rokicki@polya.STANFORD.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) (02/27/88)
It has become impossible to get double-sided floppies at any reasonable price! Anyone care to speculate on why? I've tried all the distributors I know about. I need Sony double-sided bulk, and no one has them, and there has been a severe shortage since November of last year. Certain retail outlets have a handful of boxes, but I haven't been able to find any place with more than 200. In case anyone wonders why I need so many floppies, well, my 2000 isn't here yet, so I don't have a hard disk, and I'm working on Metafont. Which as we all know is a large program. :-) Oh, my email address is no longer rocky!rokicki *or* sushi!rokicki; both of these machines are or soon will be retired. Try polya!rokicki for now, until I get a more permanent account elsewhere. -tom
papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) (02/28/88)
In article <2087@polya.STANFORD.EDU> rokicki@polya.STANFORD.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) writes: >It has become impossible to get double-sided floppies at any reasonable >price! Anyone care to speculate on why? I've tried all the distributors >I know about. I need Sony double-sided bulk, and no one has them, and >there has been a severe shortage since November of last year. Certain >retail outlets have a handful of boxes, but I haven't been able to find >any place with more than 200. There is simply a shortage of ds/dd 3 1/2 in. disks. The reason is simple: demand is too high: over one million PS/2s, half a million Amigas, 1.5 million Macs, and an "unspecified" number of Ataris. A recent article in a Silicon Valley magazine reported the problem disk duplicators are having in getting ANY kind of 3 1/2 in. disks (not just SONY). According to the article things are going to get worse until next summer, when the Japanese disk manufactures will finally be able to keep up with demand. We found BOSS disks in LA to be an OK distributor (213-650-0770), though currently it is difficult to get any double-sided 3 1/2 for less than $ 1.50-1.60. Good Luck. -- Marco
thad@cup.portal.com (02/29/88)
Tom, Have you called Best Computer Supplies (in Fremont (they moved from San Jose)) I purchased a case of 400 there several months ago (of SONY DS/DD); only problem was getting the color I wanted (had to settle for light grey)
ericb@athertn.Atherton.COM (Eric Black) (03/02/88)
I have a flyer from a place in Columbus, Ohio, called "MEI/Micro Center",
which advertises 3.5" DS/DD floppies for $.99 each in lots of 50. I called
them, and they declined to reveal the manufacturer, but said that they
are made in the USA, and all orders are guaranteed:
"MEI/Micro Center's UNCONDITIONAL GUARANTEE: Your satisfaction
is unconditionally guaranteed or your money back. If for any
reason you are not completely satisfied with any product purchased
from us, we want you to return it to us for an exchange of the
product or your money back."
I dunno anything about how well they live up to this guarantee, or how
reliable the "US-made" diskettes are, but their toll-free order number
is 1-800-634-3478. I have never ordered from these people, nor do
I know of the experiences of anyone who has. They might be worth a try,
though, especially if you are having real problems finding disks.
--
Eric Black "Garbage in, Gospel out"
Atherton Technology, 1333 Bordeaux Dr., Sunnyvale, CA, 94089
UUCP: {sun!sunncal,decwrl,hpda}!athertn!ericb
Domainist: ericb@Atherton.COMmills-cl@pike.cis.ohio-state.edu (christopher mills) (03/03/88)
In article <166@teak.athertn.Atherton.COM> ericb@Atherton.COM (Eric Black) writes: >I have a flyer from a place in Columbus, Ohio, called "MEI/Micro Center", >which advertises 3.5" DS/DD floppies for $.99 each in lots of 50. I called ... >is 1-800-634-3478. I have never ordered from these people, nor do >I know of the experiences of anyone who has. They might be worth a try, >though, especially if you are having real problems finding disks. Well, I was there just last weekend and they were all out of the $0.99 disks. The dealer said they woulden't have them for a while, and mentioned something about a national shortage of 3.5" floppies. They did have the more expensive name brand ones, though... -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- _____________________ | Christopher Mills. (_)________________ \ | mills-cl@polaris.cis.ohio-state.edu ________________|\ \ | Current Thought: The trouble with good (_)______________\_\ \ | ideas is everyone wants you to do ______________________\ | something with them... (_)____________________| | DISCLAMER: I really wish I could blame | my thoughts on someone else... -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
hsgj@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Dan Green) (03/03/88)
In article <166@teak.athertn.Atherton.COM> ericb@Atherton.COM (Eric Black) writes: >[...] "MEI/Micro Center's UNCONDITIONAL GUARANTEE: Your satisfaction > is unconditionally guaranteed or your money back. If for any > reason you are not completely satisfied with any product purchased > from us, we want you to return it to us for an exchange of the > product or your money back." [...] Never trust these "guarantees". Back in the old days when I had a C-64, I had a Memorex 5.25" floppy go bad on me. Memorex was heavily advertising their guaranteed money back lifetime guarantee should the disk fail. So, saying "what the heck" I called up their number and complained. The scoop was that they would happily send me a new disk provided: (a) I returned the damaged disk in a protective floppy mailer (cost = $1.85). (b) I certified the mailing with the US post office to insure it wouldn't be lost in "processing" (cost = $1.50) (c) They would test the disk for errors. Turn around time would be 6-8 weeks before I could get a new disk. (d) Remember, postage for a floppy mailer is $0.35. So the total cost to replace a worthless $1.00 floppy was going to be $3.70, plus it would take 6-8 weeks to get to me! I have a feeling that if a dealer offers such a guarantee and you attempt to take him up on it, the response will probably be "call the disk company" and then you'll get the same runaround... -- Dan Green -- ARPA: hsgj@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu UUCP: ihnp4!cornell!batcomputer!hsgj BITNET: hsgj@cornella
blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) (03/08/88)
In article <166@teak.athertn.Atherton.COM> ericb@Atherton.COM (Eric Black) writes: >[...] "MEI/Micro Center's UNCONDITIONAL GUARANTEE: Your satisfaction > is unconditionally guaranteed or your money back. If for any > reason you are not completely satisfied with any product purchased > from us, we want you to return it to us for an exchange of the > product or your money back." [...] In my experience, you WILL have the need to exercise the money back guarantee. Several months back I ordered 50 disks from MEI, since then about 20 of them have failed. The failure mode was very strange on some of them too. Some simply failed to format, but others formatted fine. However disks written in one drive would show as DFn:BAD in another drive. This sent me on a wild goose-chase trying to figure out what was wrong with my hardware. It turned out that the hardware was fine (brand name Sony, Fuji, and 3M disks had no problem). My best guess is that the media on the MEI disks (they were BASF by the look of them) was marginal, and couldn't handle small variations between drives like they should have. I don't know how well they support their guarantee since I haven't taken the time to ship them back. -- Blaine Gardner @ Evans & Sutherland 540 Arapeen Drive, SLC, Utah 84108 UUCP Addresses: {ihnp4,ucbvax,allegra,decvax}!decwrl!esunix!blgardne ihnp4!utah-cs!esunix!blgardne usna!esunix!blgardne "Nobody will ever need more than 64K." "Nobody needs multitasking on a PC."
lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu (Gerard Lachac) (03/09/88)
In article <166@teak.athertn.Atherton.COM> ericb@Atherton.COM (Eric Black) writes: >I have a flyer from a place in Columbus, Ohio, called "MEI/Micro Center", >which advertises 3.5" DS/DD floppies for $.99 each in lots of 50. I called >them, and they declined to reveal the manufacturer, but said that they >are made in the USA, and all orders are guaranteed: *WARNING***WARNING***WARNING***WARNING***WARNING***WARNING***WARNING***WARNING Yesterday (March 7) I called MEI to order those nice $.99 disks. After the saleslady took my address, phone number and credit card number, she asked me to place my order. When I told her 100 3.5" DS/DD disks, she said that they have a 6-8 week backorder for THEIR shipment, and a 2-3 week backorder on the people who have order FROM them. That's a nice 2-3 month delay. This isn't really flaming MEI, they got caught in the shortage. But I'll be damned if I am going to wait monthes to get some blank disks at a discount. -- "Truth is false and logic lost..." - Neil Peart (who at the time didn't realize he was talking about RU) lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu <--------OR--------> {seismo|ames}!rutgers!topaz!lachac
flaig@cit-vlsi.Caltech.Edu (Charles M. Flaig) (03/10/88)
In article <18607@topaz.rutgers.edu> lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu.UUCP (Gerard Lachac) writes: [lines deleted] >Yesterday (March 7) I called MEI to order those nice $.99 disks. After the >saleslady took my address, phone number and credit card number, she asked me >to place my order. When I told her 100 3.5" DS/DD disks, she said that they >have a 6-8 week backorder for THEIR shipment, and a 2-3 week backorder on the >people who have order FROM them. That's a nice 2-3 month delay. I ordered a set of these disks 2 weeks ago, and lately received a nice letter stating that they were back-ordered until March 18. I appreciate the fact that they took the time to send me a letter, but it sounds like they may have been stretching the truth somewhat if they are actually back-ordered for 2 months. ______________________________________________________________________________ ___ , , ,;,;;;, / Y /| /| Charles Flaig ;/@-@\; | |/ __, ,__ |/ flaig@csvax.caltech.edu | ^ | | /^\ / | | | / /\ /\ \=/ \____/| \_/|_/\_/ \_/ \_\/_/_/_/ "What, you think they PAY me for this?"
lbrown@apctrc.UUCP (Lawrence H. Brown) (03/10/88)
In article <7621@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> mills-cl@pike.cis.ohio-state.edu (christopher mills) writes:
= Well, I was there just last weekend and they were all out of the $0.99
=disks. The dealer said they woulden't have them for a while, and mentioned
=something about a national shortage of 3.5" floppies.
=
= They did have the more expensive name brand ones, though...
Isn't this the old bait-n-switch routine?
--
Lawrence H. Brown
USENET: ...!uunet!apctrc!cdf!zlhb0a or zlhb0a@cdf.apctrc.uucp (?)
Phone: (918-660-4389) 24 hrs, voice. USmail: 7325 E. 50th, Tulsa, OK 74145
Disclaimer: I paid 25 cents to see the light. Call it cheap entertainment.dave@gtmvax.UUCP (Dave Hanna) (03/10/88)
In article <3922@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, hsgj@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Dan Green) writes: > In article <166@teak.athertn.Atherton.COM> ericb@Atherton.COM (Eric Black) writes: > >[...] "MEI/Micro Center's UNCONDITIONAL GUARANTEE: Your satisfaction > > is unconditionally guaranteed or your money back. [...] > > Never trust these "guarantees". [Recounts costs to have guarantee honored.] Even if they honor the guarantee immediately with no hassle, it's still worthless. The value of the disk is not the disk, but what's on it, and the investment you made in time and effort to get it on there. If your time's worth anything at all, by the time you do a format and disk copy, if nothing else, you've got more invested in the disk than they'll give you back on their "guarantee". Not to mention if you lost your only copy of the source code your were working on. Moral: buy disks you *trust*.
ggibeau@ucqais.uc.edu (George Gibeau) (03/12/88)
> >[...] "MEI/Micro Center's UNCONDITIONAL GUARANTEE: Your satisfaction > > is unconditionally guaranteed or your money back. If for any > > reason you are not completely satisfied with any product purchased > > Never trust these "guarantees". Back in the old days when I had a C-64, > I had a Memorex 5.25" floppy go bad on me. Memorex was heavily advertising > their guaranteed money back lifetime guarantee should the disk fail. So, > saying "what the heck" I called up their number and complained. The > scoop was that they would happily send me a new disk provided: > So the total cost to replace a worthless $1.00 floppy was going to > be $3.70, plus it would take 6-8 weeks to get to me! -- Dan Green We buy disks from Micro-Center all the time for our club. Since they are but a short (2 hour) drive from Cincinnati, it is no problem to take any disks that have gone bad back to them. They have been very good in replacing them, we walk in hand them whatever we have and get new ones in return. It is also nice to be known by the salespeople. Last week they received a shipment of 10,000 DS/DD 3-1/2" disks in and were sold out by the next day. Luckily, the guy we deal with knew we were looking for some so he called me and set aside 1000 of them for us. Went up 2 days later and you should have seen the looks on peoples faces that were coming in to buy disks, only to find out they were out, when we walked out with 2 rather large boxes clearly marked. :-) George Gibeau -- (Define the Universe and give 3 examples.) Idiots? They're worse than idiots. They're bureaucrats!! UUCP: uucba!ucqais!ggibeau BBS: (513) 721-7977 GT NODE: 006/005 US Snail-Dept of Biology ML 06, University of Cincinnati, Ohio 45221
erd@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ethan R. Dicks) (03/12/88)
In article <449@apctrc.UUCP> lbrown@apctrc.UUCP (Lawrence H. Brown) writes: >In article <7621@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> mills-cl@pike.cis.ohio-state.edu (christopher mills) writes: >= Well, I was there just last weekend and they were all out of the $0.99 >=disks. The dealer said they woulden't have them for a while, and mentioned >=something about a national shortage of 3.5" floppies. >= >= They did have the more expensive name brand ones, though... > >Isn't this the old bait-n-switch routine? >-- > Lawrence H. Brown >USENET: ...!uunet!apctrc!cdf!zlhb0a or zlhb0a@cdf.apctrc.uucp (?) >Phone: (918-660-4389) 24 hrs, voice. USmail: 7325 E. 50th, Tulsa, OK 74145 >Disclaimer: I paid 25 cents to see the light. Call it cheap entertainment. No, this is not bait-n-switch. Many months ago (perhaps over a year) They used to have both single-sided and double-sided generics. At one point, they ran out of floor stock and have never caught up with the back orders. Personally, as I mentioned in a previous discussion strand, I use their generic single-sided disks (0.79 Q100) and have few problems. I probably have twice as many disks go bad as if I were using double-sideds, but out of 250+ disks, I have 1 disk which will not format track 40 (Still good for Macintoshes) and 7 disks which need to have the data put back on them (Fish and Amicus disks). I also keep backups of _all_ my working disks, do you? Since over half of my floppies are for archival storage of data which is easily recoverable, I do not think I am taking a risk with single-sided disks. -ethan -- Ethan R. Dicks | ###### This signifies that the poster is a member in Specialized Software| ## good sitting of Inertia House: Bodies at rest. 2101 Iuka Ave. | ## Columbus OH 43201 | ###### "You get it, you're closer."
jimc@haddock.ISC.COM (Jim Campbell) (04/01/88)
A friend of mine is interested in acquiring some 3.5-inch, double-density, double-sided floppy disks for use on an Apple Macintosh. He wants them to be made in the USA by a U.S.-based company, and with a life-time guarantee. Scotch is the only brand he knows that corresponds to these specifications. Are there any other such companies? Where can Scotch or any other brand of these floppies be purchased, either through mail order or in the Boston area? Please e-mail responses. Thanks in advanced -- Jim Campbell Interactive Systems, Boston 441 Stuart St. 7th Floor Boston, MA 02116 617/247-1155 ihnp4! \ harvard! X----> ima!haddock!jimc mit-eddie! /