Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!gatech!udel!mmdf From: talmage@lti.com (David Talmage) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Best Dealer Message-ID: <16908@louie.udel.EDU> Date: 5 Jun 89 16:23:29 GMT Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU Lines: 54 In <7038@cbmvax.UUCP> Rick Unland (buita!cbmvax!unland) writes: >I am very interested with finding out what people in the Amiga community >feel are the best dealers nationwide. Specificaly the ones that they feel >support them even after the sale not just the best price in town. I also >would like to know what people consider are the requirements for a super great Dealer >and what kind of support that dealer would have to provide for the consumer. Since moving to the Boston area, I've been dealing with Soft Designs in Belmont (on Belmont St? It's between Belmont Pizza and Diver Jim's). John Malloy and Wayne Duvall run a full-service dealership and have made quite a commitment to Amiga. They have some neat DTP and graphic arts stuff for general use (Digi View, a Paint Jet [small charge for usage to cover the cost of the inks], various paint programs, and a laser printer due in Any Day Now). They have some accelerator boards (Midget Racer is one that comes to mind), modems, 68020/68881 chip sets in various flavors, bare 3 1/2-inch disk drives with dust covers, and maybe one of everything else ;-) Their prices are reasonable, even as good as mail order in some cases. I bought my Amiga 2000 from Soft Designs in February. Yesterday I stopped in to pick up the Supra SCSI controller John special ordered for me. I don't anticipate any problems with either one but should I be wrong, I believe I can count on John, Wayne, and their repair wizard Dave (?) to fix what's wrong in short order. John tells me that Soft Designs is authorized by Commodore to repair Amiga computers. John explained to me how he wants to run his business. He wants to provide service to the Amiga community. For example, he will honor the warranty on my Amiga 2000 for one year instead of the 30? 90? days it says on the paper from Commodore. He's experimenting with Rent-to-Own, so you can have your new Amiga and eat too ;-) He can find things out for his customers. For example, before I decided on the Supra controller, John found for me some info about the Great Vally Products controllers. In my opinion, if any dealer wants to be called a "super great Dealer", they should be like Soft Designs: honest; have reasonable, but not necessarily rock-bottom, prices; willing to take care of their customers; have stuff to play with in the store and bring in new stuff from time to time; be authorized by Commodore to service the Amiga. By the way, I have no affiliation with Soft Designs other than as a satisfied customer. David Talmage ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ David W. Talmage, Systems Programmer ...!{buita,bbn}!lti!talmage Language Technology, Inc. talmage%lti.uucp@bu-it.bu.edu 27 Congress St., Salem, MA 01970 (508) 741-1507