ogasawar@noscvax.UUCP (Todd H. Ogasawara) (06/05/85)
Let's get this out of the way first:
*DISCLAIMER: The opinions below do NOT reflect upon NOSC, CSC,
or even myself in many cases!
The mail order houses I have personally dealt with are: Borland,
Jameco, LogicSoft, and Programmer'c Connection. I just ordered
WordPerfect 4.0 from LogicSoft on 3 June. They agreed that I had
found a lower price than theirs and readily gave me a price that
undercut the price I found by $10. I paid $219 for a product
that lists for $495. Still too early to make a comment on delivery.
I have had good service from the other three vendors I have dealt with.
The "votes" below reflect my own experiences, comments from friends,
news items on USENET, and mail responses I received to my recent
query about mail order houses.
I would like to get more information about other vendors and more
supporting information on the vendors already mentioned. Note that
many vendors have only one person commenting on it.
I divided responses into three categories and tallied up the "votes."
"Good" means just that: good delivery, accurate order filling,
good aftersale support (damaged items, etc.). "Bad" means poor
delivery, poor order filling, poor aftersale response. "Iffy" means
that the vendor has mixed characteristics (e.g., sent order quickly
but did not fill the order properly).
Please keep the information coming. And, again, this is just
an informal survey. Read my disclaimer again before flaming!
Thanks to all who contributed information...todd
Todd Ogasawara, Computer Sciences Corp.
NOSC-Hawaii Laboratories
UUCPmail: {akgua,allegra,decvax,ihnp4,ucbvax}!sdcsvax!noscvax!ogasawar
MILNET: OGASAWAR@NOSC
--------------cut here------survey results follow-----------
# Votes
Good Bad Iffy Vendor Name
---- ---- ---- -----------
1 Alpha Byte
4 Borland Intl.
2 California Digital
2 Competitive Edge
1 1 Compuclassics
1 CompuMail (Thousand Oaks, CA)
2 Computer Connection
(do *not* confuse with PC/MAC Connection)
1 Computer Craft
1 Computer Mail Order
1 Computer Parts Galore
1 Computer WareHouse
1 1 Computers and More
2 Conroy-LaPointe
1 1 Digi-key
1 Express Systems
1 Great Salt Lake
3 1 Jade
2 Jameco
1 Krueger Technologies
1 LogicSoft
1 Microcomputers Unlimited
2 Micro Mart (Norcross, GA)
1 Orange Micro
11 PC Connection/Mac Connection
1 PCs Limited
2 3 Priority 1
1 Programmer's Connection
1 Programmer's Shop
1 1 Programmers Unlimited
1 S100 Inc.
2 Seattle Computer
1 Selectronics
1 Software-to-go/Programming Intl
1 Strictly SoftWare
2 3 TallTree
1 U.S. Micro Sales
1 Winchester Distributing