From: ken@wybbs.mi.org 
Subject: *** CONSUMER WARNING ***  MidWest Micro (Ohio)
Organization: Consultant's Connection
Distribution: na
Lines: 54

Thinking of buying from MidWest Micro of Ohio? Think *very* carefully.
Unless you are absolutely sure you won't have any problems, you may want
to trade elsewhere.

Despite the fact that they answer the phone, "Hi! I'm <whoever> and we're
having a GREAT Day!", they weren't quite so happy when I wanted to return
a modem that didn't work as I expected it to.

The details:

I ordered one of their house brand "Infotel" 14.4/DF internal FAX modems.
In reality, it was a Twincom Lightning FAX that had a paper sticker over
the name. Given the poor reports on the net about this modem, I would not
have ordered it, had I known this in advance.

It arrived on time. The documentation stated that it would work (and was
preconfigured) as COM4, providing that COM2 was not in use at the same time.

For several reasons, I have a serial card configured for COM1/COM2. At the
time I installed the modem, nothing was connected to COM2.

Although the modem appeared to work, during every connection at 9600 or
14.4, it would randomly break the connection and hang up the phone. After
spending some time on the phone with MidWest's tech support, they suggested
disabling the COM2 port.

This appeared to solve the disconnect problem, but was an unacceptable long
term solution. I had to have COM1 and 2 available, even though they both
would not be in use at the same time as the modem.

I called back 20 minutes prior to their closing and waited in Voicemail 
hell, listening to repeated advertisements for MidWest Micro products. I 
was then promptly disconnected. Apparently it was quiting time and they 
didn't want to be bothered with callers that had been waiting on the line.

I called the next day and asked the Customer Diservice agent for an RMA
number. She promptly switched me to a "Tech Support" rep that implied that
it was my equipment at fault and that he wasn't going to give me an RMA
number. He suggested I use some nonstandard IRQ settings, a solution I
was not happy with. The modem should work as originally configured.

Conclusion:

I'm not sure the modem would work ok in a basic system, but it clearly does
not work in a multi port system like mine. Since my time is worth more 
than the aggravation or the cost of the modem, I gave it to a local
charitable organization (with a description of my problem) and ordered
a Practical Peripherals 14.4MT from PC Connection.

For $30 more, I have a solid external modem built by a company I know 
will support their users and sold by a company (based on personal
experience) will treat me right if there is a problem. I should have
known better...