rachamp@mbunix.mitre.org (Richard A. Champeaux) (08/04/89)
Some of you might remember my post last March about my dealings with Montgomery Grant. Well, I came across their ad in the September Amiga World and was outraged by the following statement they made: "-CUSTOMER BEWARE- Many of our competitors, unable to match our discount prices, quality, service & support, are telling our customers that we sell used or refurbished merchandise. They are also saying that our products do not come with a COMMODORE AMIGA U.S.A Warranty. DON'T BE FOOLED! MONTGOMERY GRANT sells only brand new, factory fresh merchandise complete with Commodore USA warranty that can be serviced coast-to-coast thru hundreds of authorized Commodore Amiga service centers. Buy with confidence from an established dealer like ourselves with over 21 years of experience. " Hah! I'm not one of their competitors, but I'm sure as hell saying that they shipped me a "used or refurbished" Amiga 2000. First of all, against my better judgement, I decided to mail order a 2000 because I was a college student without a car, going to a college in the middle of farm country. I'm not aware of any Amiga dealers near my school. I first started calling the dealers I had dealt with before and kind of trusted, but since they all told me that they didn't have any 2000s in stock, I went page by page through my Amiga World looking for a dealer who had one. The only place I found that actually had one and was asking less than $1700, was Montgomery Grant. They're truthfull about one thing, they advertise great prices. Their ad listed the Amiga 2000 at only $1399. Only problem is that's the price with out shipping. To ship it UPS ground, they wanted $160, for UPS 2nd Day Air, they wanted $200. Since it still came out to be about what everyone else was selling them for, and since they did have one, I figured sure, what the hell, and bought one. By the way, sending it back UPS ground cost me less than $10, and that was with $1500 dollars worth of insurance. The computer they sent me was obviously used. It was shipped with the Amiga box inside another one, but the Amiga box was beat up and had shipping labels cut off it. The serial number on the box didn't match the serial number on the computer. The box said it came with Workbench 1.3, but the computer had 1.2. The bottom of the 2000 was noticably bent, making it rock back and forth on the table. The fan was very dirty. The drive didn't work, it got RW errors on every disk I tried to boot off of. Every one of those disks worked fine in both my 1000, and a friend's 1000. The mouse that came with it was obviously used. The feet were worn, the cable was dirty, the ball was dirty, and the rollers were dirty. Worse than that, it was an Amiga 500 mouse. Amiga 500 mice have much bigger connectors that don't fit through the hole in the 2000's case. I called their customer service line, told them that I was not aware that I would be getting a used and broken computer, and demanded my money back. The guy I talked to, who claimed he was an assistant manager of the customer service department and would soon be the manager, seemed genuinely surprised that I received a used computer an promised to send my a factory sealed one. I eventually agreed, and after sending the first one back, received another computer. This one appeared to be factory sealed and I've had no problems with it. Several people sent me mail saying how they had similar problems with Montgomery Grant. One woman, a walk-in customer, said all three of the 1080 monitors she bought from them didn't work and that they all appeared to be used. She was able to buck their no refund policy and get her money back. After my post, somebody mentioned that Montgomery Grant no longer was an authorized Commodore Amiga dealer, and that was confirmed by someone from Commodore (although he was probably not officially representing Commodore). "How do they get their Amigas?", you might wonder. Well, after mentioning the problem I had to a local dealer, he told me that Montgomery Grant had called them, asking to buy some Amigas. This dealer said he refused to sell them any. He also said he figures that they just go down the list of authorized dealers, looking for Amigas to buy. If you ever consider buying from Montgomery Grant, I advise you to carefully read their statement, but only the part that says "CUSTOMER BEWARE". Rich Champeaux (rachamp@mbunix.mitre.org)
limonce@pilot.njin.net (Tom Limoncelli) (08/07/89)
What do you expect from a gray-market dealer? If they leave you out
in the cold after the sale, why do they need to be honest with you
when you are making the decision to shop there at all?
-Tom
--
Tom Limoncelli -- tlimonce@drunivac.Bitnet -- limonce@pilot.njin.net
Drew University -- Box 1060, Madison, NJ -- 201-408-5389
Standard Disclaimer: I am not the mouth-piece of Drew Universitysrp@modcomp.UUCP (Steve Pietrowicz) (08/07/89)
in article <62434@linus.UUCP>, rachamp@mbunix.mitre.org (Richard A. Champeaux) says: > > > If you ever consider buying from Montgomery Grant, I advise you to carefully > read their statement, but only the part that says "CUSTOMER BEWARE". > > Rich Champeaux (rachamp@mbunix.mitre.org) A Commodore rep on CompuServe recently posted a notice that Montgomery Grant's grey market supplier of systems has been found, and is no longer a Commodore dealer. Commodore sent out a letter to every dealer stating their policies against grey marketing, and that a dealer caught dealing like that would no longer be a CBM dealer. Unfortunately, Montgomery Grant also sent out a letter to a bunch of dealers looking for a new source.... -- Stephen R. Pietrowicz UUCP: ...!uunet!modcomp!srp CIS: 73047,2313
kelso@mimsy.UUCP (Stephen Kelley) (08/07/89)
The summary says it all... I used a friends VISA (w/ her permission of course (;-}) & they called her 4 or 5 times both at work & at home "to make sure" it was legal. I'm all for verification of VISA etc. but this seemed like paranoid behavior. Also, their shipping fees are outrageous. 3% for shipping or 6% for 2nd day air. For that price ($200 for a 2500) I could fly to NYC, take a cab etc, even at NY prices. Then they wanted me to buy an *extended* service contract, now I can see why, extended == >0 days. I consider myself *quite* fortunate (after reading the "grey" postings) to have gotten a "new" & working machine. I hope I don't have to have any warranty work done. Lastly, the sales rep. was pushy & obnoxious. -- Real: Stephen Kelley, Welch Library, Johns Hopkins Univ. Internet: stevek@welch.jhu.edu
doug@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (douglas.sulpy) (08/07/89)
> in article <62434@linus.UUCP>, rachamp@mbunix.mitre.org (Richard A. Champeaux) says: > > > > > > If you ever consider buying from Montgomery Grant, I advise you to carefully > > read their statement, but only the part that says "CUSTOMER BEWARE". > > > > Rich Champeaux (rachamp@mbunix.mitre.org) Rich, May I suggest you take a moment and send a copy of your original posting to Amiga World? Obviously, the magazine has a right to refuse advertising space to disreputable dealers, and I'd hope your story would make them see the error of their ways and terminate any future ads from MG. This might save others from falling into the same trap you did. (Net: Sorry to waste space. E-mail didn't work)
ggibeau@ucqais.uc.edu (George Gibeau) (08/09/89)
In article <62434@linus.UUCP>, rachamp@mbunix.mitre.org (Richard A. Champeaux) writes: > Some of you might remember my post last March about my dealings with > Montgomery Grant. Well, I came across their ad in the September Amiga > World and was outraged by the following statement they made: > > "-CUSTOMER BEWARE- Many of our competitors, unable to match our discount > prices, quality, service & support, are telling our customers that we sell > used or refurbished merchandise. They are also saying that our products do > not come with a COMMODORE AMIGA U.S.A Warranty. DON'T BE FOOLED! MONTGOMERY > GRANT sells only brand new, factory fresh merchandise complete with Commodore > If you ever consider buying from Montgomery Grant, I advise you to carefully > read their statement, but only the part that says "CUSTOMER BEWARE". > > Rich Champeaux (rachamp@mbunix.mitre.org) Beware indeed. Not only do you run the risk of getting a less than new and running machine, but if it does break, your local dealer has probable received a letter from Commodore stating that they are NOT to service any computers that were purchased from Montgomery Grant. Had a friend have his go belly up, and he had to pay to get it fixed, but it was worth it not to have to deal with those morons in New York again. I have heard nothing but critiscism from folks I know who have been lulled by the low prices, without giving any thought to after-the-sale service. Sure the price may be a bit lower, but when you get a piece of junk or the machine drops dead, who do you go yell at? A voice on the phone?? Right! :-). Regards, George -- During the last year, more people have seen Elvis than have seen Amiga ads, BUT - this is changing for the better ;-) ;-) ;-) UUCP: ucqais.uc.edu!ggibeau BBS: (513) 721-7977 GT NODE: 006/005 US Snail-Dept of Biology ML 06, University of Cincinnati, Ohio 45221
ins_amme@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Marc Egazarian) (08/10/89)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Montgomery Grant - "CUSTOMER BEWARE"
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I bought my A500 in mid may from MG's walk in store in Penn Station.
The price was good, although I got suckered into a 1084SD for a
slightly higher price (I was feeling very gentile that day). I have
had no definite problems with the unit, although I sometimes wonder
about the disk drive. It sometimes gives me problems with games with
very tight security systems. I've gone through three copies of
Accolade's The Duel, all of them working about two days intensively,
and then giving up. If I felt it worth dragging the 500 200 miles
back to New York just to argue with those morons (phew, just narrowly
avoided a racial slur), I would, but 90% of my disk have worked
flawlessly, so I don't bother. As near as I could tell, the package
was new and unopened, and I am fairly sure the 1.3 roms are installed
(I haven't ripped it open to check for fear of warrenty problems.
Last monday (the 31st), I called Computability in Winsconsin to order
a Master 3A drive on my MC. It cost me $135 including shipping, and
arrived last saturday here in Baltimore. It looked factory sealed and
is working flawlessly to date. BTW, I am a broke college student and
plan on upgrading to 1 meg no later than December.
--Marc
INS_AMME@JHUNIX
JOSEPH@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (08/10/89)
In article <1770@ucqais.uc.edu>, ggibeau@ucqais.uc.edu (George Gibeau) writes: > In article <62434@linus.UUCP>, rachamp@mbunix.mitre.org (Richard A. Champeaux) writes: > Beware indeed. Not only do you run the risk of getting a less than > new and running machine, but if it does break, your local dealer has > probable received a letter from Commodore stating that they are NOT > to service any computers that were purchased from Montgomery Grant. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Great! If they are not authorized to sell AMIGAs how come they run full page ads in COMMODORE magazine? Rather than taxing the customers why not solve the problem at the source? Since every machine comes with a serial number, tracking can't be difficult. Tomi