rchampe@hubcap.UUCP (Richard Champeaux) (02/19/89)
This is part one of the story of how a mail order house by the name
of Montgomery Grant, pissed me off.
Although I generally don't like ordering hardware mail order, I
decided to mail order an Amiga 2000 because I'm a college student in the
middle of nowhere with no transportation. I started calling places that
looked big enough to trustworthy, but everyone I called either didn't have
one but had great prices, or had plenty of them but wanted an arm and a leg
for one. I eventually went through my AmigaWorld calling everyone I came
across until I got to Montgomery Grant. Not only did they have one, but
they only wanted $1399. They had a full page, multicolored ad, so I said
"what the hell" and ordered one. Well for shipping and handling, they
wanted $139 for UPS ground, and $200 for UPS 2nd day air. This seemed
outrageously high to me, but since it still came out less than what everyone
else was selling one for, I aggreed. Also, since when I buy something,
I get impatient and want it NOW, not a week from now, I had them send it
2nd day air.
This is what I got: The Amiga 2000 box was mailed inside another
box, but, there were spots where labels had been cut off the top, probably
shipping labels. The box had obviously been opened. Inside, the manuals
were still wrapped, maybe rewrapped, but that was the only thing that appeared
new. The mouse was obviously used; the pads were slightly worn, the cable
was dirty, the ball was dirty, and the rollers inside the mouse were dirty.
Not only that, but the mouse is appearently an Amiga 500 mouse. The connector
looks like the connector on an Amiga 1000 mouse without the right angle.
The problem with this is that connector is too big to fit through the hole
on the front of the 2000. It won't even get close to the socket which is
recessed inside the case. I have a friend with a 2000, and the connectors
do not even look simmilar.
The 2000 came with kickstart 1.2, which was dissappointing, because I
thought that they were being shipped with 1.3, in fact other mail order houses
were advertising that, also I wanted to be able to autoboot the hard disk
I ordered from someone else. Looking on the box, I found a sticker saying
it had kickstart 1.3. Looking closer at both the box and the unit, I
discover that the serial number on the box dosen't match the one on the
unit. Looking closer at the unit, I notice the fan is very dusty, dust that
takes many hours, possibly days of running to collect. The bottom of the
frame was noticably bent, making it rock back and forth on the table.
I connected my monitor to it and turned it on and find that it gets many
read/write errors while booting, although it can read the disk some of time,
because if you cancel the requesters with AMIGA-B you eventually get to a
prompt and can do things like directories, well, at least some of the time.
It's not the disk I used because I tried the workbench 1.2 that came with it,
the workbench 1.3 that I bought for my 1000, and a copy of that disk. All
of these work fine on my 1000 but not on the 2000. Of course, this is no
suprise, since they neglected to put the cardboard insert into the drive to
protect the head. I imagine that the head got knocked out of alignment.
In my opinion, they sent me either a floor model, or a warrenty return.
This pisses me off because they did not tell me this in their ad or on the
phone, and I'm not sure they're allowed to sell a used computer as a new one
without informing the buyer. Regardless, its going back because it doesn't
work. This really pisses me off because like I said, I'm impatient, when I get
the idea to buy something, I want it NOW! If I have them send me a new one,
I'm going to have to wait several days for them to send a return slip for it,
4 to 7 days for it to get to them, several days for them to piddle around,
and another 4 to 7 days for the new one to come. And how do I know they
won't send me a used one again?
I can't call them until monday, and between now and then, I'm going to
ask around about my rights. I know I can make them replace it, but what
I'm considering telling them that to take back their computer and that I'm
going to cancel my visa bill. Several people have told me to try
Computer Direct. I would have called them but they didn't advertise in
AmigaWorld. I just found their ad today in Computer Shopper.
Although it won't make much of a difference, I'm going to vent my anger
by sending a letter relating my story to AmigaWorld, Commodore, and any
other magazine I happen to see their ad in. Yes, I know, I could be over
reacting a little, but I'm not a happy person.
Rich Champeaux
Clemson Universitypoirier@giants.dg.com (Charles Poirier) (02/23/89)
In article <4484@hubcap.UUCP> rchampe@hubcap.UUCP (Richard Champeaux) writes: > > This is part one of the story of how a mail order house by the name >of Montgomery Grant, pissed me off. [Tale of woe, deleted.] Don't get mad, get even. Selling used equipment as new sounds to me like fraud. Advertising a low, low price and then charging $139 as "shipping and handling" via UPS ground sounds like more fraud. Get some legal help, and press charges. Keep whatever they shipped you for evidence. Charles Poirier