I just wanted to respond to Chris' message about his dealings with
Aftermath Technologies (ACCRC).
The ACCRC is a non-profit run by a very intelligent, busy, and crazy team
of people from literally all walks of life. Resources are always tight,
especially where staff is concerned. There are some very dedicated
volunteers that you will find there everyday, and then there are people
who pop their head in for a day, do some volunteer work, and then are
never seen again.
On Tue, 12 Feb 2002, Christopher Smith wrote:
> I have. Just recently, in fact. I purchased two items -- a
> laserdisc player and an SGI Indy.
>
> The Laserdisc player was purchased with the understanding that
> they'd test it to make sure it powered up. It did, however
> it was trashed internally. Not a big problem, since I understood
> that it might be when I purchased it.
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 don't have
the time nor the expertise to make sure a device like that is going to be
100% functional when they ship it out. In fact, they don't care. If you
tell them to power it on to make sure it "works", they will do that. If
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, nor the time
to do so. We're selling it 'as is'". It's up to you to decide if you
still want it after that.
Please note that I am not taking your comments as a disgruntled buyer, but
am simply stating how they operate.
> 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.
> The SGI was supposed to be tested and working, but shipped to me
> with some problems. The drive sled had become loose in shipping,
> and somehow managed to knock the RTC out of its socket half-way.
There is one person handling the high-end workstation sales. 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 :)
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.
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.
> Needless to say, it wouldn't
> power up when I got it. After carefully reseating the RTC,
> I managed to get it to turn on, but it wouldn't boot properly.
>
> I ended up having to ship it back. It seems that the power
> supply was bad. It was eventually replaced and sent back to
> me.
>
> The system is now in working order, however, the CD drive
> I got with the system seems to be having some trouble.
> (seemingly random read errors, for instance) They have
> offered to ship me a second CD drive and allow me to keep
> this one (which again may be repairable) for the cost of
> shipping. (this is really fine with me, since I like that
> drive, and I'd like to get it working for use as a spare)
>
> At any rate, I'm expecting the new drive sometime soon.
>
> The problem is that I placed my orders originally in early
> December. They're a little slow in responding.
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.
> If you can put up with that, and with the fact that what you
> order from them may not be well tested -- if my experience is
> any indication -- I don't imagine you'll have a problem dealing
> with them.
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.
> The prices are certainly good. They also seem like decent
> people, and sometimes know what they're talking about.
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 :)
For instance, if you're big into Macintosh, they've got that covered
because of Alex. Anything having to do with network (routers, NICs, hubs,
etc.) is expertly handled by Chris.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Tue Feb 12 2002 - 03:43:10 GMT