jvkelley@watdragon.UUCP (08/20/87)
About 2 1/2 months ago, a couple of people posted articles to this newsgroup
indicating they had purchased a Starboard 2 at a very attractive price from
a company called Abel Supply. Having read many accounts of people getting
burned by mail order companies, I was apprehensive about doing business this
way, but in light of the recommendations and price I decided to make an
exception.
June 13: I phone Abel and place my order. I'm told that they have the
Starboards in stock.
4 weeks later: Nothing has arrived. I phone to find out what's happening.
I'm told that the Starboards will arrive in the next couple
of days, will be populated with RAM chips immediately, and
will be shipped within four days. I'm peeved, but still
want the board badly enough to try again.
2 weeks later: Still nothing. Another phone call. They tell me the same
thing, that the boards will arrive and be shipped within
four days. When I tell them that they told me the same
thing two weeks ago, they say they must have run out of
boards in the last shipment. I'm nieve enough to give
them the benefit of the doubt.
2 weeks later: Still nothing. After confusing my order with someone's
from California, they tell me that VISA refused to accept
the bill. They can't tell me why. I'm fed up, and cancel
the order. A phone call to VISA fails to support their
claim. (US$432 = ~Cdn$580 << a credit limit of $1000.)
I will not be doing business with Abel again.
In all likelihood, this was an isolated incident. Perhaps they only treat
Canadians with this kind of contempt.
To Abel's credit, they don't bill until they ship. Of course if they billed
immediately, they would have to ship within 30 days or be in violation
of U.S. postal regulations, I believe.
Abel's phone line(s) is(are) unbelievable busy. You cannot get through to
them except late weekday evenings and late Saturday afternoons. On my
second phone call I was told that steps were being taken to remedy this
situation, but it hasn't improved.
When I canceled my order, I offered to post Abel's viewpoint in this article
along with my own. The order person just said "We didn't have the boards in."
This confirms that they misled me on at least two occasions. If I receive
any communication from Abel in the future, I will post to this newsgroup.
They have my address and phone number.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
UUCP: {ihnp4,watmath}!watcgl!jvkelley | Postal Address:
BITNET: jvkelley@cgl.waterloo.bitnet | Jeff Kelley
INTERNET: jvkelley@cgl.waterloo.edu | Dept. of Computer Science
EAN: jvkelley@cgl.waterloo.cdn | University of Waterloo
| Waterloo, Ont., Canada
| N2L 3G1
| tel: (519) 578-4514carroll@unirot.UUCP (mark carroll) (08/22/87)
In article <3297@watdragon.waterloo.edu> jvkelley@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Jeff Kelley) writes: >June 13: I phone Abel and place my order. I'm told that they have the > Starboards in stock. > >4 weeks later: Nothing has arrived. I phone to find out what's happening. > >2 weeks later: Still nothing. Another phone call. They tell me the same > >2 weeks later: Still nothing. After confusing my order with someone's I just thought I'd add my comments here. A friend of mine ( who doesnt have posting privs) ordered an A500 from Abel in June. 3 days after he placed an order for the system, he ordered a monitor from Abel. Two weeks later, he recieved his A500 - but with NO disks, and NO manuals. (They did correct this after he called them). To this day (August 21), he STILL has not recieved his monitor. I dont think ABel is a bad company; I know a LOT of people who have done quite a lot of business with Abel, and no problems. But they are NOT professional, and they are NOT big enough to handle the business they are getting. ==================================================== A breif question on an unrelated topic: Can someone give me the mailing address of ASDG? A friend showed me Facc today, and I want to get a copy! ==================================================== <MC> -- ============================================================================== <MC>=Mark C. Carroll: Rutgers University CS Student; Unemployed Hacker ==============================================================================
apl@pnet02.CTS.COM (Andy Levy) (08/24/87)
If you are at Rutgers, ASDG is down the street:
ASDG
280 River Rd
Suite 54A
Piscataway, NJ 08854
201-540-9670
--apl
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