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Packard Bell to Shut Down US Line, Lay Off 80%
Sonoma76 writes " CNet is reporting that Packard Bell is laying off approximately 80% of its 2300 employees... This seems to be a trend as computer makers that were popular in the early and mid 90s (eg Packard Bell, Acer, and even Tandy) have all been replaced by the agressive marketing efforts of Gateway, EMachines, and MicroWorkz. That's right, no more Packard "Hells" to compare your dream machine with." Hopefully it won't be hard for all the laid-off people to find new jobs.
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Packard Bell was the name of an old Amaerican company that made Radios and TV's and was all but a goner when a team of ex-Israelis took over the brand name and strated making computers. They were once the biggest in retail computers and produced not half bad machines. The rumours about "used" parts where most probably a publicity stunt by Compaq more then true incidents. Their big drop came when technical troubles in mass installing Win95 dropped the quality level of their product to sub zero degrees and the rest was a slippery slope from there on... Yes, I used to work for them (not directly). There were some good people there, but the company was a gonner long ago.
Gilad.
In case anyone is interested, we have been producing many applications that were shipped with PB computers. One point I cannot stress enough, though. We are not the company responsible for "PackardBell Navigator". We have nothing to do with that company, or with the product.
Throughout our buisness with PB we have had to deal with internal PB politics. As a result, we would hear about angry (sometimes abusive) letters released by various PB devisions about our products, but repeated requests for feedback about the actual problems were almost always denied.
The way I see it - If you want total control over product customizations, you have to participate in the QA. At the very least - tell your provider what the problems are.
One last note - GTek Technologies Ltd is an Israeli company. You can find our main page here over a very slow connection. This web site is mirrored, at a much faster rate and in the US, here. We have nothing to do with an American company called "GTek Inc." (you can find their site here.
Shachar Shemesh,
sun-sdr@gtek.co.il
As someone working for said company (GTek) I am amazed how someone can spew such an ugly lie. If I was an American I would probably sue you... ;-) ;-) once told me that no one is useless - in the worst case they can serve as a bad example. Packard Bell is one very good "bad example" of what happens when managment does not listen to it's customers nor it's own employees.
I don't think this is the right forum to tell all the stories I know about the inside workings of Packard Bell, but I can assure you one thing Mr. Konopka, as someone who has a personal knowledge of the facts- without GTek PB was dead LONG ago. The simple fact that GTek outlived Packard Bell is a sure proof of that.
An ex senior vice president at Packard Bell (Hi isaac!
Gilad.
Packard Bell was one of the worst companies I had ever seen in regards to customer service - and product durability. They were sleezy to deal with - including their authorized service centers. It's a shame that so many of their employees are now job-less - but it's the market speaking: If you berate and ignore your customer's needs, turn around and close your eyes to their problems and concerns - don't be suprised that if, or when you turn around, they aren't there anymore... As for the workers - if you are good people, and tried to help everyone you could - there most likely is a better job awaiting you around the corner... :)
My first experience with Windows was on a Packard Bell. A slow, unreliable, unupgradeable, poorly made, generally EVIL Packard Bell.
On its own, Windows is horrifying enough, On a Packard Bell, it's enough to drive a man to Linux.
-- The Brory Stool Co.: We accidentally the best stools from behind seven proxies, since 2009.
I'm not sure how worried I should be. I work for NEC now, as part of an acquisition by them earlier this year. Our division's management is giving us the "don't worry" speach, and we have nothing to do with Packard Bell, but still...
Although I will say that I really like my NEC Versa notebook, which I believe is manufactured by Packard Bell. Works very well.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
They did make a decent 286 system.
Everything else sucked. "Yeah we'll put the modem and sound on the same card! Genius! *Suit Highfive*"
Up until last week, I was a PB tech at the Magna, UT facility. (I guess I quit just in time, eh?) We had all been seeing this coming for a long time, despite the re-assurance of the "suits". The main problem was that PB had contracts with crappy hardware and softare companies (ie. G-Tek) to continue using their products in the systems. Bad business, bad product, and lack of resources in the tech support dept finally caught up. Justice is served for the execs and for future customers, but woe to my ex-coworkers and to new PB customers seeking product support.
-Joshua Konopka
sig: sauer
You make it sound like NEC ran Packard Bell into the ground.
I seem to remember at the time of the NEC buy-in to Packard Bell that Packard Bell was going through some very bad times already.
I don't have any inside information, but I always thought the NEC-America/PB merger was a marriage made by Intel, who had huge cash (multi-Billion dollar) loans out to Packard Bell. Packard Bell had gotten stuck with an unbelievable number of Pentium 90s and 100s when the market had already turned to buying faster models. Intel turned Packard Bell's debt into a loan, which probably upset a lot of other computer manufacturers. From what I read at the time, Packard Bell would have gone under had it not been for that loan.
I think NEC paid off a lot on that loan and otherwise got their interest in Packard Bell for next to nothing, while at the same time boosting NEC's relationship with Intel considerably, which had been strained for a long time over the V series chips.
A friend of mine was looking to buy a computer, and so we headed into a local electronics retailer to check out the offerings. They had a counter lined with Packard Smell PCs. My friend walked up to the first one to take a look. I was starting to warn him off when a salesdroid spotted us and zipped right over. He is getting ready to begin his pitch, and puts his hand on top of the monitor in a "This baby..." gesture. The speakers promptly fell off the sides of the monitor. Watching the salesweasle melt was rather fun.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
The best thing my old packard bell did was become a cat box... Just the right dimensions....
I wasn't part of the class action suit (even in the drug induced hazy days of my youth I had enough sense not to buy a PB :) but I seem to remember reading that PB was putting used/refurbed parts into their PC's while representing them as new.
This death is not painful enough for them. I was hoping that NEC would demand that all the "Suits" in charge if Packard Bell commit seppku. The ensuing bloodbath should be enough to appease any tech support rep who ever had to talk to a Packard Bell customer who was trying to install Non-Packard Bell hardware or software on his system.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
For a company that makes such nice server stuff and decent corporate desktops, it's a shame that Compaq insists on putting so much cheap consumer crap.
Compaq should do what IBM did and drop their retail computer line. You see comments like guacamole's, and you realize that they are just dragging their once well regarded brand name through the mud with those ugly and cheap Presario computers. If it's impossible to make a good consumer machine and a profit, leave the market to eMachines or whoever.
The current generation of IT purchasing people think of the well built Compaqs going back to the original luggable, the Deskpro 386, and the early Proliant servers which were way beyond any other PC server. Eventually, however, burned home users are going to get these purchasing jobs, and they are just going think of Compaq as just another Packard Bell. It's going to be hard to sell a $100,000 Alpha system to that crowd.
--
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
The refurbished PB monitor I had died, and I waited 6 months for a replacement. I got sick of waiting and just went and got a new Viewsonic.
'Couple weeks later, the PB home tech came to appartment during the day, for some reason the door wasn't locked, he came inside (!!!), took my new Viewsonic and replaced it with a yellowing PB monitor that also didn't work.
I managed to catch my monitor at the Denver airport and get it back...
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
This (to me) is somewhat saddening in a twisted way, for my first 'puter was a Packard Bell Legened 20 CD. 486. DX2. Play Doom? Boot w/ the left shift key held (or was it the right, since 4 megs of ram wasn't enough). One thing I must congratulate Packard Bell in is there design. Or rather lack of, I mean come on, I bought a new Hard Drive for this sucker, only to find out that while it had an open ide channel as well as an extra power cable, nowhere was there a place to mount another Hard Drive. And when the CD-Rom broke it took the tech guys 3 weeks to fix it. Although this lil puter does serve a nice job as router / masquerading in the closet. And I made a neato case for it too, fiber glass neon lights etc. etc. Just to make it look purty. Ah well. For what it's worth, they made me realize that home built is the way to go. You get the parts you want and can rely on, no exactly what brand everything is and where it is, and you can pick and choose. Cheers.
S.t.e.v.e.
The "Packard" is an allusion to the Packard Saw-Mill of Twin Peaks fame. Gordon Shumway, the founder of Packard Bell, was a huge David Lynch fan and for years had wanted to pay tribute to the master (even though Eraserhead sucked ass, trendiness aside). Unfortunately, being a poor snapple-truck-driver, he could scarce afford any elaborate ventures. So he sought funding from Peter Bell(stein), a rakish entrepreneur (and self-hating Jew) from Arkansas. Mr. Bell(stein) had some quirky ideas that poor Mr. Shumway was forced to follow along with, namely that a) customers love it when you're rude to them (some get an erotic thrill out of bitchy phone support) and b) computers that break easily generate repeat customers. Somehow this strategy didn't work out, which brings us to the present day situation. Due to poverty, Mr. Shumway has been forced to sell his milk collection. From what I hear Mr. Bell(stein) is dabbling in archery. I wish them both well in whatever future ventures they undertake.
- The hard drive was constantly developing bad sectors. I ended up placing read-only files over the areas where the bad sectors tended to accumulate so that the real files wouldn't become corrupted. Eventually I put in a new drive.
- The monitor desynced at anything better than 640x480x256 unless I specified really weird refresh rates.
- I was never able to use more than one IDE device with the (single) on-board port.
- Let's not even get into the funny-shaped motherboard and case.
Let's face it, Packard Bell sucks, and the company deserves to die a painful death.-- $SIGNATURE
Oh. What a sad loss. This is almost as bad as loosing Tandy. :)
(at least Radio Shack had a history, let's hear it for the TRaSh-80, yeah!)
But seriously, I've seen many Packard Bell computers, and I've never wanted one. My first computers were from Commodore, Tandy and Emerson, and the other three have been generic, put together by local computer places.
Dell and Compaq can make good machines, but of course they're overpriced. Micron was pretty cool before they got more publicity. But by and large, figure out what you want, get the parts, and assemble it or have someone else do it for you. It's cheaper, and generally works out better that way.
---
pb Reply rather than vaguely moderate me.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Let's take a look at the current trends in the cheap hardware arena:
Integrated video
Integrated audio
Bottom of the line Winmodems
Non-intel CPUs
Non-intel chipsets
How much do these cost cutting measures save? I would say about half over a "real" PC, with the big savings coming from the latter three items.
Most consumers will just compare MHz ratings, memory size, storage, and make a decision from that. At half the price for what appears to be the same system, they are not going to pass it up.
furrfu. Comparing PB to Macs is absurd. If you seriously believe that, why not put your money where your mouth is and set yourself up as a Mac (better yet- iMac!) hardware technician! Go ahead, there ought to be _tons_ of money in it if they are so much like Packard Bells ;) :) Macs are what you get when you combine heavily proprietary with usually not crap :)
Heavily proprietary != Packard Bell. PB is what you get when you _combine_ heavily proprietary with absolute crap
I feel sorry for all those laid-off workers, but I will have to say that Packard Bell pretty much brought their demise upon themselves by selling inferior systems with limited upgradability, poor components, and little regard to customer satisfaction. It is good that the market is finally bringing companies to realize that they won't get away with cost-cutting and selling poor quality products to the consumer.
However, what concerns me is whether this incident is isolated, or whether it may be the harbinger of a potentially bad trend for the computer industry. The whole industry has been booming like crazy for the past few years, and judging by the current interest in comp sci and electrical engineering, will be bombarded with potential workers.
In the hardware level, at least, Packard Bell's downfall may signal that the big boom in the computer industry is finite, and may be leading up to a collapse at some point. And this means that with all those up-and-coming comp sci wizards, it could be very difficult to find and maintain a stable job in the industry, because competition is becoming cutthroat as ever these days. Natural selection is showing its face in the business world, and those who weren't lucky enough to work for the "fittest" may find themselves in hard times.
I'm not saying that the computer business is starting to cave in violently, nor am I implying that Packard Bell is typical of the industry, but you do have to realize that the computer sector won't be thriving forever, and will fall at some point, be it gradual or sudden. And that could be devestating to a lot of people in the industry. Just something to keep your eyes on.