Way back when they actually still sold them I had a few customers that used an IBM Quietwriter. It was an amazing idea at the time and for a couple years an amazing typewriter. It used a thermal print head and a special ribbon when typing or in very very special cases printing computer word processing files. Good idea but sort of lacking in durability like the IBM Selectric had. Print heads could be very difficult or a piece of cake to replace. Don't really know I only tried three or four and gave up because of the cost at the time to buy them. We never did put any under contract. Anyway I was at the Goodwill store looking for a cheap pc component. A lady walked up and tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was the guy that used to work on the nine typewriters at a certain lawyer's office. She wanted to know if I could recommend a typewriter shop since she wanted something a lot more reliable for home use than the current portables available in the office supply stores. But she definitely wanted something that was less expensive to buy supplies for than her old Quietwriter. Ribbons which cost over forty dollars and definitely not the, as she remembered, 90 dollars plus labor to replace the print head. I gave her the name of a friend still running his own shop. Now the fun part of the story. This lady was actually a secretary in a law office where I actually repaired their IBM typebar typewriters, thirty plus years ago. We dropped them as a customer when they bought Quietwriters. I decided to not try anymore repairs on those machines. There were a lot of alignment problems and ribbon feed and ribbons breaking. Selectrics averaged one call every three years with proper lubing and oiling. These machines averaged a call every three to five weeks. Admittedly minor problems unless it was a print head alignment problem or ribbon feed.
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