nelson@cygnus.Kodak.COM (Bruce D. Nelson) (05/02/90)
I was not at the Pittsburg show, since I was pretty busy with the
meeting we had here in Rochester the same weekend. When I called Bob
Brodie yesterday, he said I ought to read the string on GEnie regarding
PACE show. As much as I'd like to "reprint" many of the messages
following Bob's (included below), I don't think GEnie would be too
happy (I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to include this one :-).
>>> Please note that the "group in question" in paragraph 1 is NOT PACE. <<<
Bruce Nelson President, Atari Computer Owners of Rochester (ACORN)
---------
Category 11, Topic 11
Message 95 Mon Apr 30, 1990
BOB-BRODIE [Atari Corp.] at 19:21 EDT
Jeff,
The group in question did not have a booth. They did have members present at
the show, I am told. What was incredible was the blatant way they discussed
their practices *RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DEVELOPERS*!!!!! They had an obvious
affect on the sales of software at this show. GRIBNIF sold about 1/10th of
what they usually do. An example: someone bought a new paint program at the
show from one of the software companies. About 45 minutes after making the
purchase, he brought it back, requesting his money back. The vendor was
surprised, as he gave an excellent price on the product, and it was still
shrink wrapped. The explanation was that he wanted to return it because "his
friend knew where he could get one for free."
As far a future show for that area, good luck. I can't go to Atari and
recommend that we go back to that area. Word reached me before I got to the
show about what was going on, and I was angry when I got there. Angry because
this developers are my personal friends, angry because there are complaints
about Atari not having a dealer (and now we know why!), and angry that the
people at the show would be so cavalier in their attitude toward the
developers.
We all have to fight this type of activity any way we can. Here's what I did:
I had gotten approved a very nice selection of door prizes for this show, a
MegaFile 60, six sets of TOS 1.4, Gaunlet for the Lynx, Airball for the eight
bit, AtariWriter 80 and an XEP-80. Quite similar to what I did for the
MidWest Swapfest, except it was a 60 Meg HD instead of a 44 Meg removable.
When I heard what was going on in that show, I decided to return all of the
prizes to Sunnyvale. It is a shame, as perhaps some legitimate user might have
won a nice door prize. But from what I saw, we just would have helped the
wrong people out. So, all of the product came home with me, over $1000 worth
of doorprizes. I'm not going to go to Atari and ask them to support a
group/show that doesn't support the developers and dealers that show up to
support them. It just isn't right.
BTW, I was in Rochester the day before, and I did give away everything to them
that I planned to. They got the same prizes that I had planned to give at the
PACE Show.