cjeffery@arizona.edu (Clinton Jeffery) (08/24/88)
Recently I posted a warning about a mail-order hard disk company, jb Technologies, inc. which had done me wrong. An amazing number of people wrote me to request the embarrassing details of the transaction. This leads me to ask whether there is (or should be) a newsgroup for the purpose of sharing information about which of the large number of mail order houses are mistreating their customers. So, is there such a group? Is there *any demand* for such a group? Shall we form alt.mailorder.scum? [Feel free to suggest a better name] Comments (and email) are welcome. -- | Clint Jeffery, University of Arizona Department of Computer Science | cjeffery@arizona.edu -or- {ihnp4 noao allegra cmcl2}!arizona!cjeffery --
james@bigtex.uucp (James Van Artsdalen) (08/24/88)
One good depository for horror stories is the state attorney general's office. They might be interested since elections are coming up. The BBB is always interested. I'll have to look into it, but if you buy in-state, small-claims court could be a viable route. -- James R. Van Artsdalen ...!uunet!utastro!bigtex!james "Live Free or Die" Home: 512-346-2444 Work: 328-0282; 110 Wild Basin Rd. Ste #230, Austin TX 78746
msmith@topaz.rutgers.edu (Mark Robert Smith) (08/24/88)
I kinda like alt.mailorder.scum. However, you're more likely to get
away with alt.mailorder, which could include warnings as well as
requests for addresses, reviews of mailorder companies, and other such
stuff.
Obviously prohibited would be mail-order companies placing ads or list
of availble products. However, users could reccommend that you buy X
from Y because Y has the lowest price for X.
Mark
--
Mark Smith (alias Smitty) "Be careful when looking into the distance,
61 Tenafly Road that you do not miss what is right under your nose."
Tenafly, NJ 07670 {backbone}!rutgers!topaz.rutgers.edu!msmith
msmith@topaz.rutgers.edu Bill and Opus in '88!!!guardian@otishq.UUCP (Harry Skelton) (08/24/88)
In article <6766@megaron.arizona.edu> cjeffery@arizona.edu (Clinton Jeffery) writes: > >Shall we form alt.mailorder.scum? [Feel free to suggest a better name] >Comments (and email) are welcome. How about the following: alt.avoid.vendor alt.avoid.hardware alt.avoid.software alt.avoid.general _ _ ____ __ _ ____ ___ __| ||_| ____ _ ___ Harry Skelton | . || | || . || .-'| . || || . || '_ | AAA National Headquarters .|__ ||____||___|||_| |____||_||___|||_| |_| Falls Church, VA |_____| guardian@otishq (Via: obdient, ddsw1, novavax, daitc, spl1)
pearl@porthos.rutgers.edu (Starbuck) (08/25/88)
I think posting it to the appropriate comp.sys group with a crossposting to misc.consumers would be very appropriate. --Steve Stephen Pearl (Starbuck) Work: (201)932-2443 Home: (201)246-3927 UUCP: rutgers!topaz.rutgers.edu!pearl ARPA: pearl@topaz.rutgers.edu US MAIL: LPO 12749 CN 5064, New Brunswick, NJ 08903 QUOTES: "What is Starbuck-ing?" -Adultress 19 "Works for me!" -Rick Hunter (The Cop, not the Robotech Defender)
dc@gcm (Dave Caswell) (08/26/88)
In article <6766@megaron.arizona.edu> cjeffery@arizona.edu (Clinton Jeffery) writes: . .An amazing number of people wrote me to request the embarrassing details .of the transaction. This leads me to ask whether there is (or should be) >a newsgroup for the purpose of sharing information about which of the .large number of mail order houses are mistreating their customers. . .So, is there such a group? Is there *any demand* for such a group? .Shall we form alt.mailorder.scum? [Feel free to suggest a better name] .Comments (and email) are welcome. I don't think it would be fair to have a group where only one side of the story would be told. Most mail-order companies don't have access to USENET. One advantage of writing to a computer magazine is that they will probably print the complaint with a comment from the mail-order company. -- Dave Caswell Greenwich Capital Markets uunet!philabs!gcm!dc
davidbe@sco.COM (The Cat in the Hat) (08/27/88)
A long long time ago in an article far far away (<Aug.24.08.59.09.1988.9415@topaz.rutgers.edu> to be exact) msmith@topaz.rutgers.edu (Mark Robert Smith) said:
-
-I kinda like alt.mailorder.scum. However, you're more likely to get
-away with alt.mailorder, which could include warnings as well as
-requests for addresses, reviews of mailorder companies, and other such
-stuff.
Actually, I prefer alt.scum, for lists of who to avoid...mailorder and
otherwise. It could even lead to a whole alt.scum hierarchy...I can
see it now: alt.scum.mailorder, alt.scum.deptstore, alt.scum.books,
and, of course, alt.scum.usenet.
--
David Bedno (aka The Cat in the Hat) Now appearing at: davidbe@sco.COM -OR-
...!{uunet,decvax!microsoft,ucbvax!ucscc}!sco!davidbe -OR-
At home: 408-425-5266 At work: 408-425-7222 x5123 (I'm probably here...)
Disclaimer: Not SCO's opinions. At least not that they've told me.
"If you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything."richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (08/27/88)
In article <566@white.gcm> dc@white.UUCP (Dave Caswell) writes: >I don't think it would be fair to have a group where only one side >of the story would be told. Most mail-order companies don't have >access to USENET. One advantage of writing to a computer magazine >is that they will probably print the complaint with a comment from >the mail-order company. Oh, I dont think so. If NOBODY has had a good experience with this company it says something quite explicitly. No matter. What you have to do now is be like Quayle, Betson and Bush. Go campaign Texas. Since Brian Reid keeps stating keeps denying he has any authority over alt groups, but those crazy Texans are acting like they own it, I conclude that Brian and John secretly sold it to Texas. Have you seen Brians big house hmmmmmm ? So Texas owns alt. Maybe you should ask them if it's ok to make alt.mailorder. -- How can you believe anything labeled: <8086@cup.portal.com> ? richard@gryphon.CTS.COM {backbone}!gryphon!richard
" Maynard) (08/28/88)
In article <5955@gryphon.CTS.COM> richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) writes, in response to Dave Caswell debating the need for an alt.mailorder group that mail-order companies couldn't defend themselves on: >No matter. What you have to do now is be like Quayle, Betson and Bush. >Go campaign Texas. > >Since Brian Reid keeps stating keeps denying he has any authority over >alt groups, but those crazy Texans are acting like they own it, I conclude >that Brian and John secretly sold it to Texas. Have you seen Brians >big house hmmmmmm ? > >So Texas owns alt. Maybe you should ask them if it's ok to make >alt.mailorder. If Texas owns alt.all, then I can re-rmgroup alt.californicated, right? No, none of the Texans I have seen here have acted as though they own anything except computer systems that act as Usenet nodes. We have expressed our opinions about several issues - and the similarity of our conclusions merely speaks to our agreement on the logical outcomes of certain premises. We haven't, however, expressed anything like ownership. For that matter, if we owned alt.all, then alt.dev.null would have gotten a much better reception, rather than the flaming and unilateral torpedoing that it got from the real alt.backbone - Brian Reid (who, despite all, is a hell of a nice guy) and Obnoxio (who, despite everything, is the second most useless flaming asshole on the net [the first, in case you're wondering, is MES]). And you *still* haven't seen a newgroup for alt.texas... -- Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC...>splut!< | Never ascribe to malice that which can uucp: uunet!nuchat! | adequately be explained by stupidity. hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!splut!jay +---------------------------------------- {killer,bellcore}!tness1! | Birthright Party '88: let's get spaced!
dc@gcm (Dave Caswell) (08/29/88)
In article <5955@gryphon.CTS.COM> richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) writes:
.Oh, I dont think so. If NOBODY has had a good experience with this
.company it says something quite explicitly.
I disagree that you have to talk to everybody who has used a particular
topic before you can make an informed opinion. There are always at
least a couple of people who are hard to find. Don't you know what
it means to just take a sample of a population?
--
Dave Caswell
Greenwich Capital Markets uunet!philabs!gcm!dc