12 Feb
2002
12 Feb
'02
1:27 p.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sellam Ismail [mailto:foo@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");
'
12 Feb
12 Feb
5:10 a.m.
On Tue, 12 Feb 2002, Christopher Smith wrote:
He is a laid-off geologist and he knew little (if anything) about high-end
workstations before he started volunteering there. That much was true :)
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.
It probably had more to do with the fact that a few people (namely Alex,
who handles most of the shipping) were out of town for the holidays.
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. 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 :)
Mike is very competent.
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.
I'll have to give a lecture to whomever does the packing about proper
packing techniques for shipment via UPS.
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.
Well, again, it's an operation run by volunteers who are always strapped
for time (and cash) so your mileage may vary. Whatever the case, you'll
always get a good deal.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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