Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!dbell
From: dbell@cup.portal.com (David J Bell)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Screwing Little Guys
Message-ID: <15903@cup.portal.com>
Date: 16 Mar 89 20:43:08 GMT
References: <79700022@p.cs.uiuc.edu> <96@armada.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 36

>> People get screwed all the time (I'm thinking about Apple customers)
>> when a company introduces a new model at a random time of the year.
>> Often, customer have bought machines the day before the new model came
>> out, with no inkling that a new model would REALLY appear.  Apple has
>> introduced two such machines in the last two months!!!
>> 
>> Don Gillies
>
>I don't understand this.  How is this screwing anybody?  If they paid
>a fair price for the product capibilities, then how is it they have
>lost anything?
>
>Doug Hoffman

Doug, I don't entirely agree. I've been caught in the same trap more
than once. Even asked the vendor if new models were expected, and
what new features/prices were anticipated. "Oh, no. We don't expect
anything new for at least the rest of the year!" Bullshit! Now I have
*last year's* product, at full retail price, and the NEW, IMPROVED model
is available at 10% more than I just paid. If I'm really lucky, I can
try to dump the one I bought, but wont get nearly what I paid for it.
I understand that this is normal economics, but the buyer is getting
screwed nevertheless, if only because of the lack of substantial info
regarding new releases.

>I certainly don't want to see anyone hold products off the market until
>a particular day of year so that all vendors can introduce at once.
>That's plain silly (IMHO).
>

Agreed. But they *should* ANNOUNCE new products, and not just vaporware
press releases a year in advance! This is sometimes the dealer's fault,
but I have seen the case where a product was actually unveiled, but not
released to the retailers for several months...

Dave