It is almost two years ago since I attended a press luncheon at the Tavern On The Green in Central Park, New York City. The purpose of the meeting was to announce that Timex Corp had formed Timex Computers and would take over the sales of Sinclair computers in the United States. Clive Sinclair was there in smiling fellowship with the top brass of the Timex Corp. Their message to’ the press was that Timex (who had always manufactured the ZX80 and ZX81 low-cost computers), would now apply their marketing expertise to computers as well as watches. They would also provide extensive software and peripheral support to the Sinclair machines making them highly useful to small business, education, and science.
We members of the press were impressed. Here was a company who’s watches and clocks had a reputation for low-cost and quality and they were going to bring the same qualities to low cost computers! We believed it as much as the Timex people did.
Timex upgraded the ZX-81, which they called the TS-1000 by adding-additional memory. They advertised the computer and sold thousands of them throughout the country. The Timex TS-1000 became the introduction to personal computing for many people.
A few months ago Timex fired all the people left in the Computer division and folded it into the watch operation. Then last week they completely got out of the sales of computers, explaining that they couldn’t make any money from them. Small wonder, the TS-1000 that cost me $99.00 plus $49.00 for the 16K Memory Expansion was now selling for $39.00, with the Memory Unit and some software!
I blame the VIC-20 and TRS-80 Color Computer and the TI 99/4A for the final death of the TS-1000. VIC-20 and CoCo showed the public that you could get a real computer for about the same price as the Timex plus the expansion module. They both had real keyboards and good software. You could get reliable cassette loads, or just plug in a cartridge and use the machine. There were third party expansion units that worked. Radio Shack and Commodore even provided a printer and disk drive for those who could pay for them.
Now nobody expects a company to stay with a money losing product, but when you sell millions of items to the public you have some responsibility toward those who bought the product on the basis of your claims about its merit.
Sinclair was not much help to the users of their machines, but they made no bones about it. You understood when you bought a ZX80 or ZX81 that you were pretty much on your own. Timex however promised to do better, they offered help from such things as the user hotline (1-800-24TIMEX) and the COMPUTER CLUB and a Newsletter. None of it ever worked. The Hot Line was usually busy and if you got through, the chances were that they couldn’t answer your questions and they never called you back. The other support mechanisms for the 2068 might have worked if Timex hadn’t fired Dan Ross and his staff.
The notice of the complete demise of the Timex Computers came through a one page P.R, Release from Ruder, Finn & Rotman who do the public relations for Timex. It was dated February 21, 1984 and said that Timex was withdrawing from the home computer business. It quoted Mr. C.M. Jacobi, Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Timex who said, “We believe instability in the market will cause the value of inventories to decline, making it difficult to make a reasonable profit. Further, we are concerned that those conditions will strain trade relations between manufacturers and retailers, a relationship which the company values very highly.” Note that he says nothing about relationships between the company and computer users! In regard to service of Timex Computers, Mr. Jacobi said, “Consequently, the company has decided to withdraw from the retail portion of the home computer business. Consumer warranties will be honored and out of warranty service will continue”.
We called Mr. Jacobi to ask him to expand on the company’s support policies. We asked questions about the level of support that Timex would continue to offer for software and the sale of proprietary chips and peripherals. We never got to speak with Mr. Jacobi. His spokesperson said ‘We are considering the answers to your questions, we will call you when we have answers for you’. They never called back.
We then called the P.R. firm who said, ‘We can not give you any additional information, call Mr. Jacobi at Timex.’
I wish you could see some of the letters we have received from Timex/Sinclair users. They believed in the product and spent a lot of money on it. I myself, taught a course in Timex/Sinclair Programming and purchased a computer for $99, a 16K Memory Expansion for $49, a Printer for $99, a lot of books and software. I have about $400 invested in this machine and I know others who spent a lot more. We never expected a company like Timex to ditch us without any consideration. If they were as concerned for their customers as they are for their dealers, they would still be in the computer business.
Is the Federal Government going to let them get away with this one? Are Computer Owners as important as Snail Darters? It is one thing for a Company to go Chapter 10 or Chapter 11 (Bankrupt) and end belly-up, its another thing for a solvent company to just dump customers who bought their products in good faith. We are consumers who need protection, the Very Low Cost Computer User is an Endangered Species!
Don’t write me about it, write your Congressman!