Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!crdgw1!algol!stenstro
From: stenstro@algol.crd.ge.com (Ross Stenstrom)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Do not order from PC BRAND.
Message-ID: <1280@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>
Date: 20 Jul 89 15:03:08 GMT
References: <26281@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: news@crdgw1.crd.ge.com
Reply-To: stenstro@algol.crd.ge.com (Ross Stenstrom)
Distribution: usa
Organization: IU Group, GE CR&D
Lines: 61

In article <26281@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> ephram@violet.berkeley.edu () writes:
&
&	Well here is my experience with PC BRAND (Chicago IL).
 ...
&The one with the Intel cache controller and 32/64 Kbytes of cache.  Talk
&about lying to the public!  I called them up and they said that the
&sales staff is told that the motherboard is their own design!
... &   The next problem came when I set up the hard disk that they sold
&  The disk has >1024 cylinders.  What this means is that Not even DOS
&4.0X that can handle big disks, can use all of the cylinders.
... &  So I sent
&in My 1:1 MFM controller and the Miniscribe 3085.  I await a 1:1 RLL
&controller with a Toshiba disk drive.  The paperwork cleared our
&purchasing Dept 3 weeks ago.  They claimed never to have gotten it.
... & I have speant the
&last 4-5 days trying to get through to their customer support line and
&all I get is either 1) Busy, or, 2) Terminal hold.
&
&	At this point I am contemplating shipping the whole machine back
&and ordering from someone else (non-mail order).  At this point I
&certainly would not recommend that anybody buy from PC Brand.  The
&hassle I have gone through is not worth any $ savings I might have
&received.

Well, I had just decided that their price on their 286/12, The glowing
comments from Personal Computing's Feb 1989: 10 Best Mail Order Companies
              -------- -----------
featured in their ad in PC Magazine July 1989, their 5 *Five* year
warranty, together with reasonable looking system features was hard to
beat.

The frabulous review:
"PC BRAND is the L L Bean of the personal computer mail order...
 PC BRAND wants no unhappy customers, and it's service and support
 policies help to insure that"

(But then I once was sent a Christmas wreath from LL Bean, a perishable
one, but they didn't bother to tell me on the outside of the box that
I should open it right away.  When I opened it the season was mostly over
and it was shot...)

Now I know that two sample points does not a population make, but it
is not really good that the only two comments on PC Brand were negative.

Has anybody had a good experience or more bad experiences, for that
matter?  Is the 5 year warranty a crock?  How long have they been around?
What is "Personal Computing" really, an advertiser's rag whose comments
are bought by the advertisers?

Come on, lets have some more data points.  I know that complaining about
mail order companies seems trivial but this is a big concern.

Kind of like the girl in Casablanca who asks Rick if Louie can be trusted,
will he keep his word, I believe she asks...

I'd also anxiously take recomendations on good cheap mail order places,
I can swap you a couple for cameras and stereos! 

Thanks...
Ross Stenstrom                                          
    stenstro@algol.crd.ge.com (no m!)       uunet!crdgw1.ge.com!stenstrom