Chris Scott writes about his recent problems buying a Macintosh (short version — Apple decided to use a proprietary interface for their Apple Studio Displays that is incompatible with older G4 computers).
Reading his story, however, this isn’t an Apple problem per se but from my experience is standard operating procedure among most hardware companies. I know people who work in technical support for large computer manufacturers who are very good at what they do, but I’ve also spent more than enough time talking to a customer service representative who knew less about the hardware than I did.
Scott is peeved that the box on his computer monitor didn’t say that it wouldn’t work with “older” G4 machines. It wasn’t quite as much money, but I once bought a game and on the box it said it required a 3D graphics accelerator. No problem — I’ve got one of those. Unfortunately you had to go to the company’s web site to learn that the game did not work with about ten 3D accelerators, including the most popular card on the market at that time (and it took the company about 6 months to get all the bugs finally worked out for those 3D cards).