[comp.sys.atari.st] Mail Order Problems -- Waiting for my 1040e

umochock@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Russell Ochocki) (12/01/90)

Greetings,

I ordered a 1040e from MicroTyme (Kettering, Ohio).  That was back on
Sept. 26th.  I call them about once a week to get updates on the status
of my order (it's their money -- it's an 800 number).

According to them, they have been waiting all this time for a shipment of
1040e's from Atari.  Everytime I call they give me a date when they should
arrive and everytime I call back on that date they say Atari has delayed
the shipping date again.

This is starting (as if it isn't already) to turn into an absolutely
ridiculous situation!!  Is Atari actually this negligent when it comes to
supplying their dealers with products?  Maybe this explains why sales for
1040e's are so poor -- nobody can get them from Atari.

Or, is there something I don't know about the mail order company (MicroTyme)
that I should know.....

Anybody out there having any similar problems with Atari?  I would appreciate
any comments on this.  Maybe one of those Atari guys who read this board could
explain their distribution problems.
-- 
|
|  \/   Russell Ochocki, University of Manitoba
| _/\_  Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada  (umochock@ccu.umanitoba.ca)
|

ekrimen@ecst.csuchico.edu (Ed Krimen) (12/01/90)

umochock@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Russell Ochocki) writes:

- This is starting (as if it isn't already) to turn into an absolutely
- ridiculous situation!!  Is Atari actually this negligent when it 
- comes to supplying their dealers with products?  Maybe this explains
- why sales for 1040e's are so poor -- nobody can get them from Atari.
                                       ^^^^^^
Because MicroTyme doesn't ship an STe to you doesn't mean that 
dealers are having trouble getting STe's from Atari.

- Or, is there something I don't know about the mail order company 
- (MicroTyme) that I should know.....
 
I don't recall ever hearing about any serious problems when dealing 
with MicroTyme, but I suggest you flex some more muscle and find out 
why you're not getting your STe.  Or, cancel your order with them and 
buy from a real dealer. 

-- 
         Ed Krimen  ...............................................
   |||   Video Production Major, California State University, Chico
   |||   INTERNET: ekrimen@ecst.csuchico.edu  FREENET: al661 
  / | \  SysOp, Fuji BBS: 916-894-1261        FIDONET: 1:119/4.0

mg20+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Paul Greelish) (12/02/90)

I have done extensive business with MicroTyme, and have *never* had a
problem with them. Except that I got the British version of Populous,
and the mail-in warranty card had an address in England printed on it...
big deal.  :-)

However, I would *NOT* ever mail order anything as expensive and fragile
as a computer. I wanna go home with the thing under my arm, with a full
receipt and everything. Of course, this requires a local computer
(Atari) dealer.
It's just another example proving how f**ked up Atari is lately.


______________________________________________________________
|\    /|
|  \/  |  ike Greelish
Carnegie Mellon U. undergrad
quote: "The truth hits everybody" ---The Police, 1978
stupid disclaimer: My opinions are dictated to me by a 23 year old 
telepathic Chilean aardvark living in my closet.

Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com (12/03/90)

Russell Ochocki writes, concerning an STe he ordered in September:

>This is starting (as if it isn't already) to turn into an absolutely
>ridiculous situation!!  Is Atari actually this negligent when it comes to
>supplying their dealers with products?

Perhaps incompetent would be a better word...

>Maybe this explains why sales for 1040e's are so poor -- nobody can
>get them from Atari.

Yes.. this is one reason...

>Or, is there something I don't know about the mail order company (MicroTyme)
>that I should know.....

No.. they're just another dealer at the mercy of Atari Corp...

>Anybody out there having any similar problems with Atari?

Yes... my local dealer orders four STs from Atari and receives one...
three potential Atari customers go elsewhere and buy IBM clones.

>I would appreciate any comments on this.  Maybe one of those Atari guys
>who read this board could explain their distribution problems.

I'd like to hear that too.


Atari Corp has a tiny production facility and poor financial resources.
They stop producing one product line so they can crank out other products.
For example, they don't make computers for the Christmas selling season,
they make video games... thus, no computers in the pipeline.

Right now, I understand there's an extreme shortage of Mega ST4s..
although, you can now get the monitors to go with the Megas you can't
get, which themselves had been in short supply earlier.

Remember who you're dealing with.  Your computer may show up at MicroTyme
tomorrow, or it may be "first quarter 1991"..  

BobR

rlcollins@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (Ryan 'Gozar' Collins) (12/03/90)

In article <1990Dec01.061400.25535@ecst.csuchico.edu>, ekrimen@ecst.csuchico.edu (Ed Krimen) writes:
> umochock@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Russell Ochocki) writes:
> 
> - Or, is there something I don't know about the mail order company 
> - (MicroTyme) that I should know.....
>  
> I don't recall ever hearing about any serious problems when dealing 
> with MicroTyme, but I suggest you flex some more muscle and find out 
> why you're not getting your STe.  Or, cancel your order with them and 
> buy from a real dealer. 
             ^^^^^^^^^^^

MicroTyme is my local dealer (if you call a hour away local) Anyway, I have 
had no problem whatsoever with them. The one time I had my ST repaired it 
only cost me $45, including the $15 fee to get them to look at it to give 
me an estimate. (I blew up something in the parallel port, but thats a 
different story) 

But I would suggest digging into the problem further!

p.s. As a side note to this, my roommate is currently in the process of 
buying a 386sx clone. He orignally ordered from DAK, but after a month or 
two of not getting his computer, he ordered from PC Brand, and its been
getting close to a month on that order too! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ryan 'Gozar' Collins ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
            o__)\			     rlcollins@miavx1.BITNET
           /     )			      RC1DSANU@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu
          /     /  ____                       R.COLLINS1  (On GEnie)
         /(____/__(_) o)_/
                      /)			[ || ]   Atari Computers,
      "There is no Substitute."                 [ || ]    They're not just
 Vs lbh pna ernq guvf, lbh'er geniryvat        // || \\   for breakfast 
            gbb pybfr!                        //  ||  \\  anymore
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Yea, right, thats what I said.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

don@col.hp.com (Don Allison) (12/04/90)

>
>I ordered a 1040e from MicroTyme (Kettering, Ohio).  That was back on
>Sept. 26th. .....

>According to them, they have been waiting all this time for a shipment of
>1040e's from Atari.
>|
>|  \/   Russell Ochocki, University of Manitoba
>| _/\_  Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada  (umochock@ccu.umanitoba.ca)

As another point of reference, I was just in my local Atari dealer's store
this weekend (we still have one here!) and asked him if he was going to be
carrying the 1040STe's.  He said they'd be carrying them whenever Atari got
around to shipping them the ones they'd ordered, and also said that they
haven't been able to get any monitors from Atari at all...something about
Atari changing brands or vendors or something on the color monitors, and
having hit a snafu, so that the warehouse has no monitors of any sort to
ship now...should make for an interesting Christmas season!

Don Allison
HP Colorado Springs Division
don@col.hp.com

#include <std.disclaimer>

ljdickey@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey) (12/06/90)

In some article, someone writes
>>
>> I ordered a 1040e from MicroTyme (Kettering, Ohio).
>  [...]
>> According to them, they have been waiting all this time for a shipment of
>> 1040e's from Atari.

I had heard some time back that Atari was trying to discourage mail order shops.
But now I learn that MicroTyme advertises mail order service, and I recently
saw a flier from E.A.Browne Co, advertising STs for sale.

Does this mean that Atari has is a changed its policy?

Or is it still the same, and they are trying to put the mail-order
places out of business, by not shiping to them.  I know what you are
thinking now, "Why posit a theory of conspiracy, when a much simpler
theory, such as incompetence or bad luck, will suffice?"

I dont know.  The devil made me say it.