That was my computer for much of my formative years of computing. I started learning how to program on it, learned all about how to troubleshooting Windows 95, though at the time my number one troubleshooting step was to erase the whole thing and start over, something my parents loved, let me tell you.
So next on my nostalgia driven series of “Whatever happened to?” lets dive into the story of Packard Bell.
The brand was restarted in 1986 when Beny Alagem bought the name of the original, and by then long since defunct, Packard Bell company. A name which led to many questions at the time: Was it related to the original company? Was it related to Bell telephones? What about Hewlett-Packard? Or the Packard car company? The answer was No — to all of those -, but Packard Bell did nothing to dissuade the confusion with the slogan: “America grew up listening to us. It still does.” That little bit of brand confusion helped solidify the brand in customers hearts and minds.
Throughout the 80s Packard Bell forged relationships with department stores and electronics stores that weren’t selling computers yet, so when the home PC explosion of the 90s hit Packard Bell was ready to go. In fact, according to a 1995 Forbes article over half the allotted to PCs in Sears was dedicated to Packard Bell, in 1994 their sales reached $3 billion, and in 1995 its market share topped 15% of units shipped in the United States. But that was the high water mark for Packard Bell.
In 1996 it lost the top spot to Compaq, and in 1997 it posted a loss of more than $1 billion citing price pressure from Compaq and eMachines coupled with poor customer satisfaction due to quality issues. By the year 2000 Packard Bell was no more in the United States.
Ultimately quality was what doomed Packard Bell, in 1992 Packard Bell disclosed that 17% of computers sold were returned by customers, compared to the then average of 5–8%. They were also sued for using parts from returned computers in computers they sold as new, and despite their claims that those parts were the same quality as the original. The suit was settled in 1998 with the company paying $3.5 million to the general government, as well as promising to put a used-parts disclosure on the outside of their boxes but it was a kiss of death for the company. Compaq’s lawsuit in 1995 set in motion a sequence of events that led to the companies ultimate withdrawal from the American market five years later.
There is not much to this one except a cautionary tale that unless you are a cable company, lousy customer practices will always come back to bite you in the ass.
Special shout out to the Packard Bell Wiki for the images.
