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From: brian@sdcsvax.UUCP (Brian Kantor)
Newsgroups: net.ham-radio
Subject: Re: TAPR Sale Update
Message-ID: <830@sdcsvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 29-Apr-85 11:33:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.830
Posted: Mon Apr 29 11:33:44 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 1-May-85 07:18:42 EDT
References: <10189@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Reply-To: brian@sdcsvax.UUCP (Brian Kantor)
Distribution: net
Organization: UCSD beer & pizza society
Lines: 55

I bought one of the TAPR ``fire-sale'' TNC kits, and one of the cabinets
during this sale.  But I'm not happy.

Let me explain:  I own one of the original TAPR Beta-test boards, and I
like it.  I had been planning to buy another TNC for some time, and was
just waiting until my finances would permit me to do so without some
strain.  Then TAPR announced that they would no longer be producing the
TNC, and were selling off the remaining stock at a lower price.

So, to make sure that I had one, I bought one.  It was really nice to
get it at a lower price, but it was the pressure to get one before they
were all gone that moved me to buy it.  

Sure, I could have bought the same thing from Heathkit, or AEA, or GLB, 
or one of the other manufacturers now making TNCs, but out of some sort 
of loyalty to TAPR (after all, they were the ones who went out on a limb 
to develop these wonderful things!), I bought a TAPR one.  That was
Tuesday.

Saturday morning, I find out that TAPR is not going out of the TNC
business.  What they ARE doing is introducing a new nice little TNC that
should be on the market in a while (I'd guess 3 months or so, but what
do I know?), and were dumping the older TNCs so they could get started
on the new ones.  Not a word of this in the advertisement - just a sort
of veiled hint that they were going to move on to ``other things''.

Now understand:  I'm not pissed that they are coming out with a new TNC,
nor with the fact that I bought one of the older kits.  I think I'd
rather have the kit that's been on the market for a while, rather than
buy a new unit that isn't debugged yet (look, NOTHING is fully debugged
until its been out a while - and six months frequently isn't long
enough for some things I've seen.  TAPR does amazingly well in this
regard).

No, what annoys me is the feeling of having been used.  I resent the
``cleverly worded'' message, and the feeling that I this was my last
chance to buy a TNC from TAPR.  Perhaps its my imagination, but I
somehow see some people at TAPR smirking at how clever they were.

I'm still glad I bought the TNC.  I'll put it to use as soon as it
gets here.  I know its a good product, and will work well for me.

But I don't trust TAPR anymore.  I can no longer think of 
them as fellow hams, trying to advance the state of art on a shoestring.
No, now I have to regard them as just another bunch of ``clever'' 
businessmen.  And that makes me sad.

I don't think I'll buy my next TNC from TAPR, no matter how nice it may
be.  Somehow I feel betrayed, and ``once burned is twice shy''.

	Brian Kantor, WB6CYT	UC San Diego

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