...Computers, that is.
Prime was pushing very heavily in the early 80's to get a chunk of the mini-mainframe/mini-computer market. When they found out that the Ag Econ dept had funding, they did a lot of serious wining and dining of the prof who could actually cut the check. The prof, who wouldn't have recognized a computer two times out of three, should have handed over the actual decision making to the profs and operations staff who used and knew about computers.
So, we ended up with a Prime, running the fabulous Prime OS. And it turned out that the university where my mother worked bought a Prime at the same time.
We awaited the Prime. It showed--with a forklift hole straight through the CPU.
As one might say, an ex-computer. The head of operations called Prime to get a replacement. It was pretty clear that the forklift damage hadn't happened at the university--the rips in the packing material had already aged.
They told us that they would have to send a SE up to the university, but they couldn't make it for a couple of weeks, because they were "busy". Um yeah.
Now, it was spring in the midwest, and one of the attractions of spring in the midwest is that the weather reports switch from snowstorm warnings to tornado warnings. A fairly nasty storm hit the university where my mother worked.
A bolt of lightning hit the side of the administration building, taking out a chunk of the wall, and reducing their Prime computer to, ahem, art.
So, their computing staff called Prime, to find out how to get a replacement, and since it was fresh out of the box, determining if an Act of Nature meant that the university was going to have to hit up their insurance to pay.
Prime said that they would replace the computer, but they would have to send a SE to see if the computer was truly non-operational. It would take two weeks.
The operations staff offered to send a photo of the cooled pile of slag that used to be a computer. No dice. Well, could they get a SE from the sales office 20 miles away, rather than having to deal with one 200 miles away, but in the same state?
Nope.
Now, with customer service like this, it didn't matter that PrimeOS was a piece of garbage. No more Prime computers would darken the hallways of either university.
Ag Econ received their computer about six weeks after the fact. After having to replace most of the innards--it appears that even when you didn't have a gaping hole in the CPU, the hardware was made out of Silly Putty--we finally managed to get the thing to boot all the way up about four months later.
The other university? They took the insurance money and bought a real computer.
Ag Econ kept hoping for a good storm....