I cannot be the only one to have experienced the results of responding to the Midwich Computer Company's advertisement for a Uchida 305 printer in issue 65 last June.
The machine arrived promptly, well packaged and good looking. It produced letter quality print at a quarter of the speed of my Tandy LP5 - and then suddenly went crazy! It began produced gibberish, then screwed up its ribbon and locked the print head solid.
I duly returned it under guarantee via Securicor for £15 and regretted having discarded the packaging. Midwich promptly sent me another without demur and I set it to work on the backlog. This time I kept the packing and... yes... Uchida II went the way of its predecessor. The woman at Securicor was thinking I would be a regular client.
I wrote a rather miffed sort of letter to Midwich this time, suggesting that a spot of hari-kiri would be in order back on the Uchida farm in Tokyo, and would they please credit me with £300 or so against a daisy that actually wheeled and kept on doing it. That got me an apologetic phone call from a Mr. Keith Balding to explain that Uchida has released a batch with duff transistors. In true Bushido spirit, he promised to send me a good one and refund my financial support for Securicor, which he duly did.
Well done, Midwich. And three boos for Uchida. I can't really say third time lucky, although it does actually work. But it has some bad habits with the margins, so I am taking good care of the packaging. If this one has to go back, I suggest they drop it down a well and telex Tokyo for a Samurai persuader.
8th September 1984
