had
a good idea too. He CCd the Sony SuperStation technical support email
address on it! I think I'll write a procmail recipie to forward a copy of
every email I recieve about this to them automatically. I'll post a note
about it when I finish. I have to fix my email situation first since a
change I made a while ago disabled my procmail recipies. I guess this will
be a good excuse to finally fix things. In the meantime though, take a que
from Neil and CC those Sonys of a bitches . :-) And CC Sony's Customer
Service (yeah, right) email address too while you're at it. That address
is custserv@info.sel.sony.com.
Subject: Worthless Sony Superstation tape device
Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 11:01:06 EST
From: NeilP@aol.com
To: amonk@gnutec.com
CC: superstation@techsupport.sony.com
Dear Kyle,
Just read the info. on your web page. I too have had problems
with the two (2) superstations I purchased. After having called
their tech support line at 1-888-369-0685 and speaking to an nice
guy who told me they (Sony) are coming out with updated drivers
in a couple of months (spoke to them in Sept. 00), I have yet to
see any.
Also, I guess you've noticed that their support on-line is about
as useful as a dead mouse. You can't find out anything about the
superstation other than their canned virtual glossies and info
about ordering media.
You are right about SONY...they are a big company who apparently
does not care about the consumer. I guess I won't buy any more
products from them.
Better yet, if we find enough people on the net who are unhappy
about their tape non-superstations, perhaps we can get a nice
giant class-action suit going against them. I will inquire with
my lawyer friends. I'll also check with one of my friends who
is a lawyer at the NY attorney generals office and see if there
is anyway to pursue this from that angle.
Please add this message to your other e-mail on your site and
let's see if we can get something going here. I'm sick and
tired of Sony's non-responsiveness.
Neil Piper
January 8th, 2001 -- And here is my response
to Neil.
Subject: Re: Worthless Sony Superstation tape device
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 19:59:27 -0500
From: Kyle Amon <amonk@gnutec.com>
Organization: GNUTEC, Inc.
To: NeilP@aol.com
CC: superstation@techsupport.sony.com
References: 1
Neil,
Good to hear from you. :-) Sorry for the reason. :-(
I posted your email on the Sony SuperStation is Garbage website.
http://www.gnutec.com/~amonk/sony_superstation.php
About a week before your email, someone else sent one in mentioning
the potential for legal action as well. They mentioned perhaps
persuing it via consumer protection laws. I had not posted their
email on the webpage at the time you read it, but I have since done
so (along with a response of mine regarding the legal action issue).
You might want to visit the webpage again and read this stuff.
Did you check with your lawyer friends on this issue yet? If so,
I'm sure everyone would like to hear their thoughts on the matter,
so let me know and I'll post them. If not, hurry up and do it!
Don't let it slide because that's what Sony and similar companies
count on ever day!
-- Kyle
January 9th, 2001 -- Here is an email from
someone that acknowledges that the SuperStation sucks but at least has
it working. According to my informal survey here, working at least well
enough to even sort of use it is certainly not the norm. He's also looking
for the software that came with it. I guess I better dig up a copy of
of mine pretty soon and archive a backup here. :-) The problem is that
I have it a couple of cities away for reasons not worth mentioning. I'll
need to go get it first, but I promise to do it very soon. The only
thing that puzzles me with this guy's email is how his SuperStation can
be working for his purposes if he doesn't even have the only
software that is supposed to make it work. Is he using it for
a paper weight, or what?
Subject: Sony CD
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 18:21:59 -0800 (PST)
From: Carlos Hernandez <cmoguer@yahoo.com>
To: rich@sol.netlynx.com, amonk@gnutec.com
Hi Guys,
I read your web page on your Sony woes. I too have had one
for a while and I misplaced the Sony software. I agree the
unit sucks but it works for my purposes. Do you guys have
a link to the software so I have burn a new CD?
Thanks
Manny
January 12th, 2001 -- And here is my response
to Carlos.
Subject: Re: Sony CD
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 20:24:29 -0500
From: Kyle Amon <amonk@gnutec.com>
Organization: GNUTEC, Inc.
To: Carlos Hernandez <cmoguer@yahoo.com>
References: 1
Hi. I posted your email to the webpage.
How can your SuperStation be "working for your purposes" if you
don't even have the only software that is *supposed* to make
it work? Are you using it for a paper weight, or what?
I'll dig up a copy of of mine pretty soon and archive a backup
on my "Sony SuperStation is Garbage" webpage. The problem is
that I have it a couple of cities away for reasons not worth
mentioning. I'll need to go get it first, but I promise to do
it very soon so check back for it again soon.
http://www.gnutec.com/~amonk/sony_superstation.php
-- Kyle
January 12th, 2001 -- Man, I feel like I'm
starting to get bombarded with email about this. Here's another unhappy
Sony customer who came up with a cute acronym for us. We're all ASS's! :-)
Subject: Sony SuperSHITation
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 17:48:28 -0700
From: Ed Stover <estover@noao.edu>
To: "'amonk@gnutec.com'" <amonk@gnutec.com>
Hello, my name is Ed, I am an ASS (Another Sony Sucker)! :-(
You see, it all started when I saw this irresistible super
duper tape back unit at CompUSA in December of '99. I had just
experienced a totally unexpected hard drive crash on my work PC
on Dec.8th,'99, for which my boss wasn't too pleased with. Then
on Dec.20th,'99 the second drive of my home PC stopped responding.
Fortunately is turned out to be an intermittent power connector.
But, that was enough to scare the crap out of me. So like any good
computer geek, I ran as fast as I could to the nearest computer
store, i.e., CompUSA, to get a tape backup unit, NOW!!! The sign
on the front of the shelf that the Sony SuperStation - Parallel
Port version, was sitting on said $149.95, but the register rang
it up as $179.95. They explained that was the difference between
the internal and external versions, of which I cried NO WAY!, the
sign says $149.95 without any differentiating between interfaces!!!
Time and panic being against me, I gave up my VISA card any ways.
I did get the unit to backup my Win95 system right away, but the
second time I went to do a backup, I got the "tape unformatted"
message. Weird, it was from a box of 3 tapes, 2 worked fine and 1
didn't. I let it format the tape, which took 14 hours!!! My wife
used the third tape on her computer once, and I did full backs in
a round robin manner with the other 2 tapes all during 2000. On
Dec.15th,'00, the 5 year old primary drive on my home PC quit
with the heart throbbing 'clanking' sounds! After installing a
new drive, I figured I would do the Win98 upgrade I'd been putting
off and then restore from my "trusty" tape backups. In trying to
locate the seemingly lost Seagate Backup Exec CD, I thought I
would just get on the web and grab the executables, and get some
more tapes while I was at it. WRONG!!! Seagate doesn't acknowledge
the SuperStation and Sony's web site is one of the worst I've
experienced in quite awhile!!! Sony doesn't even mention the
SuperStation, and the 10GB tapes are pretty gh, that was about
the same time that Seagate took over the Conner l Now I have a
useless Conner 850, and a soon to be useless Sony 10GB. My mom
bought a Iomega Ditto 2GB tape unit several years ago, which now
is as useless as the rest of them interms of getting tapes and
or support for them because Tecmar bought the Ditto line, then
dropped it!!!. How is a person suppose to back up the gigabytes
of hard drives??? I'll probably give these to my 10 year old son
to take apart, atleast someone can have some fun with this junk.
2) For me any ways, do not turn on any computers during the
month of December!!!
Sorry this got so lengthy, I just wanted to pass on my ASS story
to the public. DON'T BUY THE superSHITation!!!
Your web site idea is GREAT, keep up the fight!!!!
Another unhappy Sony customer,
Ed
January 14th, 2001 -- Here's a short and sweet
email that came in today.
Subject: Sony SuperStation
Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 06:59:36 -0500
From: "John Judis" <jbjudis@worldnet.att.net>
To: <amonk@gnutec.com>
I agree. the tape drive is junk. After a year and defective
tapes, failed backups, I've given up.
January 20th, 2001 -- Here is a guy that
I saved from alot of wasted time and agrivation.
Subject: Sony Drive
Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 20:00:36 -0500
From: "Traverse Data" <pcasey@traversedata.com>
To: <amonk@gnutec.com>
Kyle:
Although I am sincerely sorry that you had to find out on your own
just what a piece of feces your Superstation Drive is, I thank you
for saving me, and many others, from the same fate.
Thanks again - I have now decided to go with an HP product.
Good luck with future purchases.....
Regards,
Patrick Casey
January 25th, 2001 -- Gotta love this one. :-)
Subject: Sony tape drive.
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 15:21:17 -0500
From: "Reany, Burt" <breany@trigon.com>
To: <amonk@gnutec.com>
Hi;
I've just upgraded my paycheck, so I was looking at new toys - a
Sony "entertainment center" configuration at $4500, with the bells
& whistles. Saw your article this afternoon, and am no longer
considering Sony. (Being simple, I am easily redirected by the
expressed opinions of others).
Thot you'd like to know.
January 26th, 2001 -- Here is some weak crap
that came in from
Sony Technical Support. Who do they think
they're kidding? This doesn't even make sense.
Subject: 2000
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 12:54:57 -0500
From: "Sony Technical Support"<superstation@techsupport.sony.com>
To: <amonk@gnutec.com>
Dear Sony Customer,
In response to your inquiry, we are currently supporting Windows 95,
98, and NT Workstation. As a service to our customers, we are in the
process of obtaining Windows 2000 software. Sony plans to offer
new software in the future. At this time we do not have a specific
date of when the 2000 driver will be available. Please go to the
Sony Web Site at www.sony.com/superstation for information regarding
how to obtain a copy of the drivers when they are released. It is
recommended that you install Windows 2000 as a dual boot therefore
you may install your SuperStation on your current operating system
and back-up your 2000 data. The Internal SuperStation has been
tested on Windows 2000 operating system, and it backs-up successfully.
If you have an internal drive and it does not work, please contact us
with details regarding the problems you are having. The external
SuperStation requires a driver to work in Windows 2000. Unfortunately
we do not have a specific date when that driver will be available.
However your email address has been recorded and you will be contacted
when the software is released. We apologize for any inconveniences
this may have caused. Thank you for your patience, and if you have
any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at
1-888-369-0685, Monday through Friday between 9AM and 8PM Eastern
Standard Time.
Thank you for contacting Sony Technical Support
January 27th, 2001 -- Looks like Neil couldn't
help responding to Sony's lame tech support email.
Subject: Re: 2000
Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 10:57:56 EST
From: <NeilP@aol.com>
To: "Sony Technical Support"<superstation@techsupport.sony.com>
CC: <NeilP@aol.com, <amonk@gnutec.com>
Dear automated technical support message reply,
You're kidding, of course. Your web site, www.sony.com/superstation
is the same old web site it has been for over a year. There is no
information on any kind of software upgrade, or notice of one coming.
Do you perhaps think that this kind of automated message will placate
me? If you did, you are wrong... I'm persistent, tenacious and cling
like a leech. I will pursue this further.
Perhaps Sony Corp. thinks that putting something on the market and
selling thousands or hundreds of thousands and then not supporting
the folks who bought them is good customer service practice, but I
don't. I'm sure Tom Peters doesn't either (don't know who that is?...
yes typical).
Thank you for your non-support,
Neil Piper
PS. I'm looking for the address of the North American Computer
Electronics VP, so I can send him my two worthless tape units.
January 31st, 2001 -- Here's a guy who got
burned on multiple drives and tapes just like I did.
Subject: Sony Stupidstation...
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 13:44:46 -0500
From: MikeD <davanzom@concentric.net>
To: <amonk@gnutec.com>
Fellow fool,
Are you wondering how I found your website? Because I must spend EVERY
MINUTE OF EVERY STINKIN' DAY searching in vain for discontinued items for
my tape backups, that's how. We bought 2 internals and 2 externals. In
one year, I've pitched 3 tapes @ 40 bucks a shot due to "unable to read
media" errors, was unable to bring up a critical accounting stand-alone
PC when the HD crashed because of IDE conflicts, and just about lost my
IS job when the boss asked,"why did we spend all that money if you are
still down all the time?" By the way, WIN 95 & 98 users, you will find
yourself having no choice on EIDE secondary slave assignment. Even in
cable select mode, refuses to operate and your system will hang in boot
or worse.
Nice, eh?
Thanks for listening.
February 6th, 2001 -- Here is a nice story
about a poor, disabled, elderly woman that Sony screwed with this product.
Nice company, that Sony is, huh. The really unfortunate thing here is
that my drives are internal and even if I had an external one, it wouldn't
do this lady any good since there is clearly a reason why her's doesn't
work. Sorry about your luck, Mam, but Sony just doesn't give a damn
about you. :-(
Subject: Sony Superstation Junk
Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2001 05:12:42 -0800
From: "Sandy Warner" <sandyjw@internetcds.com>
To: <amonk@gnutec.com>
I read your thoughts on the Sony Superstation tape drive. My mom
bought the external Sony Superstation drive at Staples on clearance
for 49.00 along with 4 10gb tapes at 40.00 a piece. It seemed like
a really good deal at the time. But now her drive just stopped
working and we have desperately been tiring to find another one
but all the Staples we've tried don't have anymore left. I've even
tried the internet but haven't found one, at least not for the $49
clearance price that Staples was offering.
She's on disability and can't afford to buy another drive or just
trash the 4 tapes she bought that only seem to work for that drive.
I thought maybe, if you really don't like your Sony drive and if
it's an external model you might consider letting her have yours
so she could put her tapes to some use.
Please let me know if this is maybe a possibility - you'd make an
old lady very happy!
July 30th, 2001 -- Believe it or not, I
have been getting so much email as a result of this webpage that I have
been unable to keep up with adding it here by hand (as I was
doing up until now). This is why the last email entry above was from way
back in the beginning of February, 2001. Although I wasn't adding it here,
I was saving all this email with the intent of solving my problem
of being overwhelmed by it at some point. Well, I finally got around to
doing just that. I created an email archive with
MHonArc, a mail-to-HTML conversion
and archiving utility written in Perl
and released under the
GNU General Public License (GPL). In addition to making things easier
on me, using MHonArc is a significant improvement from a user perspective
as well. Without additional annotational blathering by yours truely,
the contents of the archive can be viewed and easily navigated by
Date or
Thread. And now
that I have a simpler means of archiving and managing this email, I will
be adding newly recieved email to the archive in a much more expeditious
manner (hopefully). I'll probably even automate the whole process when
I find another hour to spare on it. I just had no idea this webpage
would generate such a large response when I first threw it up in anger.
I guess there are alot of simlarly screwed and angry Sony customers out
there. :-( Well, thank god (or, rather,
Richard Stallman,
Larry Wall and
Eric D. Friedman) for MHonArc!
February 23th, 2002 -- Although I had set up
MHonArc to archive my Sony Superstation related email, I had not automated
the process (as mentioned), so I was still having to save the new email in
order to manually add it to the archive later. Well, I finally added all
this accumulated email to the archive and thereafter actually took the time
to automate the process (via procmail).
As a result, I am happy to announce that, henceforth, I will not be required
to take any special action in order to have my new Sony Superstation related
email added to the archive. There will therefore no longer be a (usually
relatively huge) delay (that is, me) in this process; all of my email
(coming and going) about this Piece O' Shit will now be added to the
archive in real time! And this makes a lazy SOB like me very pleased. :-)
March 1st, 2002 -- I modified my procmail
recipe for Sony SuperStation related email a bit so that now all such email
(coming and going) is automatically CCd to the following Sony email addresses:
superstation@techsupport.sony.com
custserv@info.sel.sony.com
Newimage2@aol.com
matuguti@mkm.sony.co.jp
suda@bonson.sony.co.jp
kfukui@skd.sony.co.jp
david.traver@am.sony.com
akichan@skz.co.jp
June 27th, 2004 -- Well, it's been a while,
but I finally got around to "backing up" my original Sony SuperStation CD
here. :-) It's about a 135MB
file. :-(
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