Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!gatech!akgua!akguf!akguc!codas!peora!joel From: joel@peora.UUCP (Joel Upchurch) Newsgroups: net.micro.pc Subject: Re: Mail Order Experience Message-ID: <2444@peora.UUCP> Date: Fri, 12-Sep-86 17:49:50 EDT Article-I.D.: peora.2444 Posted: Fri Sep 12 17:49:50 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 13-Sep-86 21:01:54 EDT References: <128@zen.BERKELEY.EDU> Organization: Concurrent Computer Corporation, Orlando, Fl Lines: 164 Keywords: pc >... !ucbvax!cory!ttt Mark III Address >I have seen similar discussions for other similar suppliers (eg Tennis > Equipment and Camera stuff). How about some feedback? > Who's good ... who's not kind of stuff. Sounds like a good topic. I bought a PC Clone and a lot of other stuff recently. I'll start out with my good experiences. CompuAdd Of Austin TX I ordered their Career Starter Kit. This includes a computer, keyboard, monitor, display adapter, and printer. The bundled software includes MS-Dos 3.2 GWBASIC, and the ZEN software series. All the necessary cables, printer paper, and 10 blank diskettes are included. The computer is a 8MHZ PC clone with an AT-style keyboard. The nameplate says it's a Standard Turbo-88, but all the documents refer to it as the PC II. Since the documents match the computer and it looks just like a PCII I saw elsewhere, I conclude that it is a private label version of the PC II. You can put up to 1 MB on the motherboard, and it comes with a driver to use the additional 384kb as a ram disk. It also has a clock, one floppy disk drive and a game port. The monitor is a 12 inch amber one made by Goldstar. I paid 20 bucks to have them upgrade the display adapter to a Hercules clone card. The printer it is a Citizen 120D. I think that the bundled monitor and printer change sometimes, so you should ask about the models included if you order. In addition to the starter kit I ordered 768K of additional RAM for the system, a 30MB half height hard disk, a 1200 baud short card modem and a 8MHZ 8087 coprocessor chip. The salespeople I dealt with over the phone were polite and knowledgeable about their equipment. I had one self-inflicted minor hassle caused by the me exceeding my limit on my Master Card, which was straighted out expeditiously. I received my computer about a week and a half after my order. When I checked out the computer, I found that the memory, hard disk, modem, and 8087 had already been installed, which from what I have read isn't necessarily SOP for mail-order firms. I hooked up the monitor and keyboard and plugged in the power cable and stuck the MS-DOS diskette in the disk drive and turned the sucker on. It worked, shucks I had more trouble than this with my VCR. I had one problem with the computer. It insisted that any floppy disk I tried to write to was write protected. I called CompuAdd technical support line and the guy there suggested I check the alignment of the write protect sensor and LED. I opened up the case and fiddled with the sensor awhile, after that the drive worked fine and has ever since. The Goldstar monitor has a little too much persistence for my taste, it tends to make the characters a little blurry during rapid scrolling. Other than that I like it fine, the amber display is very attractive. It looks real nice when I'm running Microsoft Windows and PC Paintbrush. The monochrome graphics display adapter appears to be a good clone of the Hercules card, at least I've told several software packages that it is a Hercules card and they all worked fine. The Citizen printer works fine too. It has a correspondence mode that won't be mistaken for daisywheel output, but the output is quite legible in correspondence mode. It can emulate a IBM Graphics Printer and Epson FX-80 also. The modem is made by Everex, is Hayes-compatible and comes with a communications program called Bitcom which isn't bad at all considering it comes bundled with the modem. The only problem I've had so far that I would term a hardware compatibility problem is that Microsoft Windows locks up when I try to use the RAM disk. The 384KB on the motherboard, which isn't included in the normal 640KB DOS partition, is configured as a 2nd bank of memory starting at 128KB. The included driver then uses it as a RAM disk. The RAM disk works fine with all of my other software, but with Windows it locks up. The ZEN Word that was bundled with the system is fine, PC Magazine gave it a good review in the Jan. 28 86 issue, which I agree with. They also said that ZEN Spell is junk, which I also agree with. ZEN Calc appears to be adequate for simple spreadsheet chores. ZEN Link appears to be okay, but I like Bitcom better. A few weeks later I ordered an EMS card and 2MB of memory chips from them. Again no hassles and the stuff came in about a week. The memory chips were still in the static carriers, so I had to plug them in myself, a tedious, but not too difficult job. It stuck me as a little odd to have a system with 48 times as much memory as my Apple II. The only problem I've had was that the range of possible output ports used by the EMS board overlaps those used by the on board clock. The EMS board driver apparently manages to zero out the year when it scans the ports to determine how many EMS boards are installed. I wrote a quicky Turbo Pascal program to set the year back to 86, that is executed by my AUTOEXEC.BAT file. I haven't gotten around to trying the technical support line to see if they have a patch to the driver yet. Windows works just fine with the RAM disk driver for the EMS card. All in all I am very pleased with my experiences with CompuAdd. While I wouldn't recommend a novice computer user use mail-order, there are some excellent bargains available for the wary and experienced user. Logic Array of Costa Mesa Ca I bought a 8MHZ NEC V20 chip to replace my 8088-2. Every- thing was fine - no muss, no fuss. Jameco of Belmont CA I got a replacement power supply for my Apple II from them. Same deal, the delivery was in a reasonable time, it was what I ordered, and it worked. Okay in my book. Northeastern Software of Shelton CT Here I had a lot of hassles. The 800 number was hard to get through on. The order taker was curt and unknowledgeable about their inventory. Practically all the prices were different, and higher than the ones listed in their ad. I was told that the offer of free air express shipping for orders of $150 or more had been discontinued, but it was still mentioned in their ad next month. I get a letter from them next week saying they had been unable to me reach on the phone to confirm my order. They hadn't mentioned that they needed to when I made the order or I would have given my work number instead of my home one. When I finally get a package from them two items have been back ordered, but when my Master Card bill arrives, I have been billed for all of them, which is tacky, if not illegal. 5 weeks later I tried to call them about the status of the item I hadn't received and I got put on hold and apparently forgotten twice. I gave up and sent them a letter canceling my order for the last item (Sidekick non-protected) and excluded the cost of the last item from my credit card payment, with an note explaining why to the credit card company. I don't intend to do business with them again. ------------------------------------------------------------- Insert standard disclaimer about all the proper names mentioned above are probably trademarks and that everything I just said is my own opinion and not that of my company. -- Joel Upchurch @ CONCURRENT Computer Corporation (A Perkin-Elmer Company) Southern Development Center 2486 Sand Lake Road/ Orlando, Florida 32809/ (305)850-1031 {decvax!ucf-cs, ihnp4!pesnta, vax135!petsd, akgua!codas}!peora!joel