great site

From: Christopher Smith <csmith_at_amdocs.com>
Date: Tue Feb 12 13:27:14 2002

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sellam Ismail [mailto:foo_at_siconic.com]

> While I sympathize with you here, a couple points: 1) you
> probably got a
> real good deal on it, which is why you aren't bitching too
> loudly ;) 2)
> you did ask them to make sure it powered up and it did. They

Exactly, and 3) I got it because even in the event that it was
broken, I have another shot LD player which may benefit from a
source of spare parts. :)

> you ask them to stick a laserdics in it and play it on a TV, they will
> probably tell you "we don't have a laserdisc to test it with,

Actually, the conversation went something like that...

> Please note that I am not taking your comments as a
> disgruntled buyer, but
> am simply stating how they operate.

Well, I don't consider myself disgruntled, so that's good. I do hope
that next time I deal with them it will be more smooth.

> > There was a shipping mix-up on that item, and they sent my LD
> > player to somebody else, and send me this guy's mac clone. (I
> > think I'd rather have the Mac clone at this point, though the
> > LD player may be repairable...)

> That's not excusable, but it can be attributed to the
> shortage of people
> resources. They are run so ragged that these kinds of mistakes can
> happen unfortunately. We're working to smooth out the whole process
> though.

I attributed this to the fact that it was ordered just at the beginning
of December, and even ACCRC may have an unusually high volume of orders
at that time.

> There is one person handling the high-end workstation sales.

That's the impression I got...

> One day a
> laid-off geologist walked in and said "I want to learn some
> nifty computer
> skills" so they pointed to a pile of workstations and said
> "go to work"
> (this story is made up but I think it's at least half accurate :)

Well, it's at least half convincing, anyway.

> The guy taught himself everything about SGI, HP, DEC, etc.
> workstations
> and went about putting together and testing complete systems
> for sale on
> Aftermath. He does a pretty good job at it.

He was able to find the faulty part. Honestly, I wish I'd been
able to do that, myself, but I don't have the stack of SGI pieces
to do it :)

> That being said, I think he did his darndest to put together
> a completely
> functional system for you, and I'm sure it was when he boxed
> it up. But
> something probably happened to it in transit.

It seems so -- had you seen the condition it was in when I got it
the first time, you would be even more convinced. I think, but
can't prove, that at least part of the problem may have been UPS.

> Again, lack of resources (specifically people). These guys
> will always
> uphold their end of the deal and will NEVER screw you. You will NEVER
> feel like you got ripped off from them. This is because the
> organization
> is run by one of the most ethical, honest and
> straight-forward people I
> have ever met, James Burgett.

As far as I have dealt with them so far, that seems correct. I
should make it clear that I didn't mean to scare anyone away with
my previous message, but I wanted to give a relatively complete
picture of my dealings with them. My case is probably exceptional,
and I've heard from others who don't have nearly this much trouble.

> Again, they will only test it as far as you ask, or as far as
> they have
> the time and skills to do so. They will never misrepresent
> anything they
> have for sale.

No problem there, of course. They seem to describe their items in
complete and accurate terms.

> They are incredibly decent folk, and all of them have an expertise in
> something, and sometimes it intersects with the expertise you need to
> determine if they have what you want :)

... which is, of course, better luck than you'd have at any local
store, in my experience. ;) Or maybe I'm cursed, and just shouldn't
be allowed to make purchases.

Chris

Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL

/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
 
Received on Tue Feb 12 2002 - 13:27:14 GMT