esker@abaa.uucp (Lawrence Esker) (10/31/89)
In article <4365@abaa.UUCP> I wrote: <>>My point! C= still does not have a big enough dealer network to expect Mr. <>>Joe or Mz. Jane Ordinary to see an ad and know were to get more information. <>>Commodore should have a 24 hour HotLine set up at least till christmas were <>>anyone can call and get the name, address, and phone numbers of the nearest <>>dealers. The phone number of this hotline should be in big bold numbers at <>>the end of every TV ad and in every print ad. When I first got my A1000 in 1985, it was from a store a long distance away. I had an impossible time finding a closer dealer for software. When I moved, the whole painful experience of finding a dealer repeated itself. I just don't think anyone will go through this experience just because they saw pretty ads on the TV. They need help, like the phone number mentioned in followup messages. Maybe Rick Unland can help here since he has had some involvement with the TV ad productions. <In article <1891@jolnet.ORPK.IL.US> Joel Swan writes: <>I don't know if it is a special 24hour Hotline, but 3 of the 7 ad pages in <>Time magazine include "Why not give us a call at 800-627-9595." In article <73.filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us> filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us (Bela Lubkin) writes: <Reading the above, I picked up the phone and called the 800 number. This was <at 3:30AM Pacific time, or 6:30AM Eastern, on Saturday morning. The call was <answered promptly by a pleasant lady who offered to send me brochures on the <A500, A2000 or both. < She then named the 4 nearest dealers, 3 of which were definitely <correct; the 4th may have been farther away than HT Electronics in Sunnyvale, <but I'm not sure. I did not make any attempt to ask her any questions about <the products themselves. <All in all, I would rate it an above-average "800" product information line. Now that is what I call a 24 hour hotline. Bela actually received an answer at 6:30 AM on Saturday. This is what I requested in my original post. Now all we need is for the phone number to be displayed under the Commodore Amiga final frame of the TV ads. Bela, please tell us more about the product information you receive. -- ---------- Lawrence W. Esker ---------- Modern Amish: Thou shalt not need any computer that is not IBM compatible. UseNet Path: __!mailrus!sharkey!itivax!abaa!esker == esker@abaa.UUCP
unland@cbmvax.UUCP (Rick Unland - Regional Support) (11/02/89)
In article <4460@abaa.UUCP> esker@abaa.UUCP (Lawrence Esker) writes:
$In article <4365@abaa.UUCP> I wrote:
$When I first got my A1000 in 1985, it was from a store a long distance away.
$I had an impossible time finding a closer dealer for software. When I moved,
$the whole painful experience of finding a dealer repeated itself. I just
$don't think anyone will go through this experience just because they saw
$pretty ads on the TV. They need help, like the phone number mentioned in
$followup messages. Maybe Rick Unland can help here since he has had some
$involvement with the TV ad productions.
$
$<All in all, I would rate it an above-average "800" product information line.
$
$Now that is what I call a 24 hour hotline. Bela actually received an answer
$at 6:30 AM on Saturday. This is what I requested in my original post. Now
$all we need is for the phone number to be displayed under the Commodore Amiga
$final frame of the TV ads.
$
$---------- Lawrence W. Esker ---------- Modern Amish: Thou shalt not need any
$ computer that is not IBM compatible.
$UseNet Path: __!mailrus!sharkey!itivax!abaa!esker == esker@abaa.UUCP
Well the 800 number is on the adds as of the 28th when I saw the AD on KNBC
and the the 800 number came up right under the C= as it should. All in all
the 800 number I called was extremely responsive and the information is correct.
As for my part in the AD's I was in charge of Technical for the shoots, All the
Amigas were remote controlled by me and the animations were done by others. I
was also incharge of the video part of the shoots and the synching of the Amiga
to the film camera's. I was also responsible for the post production work done
on the "Girl Next Door" sequence. The overlay of graphics was done real time
and bumped to 1 inch where we did all the editing. I had no responsibilty for
creative or content control, this was the baliwick of the AD agency. They are
the ones who put the 800 number on the commercials.
Rick Unland
--
******* Rick Unland Commodore Business Machines ****************************
* Usenet: uunet!cbmvax!unland ARPA: cbmvax!unland!@uunet.UU.NET *
* These opinions are my Own! Not my employers, unless so stated! *
* "I thought they said the Commodore could stand up to anything!" *
*********************************************** Earth Girls Are Easy! **********filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us (Bela Lubkin) (11/03/89)
In article <1891@jolnet.ORPK.IL.US> Joel Swan writes: [Hotline: 800-627-9595] In article <73.filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us> I write: >Reading the above, I picked up the phone and called the 800 number. [...] >She then named the 4 nearest dealers. [...] All in all, I would rate it >an above-average "800" product information line. In article <4460@abaa.UUCP> Lawrence Esker writes: >Now that is what I call a 24 hour hotline. Bela actually received an answer >at 6:30 AM on Saturday. [...] Bela, please tell us more about the product >information you receive. Well, I haven't gotten anything in the mail yet, but I did receive a phone call yesterday from the closest dealer. It went something along the lines of: "Hi, this is Rudy from The Computer Room in Scotts Valley. You called Commodore about the Amiga computer. Would you like to come in for a demo?" "Hi, Rudy... I've been in there before, you should remember me. I already have an Amiga; I really only called the hotline to check up on how well Commodore was doing it. They seem to be doing it very well." "Oh" If they're really generating a demo/sales call from every hotline call, this whole thing could REALLY work well. On a related note, I was in Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale earlier this week. There were 3 Amigas on display (A500, A2000, A2500). All three were running WorkBench and nothing else. The nearby Macs and PC clones were running slide shows and other demos. On each machine, I opened the hard disk and looked for a demo; each had only one easily located demo, so I left those running: the Space Ace demo on the 500, DigiPaint III with "Fashion" loaded on the 2000, "Walker" (? -- the animation of the Empire Strikes Back walking tanks) on the 2500. After adjusting the sounds to a level that I thought would be noticable in front of the machines, but wouldn't annoy the hell out of the salespeople, I stood back and watched for a while. The effect was striking: where people had just been walking by, earlier, now they were stopping to watch for a while. One couple with a 6- or 7-year-old boy started discussing it and sounded like they were going to buy an A500. So: any time you see an Amiga sitting in the store running WorkBench, or, worse, looking for something to boot, do something about it. Even if there's only one demo around, get it running. No machine is particularly impressive sitting at a DOS prompt -- or a WorkBench screen. Bela Lubkin * * // filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us CompuServe: 73047,1112 @ * * // ....ucbvax!ucscc!gorn!filbo ^^^-VERY slow [months] R Pentomino * \X/ Filbo @ Pyrzqxgl +408-476-4633 & XBBS +408-476-4945
swarren@eugene.uucp (Steve Warren) (11/04/89)
In article <75.filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us> filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us (Bela Lubkin) writes: >Well, I haven't gotten anything in the mail yet, but I did receive a phone >call yesterday from the closest dealer. It went something along the lines >of: > "Hi, this is Rudy from The Computer Room in Scotts Valley. You called > Commodore about the Amiga computer. Would you like to come in for a > demo?" > "Hi, Rudy... I've been in there before, you should remember me. I already > have an Amiga; I really only called the hotline to check up on how well > Commodore was doing it. They seem to be doing it very well." > "Oh" > >If they're really generating a demo/sales call from every hotline call, this >whole thing could REALLY work well. That is good to hear. But don't everyone go out and call the hotline unless you really want info on the product. My Dad was in sales, and he had to *buy* "hot leads" like this (it's only fair, that way the beneficiary gets to share in the expense of collecting the lead). I don't know how Commodore runs their lead program, but if they do it like most sales organizations your bogus call will cost a dealer 5 or 10 dollars. That could disillusion a lot of dealers. --Steve ------------------------------------------------------------------------- {uunet,sun}!convex!swarren; swarren@convex.COM
detert@lognet2.af.mil (CMS David K. Detert) (11/09/89)
Subject: Re: Dealer location hotline (Was: Amiga Ads) Bela Lubkin summarized some of the 800 line success stories and added the following: >So: any time you see an Amiga sitting in the store running WorkBench, or, >worse, looking for something to boot, do something about it. Even if there's >only one demo around, get it running. No machine is particularly impressive >sitting at a DOS prompt -- or a WorkBench screen. Well, I have a better idea. Why, oh why, doesn't Commodore select a demo, ANY demo, package it on a separate WorkBench disk and ENCOURAGE all dealers to BOOT WITH THE D*MNED THING. I too am sick and tired of seeing the good old workbench hand saying -- I don't know how to do anything else, please help! Just think of how many Amigas would be up and running something if all the dealer had to do is put in a DEMO disk provided by Commodore. And, just think of how many Amigas could be sitting under the Christmas tree come Christmas morning running an impressive demo. Zow! Sounds like sales to me. CMSgt David K Detert, USAF MILNet: detert@lognet2.af.mil
msiskin@shogun.us.cc.umich.edu (Marc Siskin) (11/10/89)
Commodore has a demo disk at their authorized dealers that is an interactive
bootable demo with MANY drawings by Jin Sachs showing off the various things
the amiga can do. It runs by itself or the viewer can select options to get
more information about specific features.
If your dealer doesn't have this disk by now have them call their C= Rep
ASAP!
Marc Siskin
Msiskin@shogun.us.cc.umich.edukrag@cup.portal.com (Kevin Ray Grotjohn) (11/11/89)
Therre is such a demo that I've seen in Bay Area Stores. And it's not bad. But if someone walks off with the disk, it reverts back to the blue screen with a requester -"You must insert Dealer Demo in Unit 0!". Also I observed people watching the demo. The demo is floppy based with music, it puts up a "please wait information loading" screen between anim and musical segments. Every person I saw left when that came up, it's too long of a wait to hold someones interest, gives the impression of a slow screen. I assume this came from Commodore. Why can't they provide a self booting, locked A590 and A500 with a rotating demo to each store? krag@cup.portal.com
hrlaser@sactoh0.UUCP (Harv R. Laser) (11/13/89)
In article <23912@cup.portal.com>, krag@cup.portal.com (Kevin Ray Grotjohn) writes: > Therre is such a demo that I've seen in Bay Area Stores. And it's not bad. > But if someone walks off with the disk, it reverts back to the blue screen > with a requester -"You must insert Dealer Demo in Unit 0!". Also I > observed people watching the demo. The demo is floppy based with music, > it puts up a "please wait information loading" screen between anim and > musical segments. Every person I saw left when that came up, it's too long > of a wait to hold someones interest, gives the impression of a slow screen. > > I assume this came from Commodore. Why can't they provide a self booting, > locked A590 and A500 with a rotating demo to each store? > > krag@cup.portal.com That new dealer demo disk comes with two IconX'd scripts on it... one will install the entire demo on a hard drive. The other will install it on the autoboot BOOT: partition of a Commodore-supplied hard drive so that all the salesoid has to do is to power up the machine, the hard drive boots, and the demo is automatically loaded and run. For a dealer with a buncha demo machines it shouldn't be a big deal to simply dedicate one of them to the demo and let it run continuously all day. For a dealer with only one or two demo machines, the autoboot on powerup script might not be such a good idea 'cuz to use the machine for something else he'd have to reboot (to get outta the demo) and then make sure he control-D'd fast enough to keep the demo from autobooting again. In that case he could use the other IconX'd installer to just move the demo disk to the hard drive without making it autobooting. Regarding the lack of information on the demo's "more information if you press this key" screens... I talked to the guy who made the demo and he said he was pretty much left to his own devices as to the wording to use on those information screens. And the other poster (B. Kesseler, I think) was right about that... there's nota whole lotta information there. Then again if you already own an Amiga and know what it can do you already know everything the demo is going to show & tell you anyway, so it won't seem like much. The demo is, I think, more geared to showing off to someone who walks into a store and has NO idea what an Amiga can do, some real basic information about the machine's basic features. In an ideal world, after watching the demo, a potential customer would then find a salesperson and say something like "Hey, I watched that demo.. can you show/tell me more about [insert specific area of interest here]" -- Harv Laser | SAC-UNIX, Sacramento, Ca. People/Link: CBM*HARV | UUCP=...pacbell!sactoh0!hrlaser