Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!ucbvax!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL From: SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: (none) Message-ID: <8811121625.aa02475@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> Date: 12 Nov 88 19:58:45 GMT References: Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 70 >>>machine because my II+ finally died and I was assured that pounds of >>>new software would come out for it 'this christmas' and so far I have been >>>waiting for about a year. (note: 'this christmas refers to xmas 87) > >>You were assured? You should know by now that dealers will say anything to >>make a quick buck. Don't trust them entirely. Use your own judgement and do > >I cannot accept this. If anyone remembers the days when the Apple was new and >fabulous and upper-case-only, you'll remember that buying from Apple meant >confidence in the product, and its future. People felt good about Apple. They >represented a new technology run by people motivated by excitement and >curiosity. These people didn't screw customers over. This is why users have a >right to complain about the lack of a gs+. This isn't IBM or General Motors. >This is supposed to be Apple computer, and in the past, they didn't do this >kind of thing. Romanticising the past. Apple DEALERS have had the reputation of being "former shoe salesmen" for as long as I've been paying attention. Every time John Sculley (or any other senior apple executive) trys out that "how much we depend on our dealers" line on User Group spokesmen (on Compu$erve conferences for instance) he gets derision, cat-calls, and droll humor. Apple has for YEARS driven users nuts by referring to their dealer (99.9% of the time the reason the owner got desparate enough to spend the long distance toll and time calling Apple is the dealer already had failed to support the product). Apple dealers know much less AFTER they've accepted your payment than they seemed to beforehand. When I bought my first Apple in 1983, the dealer said "80 column communications at 1200 baud? No problem" and then found that he couldn't produce ANY commware that worked with the (then sorta new) //e 80 column card (turned out Softronics had been selling such a program for 5 months, but then the dealer didn't read A+, Nibble, InCider, or anything else evidently. After waiting 3 months for the dealer to deliver on the promised software, I found out about SOFTERM from an magazine ad and solved it myself. Two years later when I bought my //c (different dealer), I asked for a cable to connect the Hayes Smartmodem I already owned to the //c. After 5 (count 'em - five) cables that didn't match the connectors on one end or the other, the dealer suggested it would be easier if I bought an Apple modem which he did have a cable for (I suggested I'd pay him $19 for one - the cost of a cable). I finally, had to get a non-Apple dealer to find me a cable (from an outfit in California). I still do business with that non-Apple dealer because he really does know something about the stuff he sells (specializes mainly in printers); however Apple decided he wasn't good enough to be one of their dealers (insufficient capitalization or inventory or competing products -- whatever Apple's reason for declining to franchise it was financial not expertise, AND at the same time they were claiming how important dealer support was). Both Apple dealers I did business with have gone bankrupt while my non-Apple friend goes merrily along (apparently knowing what you're doing is better than having a nice balance sheet). Differences between Apple and IBM or GM are (were) mostly "imagery." Caveat emptor. [The Far Side shall return (I hope)] Murph Sewall Sewall@UCONNVM.BITNET Business School sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu [INTERNET] U of Connecticut {rutgers psuvax1 ucbvax & in Europe - mcvax} !UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL [UUCP] -+- My employer isn't responsible for my mistakes AND vice-versa! (subject to change without notice; void where prohibited) "Close enough for government work" - source unknown (naturally ;-)