Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!uokmax!drtiller
From: drtiller@uokmax.uucp (Donald Richard Tillery Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: C= screws customers again! - (was Re: I need info on M G please.)
Message-ID: <1990Aug13.203535.32528@uokmax.uucp>
Date: 13 Aug 90 20:35:35 GMT
References: <3897@bwdls58.UUCP> <1990Aug11.062205.9424@ccu.umanitoba.ca> <90224.190820JKT100@psuvm.psu.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: Engineering Computer Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Lines: 79

I understand C= wanting to support their retailers by shutting down mail order
competition, but they ARE screwing quite a few of us.  I live in Norman, OK
and a quick call to C= will reveal that I have two choices for local dealers:

PC Tech - No Amigas on display, one in stock (I have no idea how old), NO
          technical support, and a warranted reputation for dishonesty (TWO
          of my friends have been screwed by their sales staff, one with a 
          used {abused} "new" printer, and the other with a promise of 
          repair work while under warranty that stretched so long that it
          ended out of the warranty period and he was forced to pay an 
          exorbitant price to get his PC back!  No one in the Oklahoma Users
          group will go near them, and C= refuses to pull their plug.

Software Etc. - They only stock 500s at $599 but will "order" 2000s for (get
          this) $1999 without monitor.  I didn't even bother checking on 3000s
          since the list they use for charging (yes prepaid) for orders is over
          three years old (hence the ridiculous charges and the salesperson's
          comment that he'd been there 4 years and no one had ever bought a
          2000).

I refuse to deal with such businesses and have resorted to mail order.  Now C=
in its infinite wisdom had decided that they won't warranty mail order goods.
Great for retailers, pretty s**tty for those of us caught 3 hours from the
nearest reputable Amiga dealer.  Since 1985 I have mail ordered over $10,000
worth of merchandise, none of which could I get locally.  I think if I can't
go a reasonable distance for an item, I deserve the right to mail order it WITH
A WARRANTY (and not at "suggested retail price" 35% higher than everyone else
from the manufacturer as I would have to do to order from C=).  Within the next
week we WILL have an actual dealer opening in the area, something the several
hundred Amiga users in Oklahoma City have been begging for for years.  Until
then we have been relegated to obtain our favorite computer via mail order.  I
feel certain that there are others in this country who are still in the same
situation we have been in for years, and who SHOULD NOT be subjected to such
inconsiderations at C= is placing on them.  I would like to see C= arrange for
an order line for those people out of range of legitimate Amiga dealers to
order at a reasonable price (near actual retail).  

I purchased a 1950 through mail order in April and have had problems with it
and its THREE successors, each of which were returned to the mail order house
because there was no local authorized repair center.  When the FOURTH one 
arrived DOA, I found out that a local repair center had just recently been
authorized by C=, so I was thrilled to deliver my monitor to them rather than
foot the bill for yet another return trip to the mail order place (at over $50
a whap - which meant I could have spent far less time and money by taking a
road trip to Dallas and buying it there and hauling it back,hindsight you know)
They checked with C= and were told that it wasn't under warranty because I had
mail ordered it.  Well, after I returned to my normal color, I called their
customer service number and they told me that it was in fact under warranty
(breath of relief).  The repair shop found a cracked circuit board was the
problem and C= said they didn't have them in stock so I should ship it back
to them.  WHOA, I said, clutching the warranty in my hand.  It said that all
I was responsible for doing was to deliver the monitor to an authorized repair 
center and that was exactly what I had done.  I was tired of paying for THEIR
faulty monitors and was ready to insist that they pay any transportation bills
when they "graciously" volunteered to ship me a brand new one and issue a UPS
"will call" for the broken one at the service shop.  That was the week before
last, and they still haven't shipped it and I understand UPS might go on strike
tonight at midnight, extending my over THREE MONTH nightmare with this monitor.

Had I had a local dealer, none of this would have occurred or been necessary.
But without the ability to mail order, I wouldn't have the over $7000 computer
system (sans monitor) that sits before me because I would have been S.O.L. 
when it came to getting any of it.  

Commodore, don't spite those of us with no legitimate dealers, don't relegate
us to the PC or Apple world.  We want to partake of the Amiga as much as any
other person, but by cutting off our only source of your products, you are
contributing to the Amiga desert (hence our users group the Oklahoma Amiga
Computer EnthusiastS - OACES).  Surely you can come up with a better way to
support your dealers without screwing those unfortunate enough to not live
near one!
 
 _______              __________
  _/____) '  __  /_/       /  '  /  / __  _      "N.I.N.J.A.J.I.S."-Me
  /  \___/__/___/ |_      /__/__/__/_/_-_/__/_/  The Displaced Razorback.
  ___________________________________________/   Founder:  IDGAFF Ltd.
The Amiga Computer - "...a more fiendish disputant than the Great
Hyperbolic Omni-Cognate Neutron Wrangler of Ciceronicus Twelve..."
-D.Adams;  Well, almost.