jchapman@watcgl.UUCP (john chapman) (06/05/85)
Three to four weeks ago I solicited opinions regarding mail order
houses with a promise to summarize. The response was good but not
large enough to assign any general rating to specific houses so
here are the replies with extraneous info. edited out.
If people wish to contribute further opinions/ratings I will be
happy to keep track of them and post them periodically.
John Chapman
.....!watmath!watcgl!jchapman
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Qubie' (Mail order modems, multifunction cards, ~r}i misc
gadgetry), 4809 Calle Alto, Camarillo, CA 93010
1-800-821-4479, or 1-800-987-9741 inside CA)
9 (very good) getting me my modem.
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California Digital
pretty good; occasionally slow to ship with excuses. 7/10
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PBJ (Coco expantion hardware, Some software)
Prompt service, good products. Warantee service is also prompt.
(It turned out to be a bad cable, which they had not tested.)
The only problem I had was one software product that required a certain
revision of another, but did not specify it. Upgrade policy is $7 plus
return of original disk.
8
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Computerware (coco software and some hardware)
Prompt service
8
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RGS micro
Went out of business between taking my order and delivery. I was able to
get the about canceled from my visa bill while the situation is being
"investigated".
0
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Priority-1
Poor. No callback on out of stock items even when promised delivery
date is long gone.
4/10
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Priority 1
Reasonable service. Takes a while to figure out they shouldn't back order
an item that is "while supply lasts". Willing to cancel a back order based
on "I needed it immediatly and bought it elsewhere."
7
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JDR (components)
Prompt service, reasonable handling of mistaken order.
8
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California Digital (disk drives, surplus systems)
Prompt service. My only complain is the free "manual" with the disk drive
was the first three chapters of the service manual. (Since other companies
charge $30 for the whole thing, I probably shouldn't complain.) Remember
to ask for manuals and power connecters when ordering disk drives.
Discontinued systems are recomended only for those that know what they are
doing.
8
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Competitive Edge (Sluder)
Good. 8/10. My only complaint is they didn't seem to be able to
give much technical advice regarding their products.
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Do-kay (components)
Prompt service.
8
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Jade (systems and peripherals)
Prompt service.
8
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I would like to put in a 10 (10 is good ?) rating for Jameco
Electronics 1355 Shoreway Road Belmont CA 94002, 415-592-8097. I
have been buying from them for 10 years and found them prompt, and
out of stock only on rare occasions. The specialize in IC and small
parts and don't have a very wide line of computer parts such as disk
drives and memories. But what is in their catalog the really do
have and promptly ship. I admit that when you buy a 7400 you know
precisely what you are getting before hand and they don't have to do
any hand holding but I've found I can depend on these people. From
NYC any order I sent usually arrived within 2 weeks (it probably
took almost that long for the letter to get out of NYC) and from
here in Utah a USnail letter order took about 7 days. They are like
People Express airline, no frills but you get what you want.
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I've only dealt with two mail order places so far, one good and one not so good.
Name: California Digital Rating: *** (of four)
Addr: 17700 Figueroa St.
Carson, CA. 90248
Phn#: (800) 421-5041 (Orders)
(213) 217-0500 (Technical & California)
Experiecnce:
I ordered a TEAC 55F and received a bad drive, they replaced it very
quickly and the replacement works fine. I had to pay the return postage, but
it wasn't very much. The price for the drive was extremely low at that time.
Name: PC Network Rating: ** (of four)
Addr: 320 West Ohio
Chicago, IL. 60610
phn#: (800) 621-SAVE (Orders & Membership)
(312) 280-0002 (Illinois)
Experience:
I ordered a box of disks and JFORMAT and it arrived after at a month
and a half. My major complaint is that they are very slow from my experience,
the stuff arrived and worked at least. Also, there prices are Wholesale + 8%
which is not that good for a lot of items. Their prices tend to lag behind
what other places are offering in a lot of things, but that have great deal at
times.
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my vote is for "pc connection". they're courteous and my only problem was
getting an order about 2 days late (said they had a flood of orders at
one time; they did(!!!) warn me ahead of time).
i give them an 8.5 out of 10.
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I've hadd good luck with DUKAY in San Diego. The shipped promptly and their in-house
transaction time to the the order processed was fast .
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I do all my software mail order through The Programmer's Shop,
128 Rockland St, Hanover Ma 02339. They used to advertise through Info
World (may still, but not every week) and currently advertise in Dr Dobbs.
I have had good luck with shipments (once when the mfr was having problems
getting the manuals printed it took over a month to get a copy of TLC Lisp,
but they called me and let me know the status. They also called and returned
my money when MicroProlog was advertised available for CP/M-86 in Byte but
the MicroProlog people decided that was a bad idea. Other programs have
been no problem; in stock items routinely arrive within 48 hrs of my phone
order (once even before the check cleared!) They used to have very
knowledgeable people who would evaluate different options over the phone,
but they are a lot bigger now and there is more software to worry about.
I suspect they could help choose a good C compiler for the Mac or a PClone
for a given price range, but they can only read the glossies for the more
esoteric products. Sigh, such is the price of success i guess.
They started out at around 9.5, now perhaps down to 8.0. Their
prices are not the lowest in the world, and they really don't have the
expertise they once did. But as a reliable group, with a large inventory
of "real programming tools" this is a winner. No third generation clones
of wordstar that can't even write real ASCII files to be found here.