In a message dated 08/19/1999 11:37:10 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
edick(a)idcomm.com writes:
... and what, exactly, is wrong with the
"barebone thing" pray tell? Last
time I bought barebones systems I got enough for a whole law firm. The
motherboards have been replaced for upgrades, but the boxes, drives,
keyboards, etc, are still in place.
You were very lucky.
What is wrong is that many cutthroat operators put these "barebones" systems
together with faulty cpus/motherboards . . . since you're going to take it
home and add some other components, if you have a problem with the system
it's easy for the seller to blame any problems on components you didn't buy
from him or her:
"The barebones system you sold me crashes all the time."
"Let me see it . . . oh, you have these other parts in it . . . that's the
problem."
"But they're standard parts, and if you check them out you'll see they're
properly installed."
"Sorry, those parts are not compatible with the high-quality components in
the system you bought from us. And that crummy software you installed is
bound to cause problems. But we'll be glad to check it out for $$$ per hour."
This is one of the oldest cons in the world: Sell something the buyer has to
modify in order to use, then shift responsibility onto the buyer by blaming
problems on buyer modifications. Then charge them out the ass.
Glen Goodwin
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