ken@amdahl.UUCP (Ken Abrams) (02/22/86)
I've sent my response to the inquiry about Northeastern Software
already (I've had three good experiences, one bad). However, I
figured that I'd try getting ahold of someone there and ask about
the problems (and mention that they are rapidly gaining notoriety
among the computer knowledgable. After around of month of trying
to get ahold of anyone there through ANY line (grrr....), I finally
got ahold of Rich Grabowski, the president of Northeastern.
First, many apologies were given for the following: being told that
a product was in stock when it has been sold to someone else (the
problem I encountered); not having enough in stock; not being able
to get through the lines to complain (another problem I encountered);
and finally, the $34.50 PageMaker fiasco.
Here are his responses:
First the PageMaker problem... It was advertised for $34.50 when
the actual price was $345.00. This sure sounds like a misplaced
decimal point to me, and it happened after the 1000-line list of
prices was sent to an advertising firm. They will attempt to be
more diligent in the future (I ain't too worried about this. Anyone
who knows anything about Pagemaker should have at least noticed the
order of magnitude difference!).
They are moving into a new building in two weeks (today is 2/21/86).
Now Future
square footage 3000 21000
number of phone lines 22 40 (will be 60)
cust service personnel 0 5
In addition, they will have "real-time" inventory from their old
style of updating their inventory each morning. They no longer
charge you when the item is ordered, but upon shipment (impressive!).
They will also have more (I'm not sure how many) 800 numbers in addition
to having more lines so that there will be fewer busy signals.
I asked him what those really P*SSED OFF people should do. He said try
both 800 numbers ((800) 382-2242 & (800) 874-1108), and if you still
can't get through, try (203) 375-4296. This is an unadvertised number
of their storefront. If that still fails, he says that THEY WILL
ANSWER ALL MAIL.
Well, he did seem concerned with the number of letters going around
the networks (I didn't have the exact number, and I haven't seen the
results of the poll). My reaction: I certainly won't order anything
from them for at least a month (2 weeks and another 2 weeks to settle
in). After that point, it's unclear. I've lost more in time over the
last order than I've saved in the first three combined. There are
definate advantages to being able to drive over to the store and
wait for the manager to show up....
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Why mourn that a rose bush has thorns instead of
rejoicing that thorn bushes have roses?
-- Found on the bathroom wall of a classy expresso joint.
Ken Abrams
...{dragon,hplabs,ihnp4,nsc}!amdahl!ken
The opinions expressed herein are not those of Amdahl,
Chapeau Software Services, or the author.
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Why mourn that a rose bush has thorns instead of
rejoicing that thorn bushes have roses?
-- Found on the bathroom wall of a classy expresso joint.
Ken Abrams
...{dragon,hplabs,ihnp4,nsc}!amdahl!ken
The opinions expressed herein are not those of Amdahl,
Chapeau Software Services, or the author ;-) .nathan@orstcs.UUCP (nathan) (02/25/86)
This message is empty.