24847843%WSUVM1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Shawn Clabough) (01/22/89)
Since I have just started in the Mail order business, I would like to
know what you like in a Mail order shop? This is very important to me,
because when I deal with other places, sometimes they seem to not care
what I want and I would like to change this by finding out what you like
and don't like about the mail order business. Do not think that your
complaint is too small, I want to here it, maybe there are other people
with the same complaint. Thank you.
Shawn Clabough
Lombards Underground Computer Sales
24847843@WSUVM1.BITNETsparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) (01/25/89)
In article <7009@louie.udel.EDU>, 24847843%WSUVM1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Shawn Clabough) writes: > Since I have just started in the Mail order business, I would like to > know what you like in a Mail order shop? This is very important to me, What I want most in a Mail Order Shop: 1> HONESTY: If something is not in stock, please tell me. I **HATE*** being told, 'yes we have that' or 'it's coming in tommorow' and then having to call back in 2 weeks and being told 'it should be here tommorrow' 2> Good Technical Staff: Someone who knows the products he sells, and can answer any technical questions I may have about connecting hardware and such. 3> Keep Things In Stock: If I want to buy 'Fribiwatsit Encounter' I will pay a bit more to get it in a week, rather than getting a lower price but have to wait 6 weeks for it to be backordered. All of the points above have not been followed by Abel Supply. I have dealt with them twice (i decided to give them a second chance) They will tell you that they have something when they don't. I have a friend who bought the Insider who had some trouble getting it working. Abel couldn't help. I ordered Photon Paint from Abel. After being told that it would ship the next day, I was waiting 4 weeks later. I called them and was told that It was on back-order. Total of 6 weeks to get it!!! (Of course all this is just my opinion, some people have had good success with Abel, but then I know more who have had bad luck with them!) _______________________________________________________________________________ John Sparks // Amiga | corpane : sparks@corpane a.k.a \X/ UUCP | blitter : john@blitter (preferred; path below) RedHawk ~~~~~~~~~~~~| {rutgers|uunet}!ukma!corpane!disk!blitter!john D.R.A.G.O.N.| >> call D.I.S.K. @ 502/968-5401 thru -5406 << Ye Quote: Help fight continental drift. _______________________________________________________________________________
cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (01/27/89)
In article <7009@louie.udel.EDU> (Shawn Clabough) writes: >Since I have just started in the Mail order business, I would like to >know what you like in a Mail order shop? Well for one thing we'd like you to _not_ use this newsgroup/bbs/notesfile (or whatever it appears to look like at your end) as an advertising medium. That is strictly forbidden by the terms and conditions underwhich most of the hosts share information on this and other noncommercial networks. That aside, as far as I can tell it is extremely easy to be the best mail order business in the country. All you need to do is : 1) Stock everything - Buy several copies of every program and every piece of hardware that comes out for the Amiga. That way, no matter what you get asked for, you'll have it in stock. This actually saves on advertising too since your add need only say "We've got it in stock, call us at 555-1212" 2) Evaluate everything - Always buy a copy for yourself of everything you get and try it on all possible machine configurations. Then when someone asks "Will it work on a 1000 with the 512K memory hack, a LUCAS board and the CMI Kickstart eliminator?" You'll know right off the bat if it will or not. 3) Price it at 5% over cost. This will guaruntee that you have the lowest prices because everyone else will probably be trying to make more that $1.50 on each software package they sell. 4) Have 27 technically sophisticated amiga enthusiasts standing by 24hrs a day on an 800 number. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to call a mail order shop and either getting a busy or being put on hold. Even worse is to have someone actually answer the phone and then not be able to answer those interesting questions like in #2. 5) Offer a full 100% money back guaruntee for 30days if the customer isn't satisfied for any reason. 6) Honor all manufacturer warranties, so that if anything is warranted and it breaks, you should be able to fix it in under a week. You, of course, will cover all shipping charges to and from the customer. 7) Answer all technical support questions your customers ask such as "Will this work with DPaint brushes?", or "How do I install it on a janus disk?" Well if you haven't guessed *I'm* making a joke. The sad part is that several hundred individuals out there will expect you to do just this, and if you don't you will be flamed to a crisp on BBSes around the country. The point of this posting was to illustrate _why_ there is mail order and why there are dealers. If you do all seven of these things you are nearly guarunteed $100 million dollars in sales per year. Your over head will probably be something like $99,999,999. or worse $100,010,000. So you lose. I'm not trying to discourage you, just let you know what you are in for ... --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
limonce@pilot.njin.net (Tom Limoncelli) (01/27/89)
In article <213@corpane.UUCP> sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) writes: > In article <7009@louie.udel.EDU>, 24847843%WSUVM1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Shawn Clabough) writes: > > Since I have just started in the Mail order business, I would like to > > know what you like in a Mail order shop? This is very important to me, > What I want most in a Mail Order Shop: > [ much deleted ] > 2> Good Technical Staff: Someone who knows the products he sells, and can > answer any technical questions I may have about connecting hardware and > such. Now how much flaming will I get for suggesting "if you want that, why don't you go to a dealer and pay for such 'extras'". Please mail me. If I get enough "no, I won't flame you" responses I'll post such a thing. :-) I differentiate a dealer from a mail-order house by boxes. You see, IMHO(!) a mail order house is a person, with some storage space, and a lot of boxes. He/she can ship you those boxes for a price. He/she isn't going to know much about the boxes (except what's written on the outside). Prices are low because the overhead is the 800-number, the extra room in your apartment that you use for storage, and paying the accountant. (oh, and the money invested in all the product that is waiting to be sold... which is a lot) A dealer on the other hand knows what's in the boxes. Usually a dealer has one of each machine he/she sells set up on the floor. Dedicating a machine to be "for show" takes a certain amount of money (overhead). Having the machines set up implies that a certain amount of demo software is there to be viewed and therefore the dealer has a bit more experience with the wild world of installations. Also, the dealer has a higher rent and also has to pay for all those "for sale" signs, appropriate holiday decorations, and of course, the $$,$$$ dollars that was spent on making the place look nice (carpet and nice furniture as opposed to "the room" and "the living-room, where I put the phone where I have the 800 number installed"). Oh, there's also the overhead of paying more employees than "well, Bob & I just sort of do it out of our place". You see, if you have ONE 800 number, you need ONE employee at a time. Otherwise, you need a minimum of 2-4 workers on the floor to handle the customers (i.e. spend time with them helping them with their problems and selling them solutions). That's expensive. For this overhead, and for the real, actual cost of being technically competant, the customer pays more. I think it is worth it. I'm biased because I have worked for dealers and I've seen what goes on. You're milage may vary. This topic comes up from time to time and I have always wanted to speak my mind but I never got around to it. It makes me sad when I hear "this dealer ripped me off... they all must be horrible" because I know some honest dealers in my area that really try hard. Of course, New Jersey has more computer stores per person than any other state in the U.S. I guess competition can be good. :-) > John Sparks // Amiga | corpane : sparks@corpane -Tom -- Tom Limoncelli -- tlimonce@drunivac.Bitnet -- limonce@pilot.njin.net Drew University -- Madison, NJ -- 201-408-5389 Standard ACM Regional Contest winner! See you at Disclaim the nationals in Louisville, KY on Feb 21-23! er.
elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green) (01/29/89)
in article <Jan.27.01.01.05.1989.24831@pilot.njin.net>, limonce@pilot.njin.net (Tom Limoncelli) says: > In article <213@corpane.UUCP> sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) writes: >> What I want most in a Mail Order Shop: >> [ much deleted ] >> 2> Good Technical Staff: Someone who knows the products he sells, and can >> answer any technical questions I may have about connecting hardware and >> such. > Now how much flaming will I get for suggesting "if you want that, why > don't you go to a dealer and pay for such 'extras'". Please mail me. I have dealt with 4 different Amiga dealers here and in New Orleans. Of the four, only one could tell you anything about the Amiga computer. The rest could tell you lots about PC clones -- but I bought an Amiga, not a PC clone. The problem is that it's impossible to make a living as an Amiga dealer. Most dealers selling Amigas have them only as a sideline. The dealer who is primarily Amiga and sells PC clones as a sideline is a rarity. And of course there ARE people who live in areas without Amiga dealers... althought that's getting rarer nowdays. > I differentiate a dealer from a mail-order house by boxes. You see, > IMHO(!) a mail order house is a person, with some storage space, and a > lot of boxes. He/she can ship you those boxes for a price. He/she > isn't going to know much about the boxes (except what's written on the > outside). Sounds like a recipe for going out of business. Rule 1 of starting a small business: KNOW YOUR MARKET. This means that the retailer must at LEAST know what the computer is, who he's going to sell it to, etc... it would be stupid to advertise programmer's utilities in AmigaVoid, and just as stupid to advertise beginners help books in The Transactor. This can describe many Amiga dealers as well, BTW. Since they are selling Amigas as a sideline, they just have a few boxes of Amigas lying around the place that they're willing to give you in exchange for a few bucks. They don't know exactly what's in those boxes, but that doesn't really matter... the overhead for adding Amiga to your regular trade is fairly minimal, just a matter of moving a few IBM clones over to the side of the storeroom and shoving in a few Amigas instead. > A dealer on the other hand knows what's in the boxes. Usually a Not necessarily (see above). > Dedicating a machine to be "for show" takes a certain amount of money > (overhead). Not much. They got the machine for wholesale price, after all. From all specs I've seen, you need at least $100K, and often 2-3 times that amount, to open up a successful computer store. Using $3K of that for display machines is only the tiniest part of the cost... laying in a stock of software and machines, advertising effectively, and, most of all, salaries for your outside sales staff (the biggest money-maker in a successful computer store) will be the biggest expenses. > Having the machines set up implies that a certain amount > of demo software is there to be viewed In one dealership, there's a few disks of games lying around the Amigas. That's it. No other demos. If you ask to see something else, the salesflak looks dumb (not a difficult task), and says "duh, I dunno how. There's some disks over there, try sticking them in the drive and see if they do something." > dealer has a higher rent and also has to pay for all those "for sale" > signs, appropriate holiday decorations, and of course, the $$,$$$ > dollars that was spent on making the place look nice (carpet and nice > furniture as opposed to "the room" and "the living-room, where I put > the phone where I have the 800 number installed"). None of which have any bearing on technical support.... the best Amiga dealer I've ever found is in a tiny $800/month storefront, the display counters are all hand-made out of surplus stuff from all over, the chairs are metal folding chairs ($10 at K-Mart), and pieces of surplus electronics equipment are lying all over the place... it looks more like a computer graveyard than a computer store (an original 128K Mac, a Franklin Ace, a TI 99/4a, huge linear power supplies that weigh at least 40 pounds, a roll of Belden 50-conductor wire that looks like it was out in the rain for a few years, boxes full of Pet minutiae bought up from a computer store that went under 4-5 years ago.....). It's the only computer store in Southeast Louisiana that knows anything about the Amiga. > Oh, there's also > the overhead of paying more employees than "well, Bob & I just sort of > do it out of our place". Sounds like the above! The owner/technician/manager/whatever greets you at the door, his wife is behind the counter, he has a part-time college student who's paid on a commission basis... of course, specializing in Amigas doesn't bring in so much traffic that you need 5 salesflaks to handle them all, and this area isn't exactly known for its lust for technology.... -- Eric Lee Green ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191 Lafayette, LA 70509 Netter A: In Hell they run VMS. Netter B: No. In Hell, they run MS-DOS. And you only get 256k.
peter@sugar.uu.net (Peter da Silva) (01/30/89)
In article <6955@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>, elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green) writes: > The problem is that it's impossible to make a living as an Amiga > dealer. Most dealers selling Amigas have them only as a sideline. The > dealer who is primarily Amiga and sells PC clones as a sideline is a > rarity. Both of the Amiga dealers in southwest Houston are real Amiga dealers that sell PCs as a sideline. Both support seperate Amiga users groups, run BBSes, and so on. I guess there's something to be said for living in Houston after all. -- Peter "Have you hugged your wolf today" da Silva `-_-' Hackercorp. ...texbell!sugar!peter, or peter@sugar.uu.net 'U`