Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!umn-d-ub!rutgers!bellcore!clyde!watmath!watcgl!electro!carlo
From: carlo@electro.UUCP (Carlo Sgro)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Mail order blues/guide
Message-ID: <132@electro.UUCP>
Date: 14 Oct 88 14:09:53 GMT
References: <55@cs-spool.calgary.UUCP> <2433@silver.bacs.indiana.edu>
Reply-To: carlo@electro.UUCP (Carlo Sgro)
Organization: Electrohome Ltd., Kitchener, ON
Lines: 48

In article <2433@silver.bacs.indiana.edu> stowe@silver.UUCP (holly) writes:
>
>This is getting cross-posted all over creation, so please, if you have a
>follow-up that only belongs in one group, edit that newsgroup!!!  Please!!

I did! :-)

>Is there a place in this world for mail order?  Probably.  But... please
>remember that just as you expect to earn a living from your job, your
>dealer's job is the store he/she/it runs and the services provided to you,
>whether those be consultation or repair type services.  

I agree!  I just became the proud owner of an Atari 1040 ST system with a 
colour monitor.  I purchased the system on Tuesday evening (at What's 
This, for Waterlooites and transplanted Waterlooites) and found that the
monitor had a problem with the power supply (I assume that it was the p.s. 
since it would come on for a second, flash, and die).  I brought it back on 
Wednesday at lunch and took possession of a replacement monitor.  I tried it
out later that night and found that the screen was extremely flaky and
very inconsistent (sometimes it would come up with the white screen on 
powerup and sometimes not, as an example).  I called the store an hour after 
they were closed and found someone there.  They opened the store for me and
gave me my third monitor.  I brought it home and it worked perfectly ... for
about 10 minutes.  Then it started making an atrociously obnoxious noise that
was unaffected by the volume control.  After much investigation (including
doing a quick run around the neighbourhood to see if anyone had started up
their handy-dandy power saw :-)), I gave up and went to bed.  The next morning,
I turned it on.  No noise.  Refusing to believe that I was hallucinating, I 
brought it in to work that day and left it on to see if it would generate 
that noise again.  It did after about 90 minutes.  Bringing this monitor
(now #3!) back at lunch, they tested it out ("Yep, that's a gross sound") 
and set up a new monitor for me.  They hooked monitor #4 up to one of 
their store systems and tested it out all day.  I picked it up at 5 p.m. and 
had a (finally!) fully functional system by that evening.  

Throughout all of this, the dealer gave me no hassles and bent over backwards
to get me a usable system.  I went through 4 monitors in 2 days.  Although
I felt fairly frustrated at having spent so much money and not having anything
to show for it after 2 days, I shudder to think of how long I would have 
been without my system had the same thing happened in dealing with a 
mail-order company!  

BTW, this dealer has basically no local competition, so they didn't have 
any incentive other than to make me happy.  

-- 
Carlo Sgro                              Celebrate Had Matter's Day(s)!  
watmath!watcgl!electro!carlo            !10/6