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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!brl-adm!adm!Curt.Galloway@faraday.ece.cmu.edu
From: Curt.Galloway@faraday.ece.cmu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.misc
Subject: Another PC Network story
Message-ID: <1441@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 11-Dec-86 15:15:12 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-adm.1441
Posted: Thu Dec 11 15:15:12 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Dec-86 21:48:13 EST
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
Lines: 41

Several people have already said essentially the same thing here, but I feel
compelled to repeat their advice:  if you are thinking of buying something
from PC Network, DON'T!

Why not?

Well, I decided that their THE PC+ clone was a good deal, so I ordered a
complete system from them -- computer, printer, monitor, graphics card and
I/O card.  Two weeks after I ordered it, it arrived... all but the computer.
"Backordered," the shipping slip said.  When I called the next week
to check on it, the technical service consultant told me, "Oh!  It's
only been three weeks.  You'll have to wait another six to eight weeks, you
know."

Since I didn't feel like waiting forever for my computer, I told them to
cancel my order and refund my money.  "Okay," they told me, "we'll mail your
check in seven to ten business days."

Seven to ten business days later, no check.  "Well, we're a little bit
behind, but we should mail it out within a week."

Three weeks have passed now.  Still no check.  "We're still behind, but
we'll mail it within seven to ten days."

Four weeks.  Five weeks.  Six weeks after I cancelled my order, just as I
was looking up the Illinois Attorney General's address, my refund check
finally arrived.  It had been eight weeks since I first placed my order. 
Gee, if I had just been patient, I could have had my computer by then!

I guess the moral of this story is to be suspicious of the places with
super-cheap prices...  the money has to come from somewhere, and at PC
Network, it comes from customer service!  I don't mean to say that vendors
with low prices can't be reasonable, or even terrific -- but Caveat Emptor,
all the same.

(By the way, their "software rental" policy is very interesting... if anyone
is interested, or is thinking about "renting" software from them, I would be
glad to summarize it from their catalog.)

--Curt Galloway
  curt@faraday.ece.cmu.edu