bruce@ektools.UUCP (Bruce D. Nelson ) (09/07/87)
The following letter was reprinted in an advertisement which appeared
in the "CIA ROM" newsletter:
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Atari Corporation
1196 Borregas Avenue
Sunnyvale, California 94088-3427
(408) 745-2000
August 5, 1987
Dear ATARI ST Dealers and Distributors:
I'm sure you have notices the increase in mail order activity on the ATARI ST
product line. Recently, this activity has gotten out of hand.
The 1040 ST product may be sold only though authorized computer dealers who
provide full product support including in and out of warranty service. This
support is not available though mail order operations.
ATARI values and supports its dealer network. We acknowledge our responsibil-
ities in protecting the value of the investment in your ATARI ST dealership.
It is truly unfortunate that some of the biggest mail order operations are
subsidiaries of or are being supported by authorized ATARI ST dealers.
Our desire to support the legitimate dealer network must, at this time, take
precedence over other considerations. There is no room in the ST dealer
network for those who see mail order as a part of their marketing plan.
Therefore, effective with the receipt of this letter, all ATARI ST dealers and
distributors are notified that the following policy is now in effect:
1. All mail order activity on the 1040 ST is to cease.
2. ATARI ST DEALERS who elect to continue to engage in mail order sales
of the 1040ST will risk the forfeiture of their ATARI ST dealership
authorization.
3. ATARI DISTRIBUTORS will be responsible for identifying the accounts
within their territories engaging in mail order activity. If
the account is a customer of the distributor, the distributor is to
advise the account of this policy and cancel the dealership if the
policy is not adhered to. If the account is not a customer of the
distributor, the distributor is to determine the source of the product
and advise me so that action can be taken.
4. ATARI will, immediately, institute a program that will ensure
compliance by all dealers and distributors with this policy.
5. ATARI reserves the right to terminate Dealerships/Distributorships at
ATARI's discretion for violation of this policy.
Despite the clear position of this letter, you may have questions. Please feel
free to call or discuss those questions with your ATARI Sales Representative.
I thank you for your understanding, support and, where appropriate, compliance
in this critical matter.
Yours truly,
August J. Liguori
Vice President Operations
ATARI (US) CORP.
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<flame on>
Dear Neil,
Why is ATARI cutting off some of the hands that feed them. As I have
mentioned to you personally and via email, there are still vast areas of
our great country which are not serviced by an "Authorized ATARI Dealer".
Purchasing by mailorder is the only way that persons in these areas can
obtain an Atari ST.
If mailorder is so bad, why do customers do it? 1) They feel they don't need
the "handholding" support that purchasing though a high-priced local dealer
would provide. 2) The high-priced local dealer doesn't provide enough support
to warrant their being a high-priced local dealer. 3) Customers love to save
money.
Many of us true blue Atari loyalists are quite adept at solving almost any
problem which befalls our machines. We've been able to turn our 520's into
1040's and even megas. We've diagnosed almost every bug in TOS and GEM.
I cannot remember a time when any "Authorized Dealer" has EVER answered
correctly a question I have had with my machine.
I agree with ATARI that a strong dealer network needs to be built. Yet we have
a problem here. You can't build a dealer network without customer support,
and you can't get customer support without strong dealers. Every
8-bit and ST I've bought has been mailordered. Mainly because the local
dealers do not offer any more support (to me, anyways) that the mailorder
guys did. Both guys cold sell me the machine. Neither guy could help me
with bugs in (DOS 2 or) TOS. The only difference is the local guy charges more.
Let's face it. As much as we'd like it to be, an Atari ST is not a "standard"
machine. I can get tons of support for MS-DOS questions at almost any
computer store in town. I can get MAC problems solved at most of the same
stores. But the few and far between Atari dealers don't know enough about
the machines to really help. User's groups, BBS's, GEnie, CompuServe. Delphi,
and USENET are my sources. Local dealers, never.
Everyone loves to save money. It's no secret how much the difference in prices
is between local and mailorder. I bought 3 major software packages with the
difference in price on my 520.
I can see where, when Atari starts marketing the Mega series, that you could
start at the beginning and enforce a no mailorder rule. But I see the 1040
as mostly a big 520, or actually the machine that you should have released
initially. But if you want to saturate the market with Atari loyalists, you
cannot ban mailorder yet. When you show me local dealers, in every city, with
enough knowledge to support the difference in price, then maybe you can ban
mailorder. But I don't think you are there yet. You're in a Catch-22, and I
don't think you are ready to escape it yet.
Besides that, as I said, there's still lots of cities without Atari dealers -
are you realy going to deny the few loyalists there are in those cities a
chance to buy their machines? If and when you start advertising, will there
be dealers in those cities?
Yes, Atari needs local dealers. Yes, Atari needs to protect the local guys
by doing something about mailorder. But until "Atari ST" becomes a "household"
("officehold" ?) word, until you can build volume demand (advertising?),
until those dealers who take the initial risk are willing to REALLY support
the machine (Why does TOS bomb when there's an underscore in the file name?),
until you can show me why I should support the extra price these local guys
have to charge, then I'll either go mailorder (if I can) or go without my
next ST. It's that simple.
I would love to have local Atari dealers who are as responsive to my needs
as MS-DOS or MAC dealers. I know that by banning mailorder, Atari is attempting
to make the climate more hospitable towards these ends. I don't think you
should ban mailorder, but, rather, find a way that the local dealer can compete
with the mailorder guys.
<flame off>
Sincerely,
Bruce D. Nelson
....!rochester!kodak!ektools!bruce