Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!dsew From: dsew@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (David R. Sewell) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: PC BRAND Mail Order experience Summary: Had problems too; should we forward complaints? Keywords: 386SX Message-ID: <6443@ur-cc.UUCP> Date: 7 Apr 90 17:56:28 GMT References: Reply-To: dsew@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (David R. Sewell) Distribution: usa Organization: University of Rochester Lines: 34 Where there's this much smoke there must be fire (not just flames...). My experience: Last summer I ordered the PC-Brand 386SX that was for a couple months being advertised in PC Magazine as a 386SX-20. I was naive enough to assume that the 20Mhz rating was legit. The computer arrived with the wrong case style & wrong floppy drive size. I shipped it back at their expense (they sent a credit check for UPS fees); the machine I had ordered came back in a reasonable time. But of course it wasn't the machine I'd ordered. By then I had read in the computer mags that 20Mhz SX chips hadn't shipped yet. I ran Norton SI, which showed a speed rating corresponding to a 16Mhz machine, which is what it obviously was. I phoned customer service & told them this; response, "Oh, your sales representative must have told you that there was a mistake and we were only shipping the 16Mhz machine. They told everybody." Well, no, I insisted, I hadn't been told. After conferring with my sales rep she came back and offered me a $295 refund on what I had paid, which I accepted since the system was doing what I wanted it to do & I couldn't bear the thought of shipping the whole $!%#@! thing back again. After about two months and a couple more phone calls to Customer Service the $295 credit finally showed up on my VISA statement. Now I should have been less naive about clock speeds before ordering, but we're not all computer pros. I have wondered since if there aren't people out there who ordered what they thought was a 20Mhz machine & never learned that it wasn't. The cumulative force of all these stories is upsetting. Would it be worth making a copy of this whole thread and mailing it to, say, PC Magazine's Advertising Manager? (I'd be willing to do so, but wouldn't want to if any of the contributors had objections.) -- David R. Sewell || Internet: dsew@uhura.cc.rochester.edu English Department || UUCP: rutgers!rochester!ur-cc!dsew University of Rochester || BITNET: dsew%uhura.cc.rochester.edu@uorvm Rochester, NY 14627 USA || ===========================================