hodad@ut-emx.UUCP (Will Fiveash) (10/31/88)
[] In <article 20583@emx> (Donald A Kassebaum writes) > The Amiga 1000s were given to UT by Commodore/Amiga not Byte by Byte. Well, the people at the micro lab told me that the Byte by Byte people delivered the computers there. The point here is that the Amigas have languished under an attitude of apathy and neglect. Why the apathy and neglect? Maybe a more comprehensive and coordinated advertising campaign that includes dealer participation in ad placement might help? Why not update the 1000s that are there to 2000s with a decent size hard disk and put some usefull applications on them. BTW, This lab I speak of is brimming with Mac SEs, has a couple of Mac IIs, and several PS/2 model 50s. Most of the people that go in there use the wordprocessing programs available in the lab so why not have some Amigas in there with that and more so these potential buyers can see what they are missing? > There is another store in town that sell Amigas, ever hear of > AB Computers. Yes, but being worse than a non-entity they have aquired a reputation for unethical customer treatment. They tried to sell a friend of mine (Bob Sheldon - he wanted me to mention his name) a broken 500 out of the box as a new one. They sold another person an external drive that was broken and when he went back to the store they told him that it would have to be sent back to the factory instead of either giving him a new unit or his money back. I do agree with many of the other points your raise Don! Will Fiveash, "It takes a Meg to play, it takes a Guru to cry."
andre@gtss.UUCP (Andre Frech) (11/12/88)
In article <7392@ut-emx.UUCP>, hodad@ut-emx.UUCP (William Fiveash) writes: > [The big flambe'] Sigh. must you flame? It's so unbecoming of you. :-> > It may be the future is so bright for Commodore that the shades > (blinders) their dealer support dept. wear have obscured their ability > to see the sad shape some of the Amiga dealerships are in. I heard that. :-* It may also be that the users who wish not to research their facts first have obscured their ability to see the hard work some of the Amiga District Managers have put in. Give our team a chance. Some background info is that your area has just gotten stabilized and a district sales manager (Kyle McCoy in Houston) is trying her best. Give her a chance, she's only been with us for a month. You guys (and gals) must have scared off the other two. :-) [paraphrasing here about Byte by Byte, Computer Magic and others miscarrying the Amiga line... (sorry, went wild with the d key by accident)] I was not aware that there were any authorized Amiga dealers in Austin except for AB Computers. I will have to check my records about that one, which is why I'm not being absolutist. However, you failed to mention them completely in your article. Another alternative as to why we haven't heard about them is that they may be grey market. In that case, email me and we'll take it from there. In these cases support suffers and we get a bad name and headaches. > My belabored point is this; why is it that in a town with one of > the highest rated university computer science departments (UT) and some > of the most successful (Amigawise) commercial developers (ByteByByte, New > Horizons) the Amiga dealerships are in such bad shape???? I have been > using Amigas since '85 and not once have I seen the bridgeboard or a > setup with an 68020 accelerator board demo'ed anywhere in Austin and I am > an enthusiast. You can well imagine from the above descriptions that no > potential Amiga buyers have seen 1/100th of the computer's capability > much less the eye popping performance a fully loaded 2000 can have. > Hell, why not let Target or K-Mart sell the machines; they couldn't do > the Amiga's reputation any harm here. Several points here: You are correct in stating that the shape of dealers in your area could be better. I didn't say it was hopeless, but many of the efforts we make don't get reported to you. For quite a while your area had no one managing it, and entropy took its toll. We need feedback, but none of the "I heard" or "This has been untolerable for twenty centuries but I'm just now getting around to talking about it" and the ambiguous stuff. Please air your problems in a constructive manner, since flames are more heat than light. Lastly, if you know of a good dealer candidate in your area, let me know (see .signature). Commodore Sales is only as good as its dealers; but we don't do direct sales so we can't create dealers. Best results are via email, with a return path. Next, why should it be completely the dealer's fault if nothing is done to demo the systems? Don't you have a users' group? I would think that Byte by Byte could maybe spare a 68020 demo. Try doing something for yourself once in a while, you'll be surprised what it will get you. Some dealers consider it their job to be boxmovers, like in the MS-DOS world. Demoing software and hardware that costs thousands in tied up inventory is often not appealing when your net worth is often less. Those not committed consider demos to those who won't buy as beyond the call of duty. Not everyone is like you and me. (You and I? Me and them? Oh, darn.) > BTW, there used to be a couple of 1000s in the UT micro lab that > were donated by ByteByByte. One broke, never to be replaced, and the other > sits in a dark corner with the power off pretending it's broken. I don't understand what it is that you want here. I once remember a college I went to had a roomful of donated Apollo minis that went unused; and I had the run of a several gigabyte network since I realized its potential. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them think. Please understand. The CATS and hardware team get a lot of visibility on here so you know they are fiercely proud of their product. It is no different here, except most salespeople don't know how to use a network, let alone write. :-) So let us know what's on your mind, but exercise knowledge, patience, and consideration. Not rumors, flames, and verbal attacks. Mail me directly or call so that you get specific attention. On a lighter note, are any of you going to Comdex/Lost Wages? If so, drop by and say hello. I'm be manning (boothing) the PC area. Can you say Commodore Hell? :-) -- WHO: Andre Frech, Commodore Southeast (guest of house of gtss) HOW: (uucp) {uunet|ihnp4|allegra|burdvax|rutgers}\--cbmvax!andre NOW: (inet) andre@ss.physics.gatech.edu \-!gatech!gtss!andre COW: (mci) 369-3801 OR: 404-587-3883
dan@ivucsb.UUCP (Dan Howell) (11/13/88)
In article <7392@ut-emx.UUCP> hodad@ut-emx.UUCP (William Fiveash) writes: | It may be the future is so bright for Commodore that the shades |(blinders) their dealer support dept. wear have obscured their ability |to see the sad shape some of the Amiga dealerships are in. | | Here in Austin, the first store to sell the Amiga was Byte by |Byte (the Sculpt3D people). This store had a staff of several sales [...] | Another store, Computer Magic started selling the machines. They [...] | Today we have the Byte Shop: 1 Amiga 2000, 1 Amiga 500 for demo You should be so lucky as to even have an Amiga dealership in your town. Here in Santa Barbara all the former Amiga delars have folded or given up on the Amiga. Even B. Dalton Software Etc. doesn't carry Amiga software. The closest Amiga dealer, according to B. Dalton, is 50 miles away and owned by Atari! (The Federated Group in Ventura). I'm also having trouble finding the Enhancer 1.3 package, even in L.A. Is there anywhere in Southern California where 1.3 is available? -- Dan Howell <...!pyramid!comdesign!ivucsb!dan> <dan@ivucsb.UUCP> -- The Second Law of Thermodynamics: -- If you think things are a mess now, just wait!
hodad@ut-emx.UUCP (Will (Bitter Pill) Fiveash) (11/23/88)
[] In article <21203@emx>, andre@gtss.UUCP (Andre Frech) writes: >Sigh. must you flame? It's so unbecoming of you. :-> ^^^^^ >I heard that. :-* It may also be that the users who wish not to research ^^^^^^^^ Well I tried early on to be a good Amiga citizen. Initially, I tried writting Commodore about a variety of things and I did not get much response (as in none). Later, when I found out what the customer support line was I called several times to no avail as it was perpetualy busy or else no one was home. :-< It is true that the original post was somewhat emotional but after finding myself on usenet by chance (taking a course that gave me an account on a machine with usenet access) I seized the opportunity to inform someone at CBM that we, the consumers, are being mistreated and the Amiga misrepresented. Is this a bad thing? >I was not aware that there were any authorized Amiga dealers in Austin >except for AB Computers. I will have to check my records about that one, >which is why I'm not being absolutist. However, you failed to mention >them completely in your article. Yes, I admit an oversight due to the fact that AB Computers is somewhat of a non-entity as far as the Amiga goes. The facts are they do not mention the Amiga in their Yellow Pages ad nor have I ever seen them adverise anywhere. And, of the few people I know that have dealt with AB, their experience has been unsatisfactory. >> BTW, there used to be a couple of 1000s in the UT micro lab that >> were donated by ByteByByte. One broke, never to be replaced, and the other >> sits in a dark corner with the power off pretending it's broken. > >I don't understand what it is that you want here. I once remember a college >I went to had a roomful of donated Apollo minis that went unused; and I had >the run of a several gigabyte network since I realized its potential. You >can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them think. If there was at least one 2000 with a harddisk and some utilities like a wordprocessor, graphics package or compiler perhaps there would be some interest. The students that use the Macs and PS/2s in this lab are interested in doing some work on these machines and not in playing around with Workbench. The point was the 1000s do not have any of the above mentioned utilities and they are not representative of the Amiga line anymore. >Please understand. The CATS and hardware team get a lot of visibility on >here so you know they are fiercely proud of their product. It is no I am happy with computer and I am glad that they support this net but most users do not get the benefit of such knowledgable advice elsewhere. I know this is wasted bandwidth to some so I am off this subject. Will Fiveash