[comp.sys.next] Gripes from NeXT buyers

peterd@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) (10/11/90)

In article <1990Oct10.211802.20323@midway.uchicago.edu>, phd_ivo@gsbacd.uchicago.edu writes:
> In article <LAGARDE.90Oct10124522@sol.mcrcim.mcgill.edu>, lagarde@sol.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (Jean Lagarde) writes...
>  
> >In article 8130 cyliao@hardy.u.washington.edu (Chun-Yao Liao) writes:
> > > All I can say is that I think I am going to **CRY** :-( I paid $7200+
> > > for a BASIC 030 cube just 2 months ago... and $1100 for 320 mb drive
> > > few weeks ago...	^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >  [ more unhappiness ]
> 
> Well, actually NeXT did not make a secret out of their upcoming product
> announcements, and your respective computer store should have warned you that
> in a short time, you may be able to buy something new.
> 
> Of course, you probably got good use out of your computer for a couple of
> months.

The complaint from Jean Lagarde was that he had ordered
his machine in early July and only received it the week
before the announcement so it's not true to say that he
got use out of it.

I had spoken to Mr. Lagarde when he was thinking about a
NeXT and he knew the new announcements were coming, but he
was graduating and had to go off to Alberta, so his choice
was to buy the machine in July, rather than waiting. If he
had done so and his machine had been delivered in any
reasonable time, he'd have no case. BUT there was a
substantial delay, so he's (I think) justifiable cranky.

In this case, I suspect he's not yet pushed the McGill
Micro store enough. I have a fair amount of influence with
them (having been the one to push the NeXT contract
through on our campus and having bought over 70 NeXTen to
date for my department) so tonight I took his case up with
the Director of the Computing Centre (whose group runs the
store).  I told him I suspect much of the delay was his
group's fault in not processing the order (we'd ordered
one about the same time, and it also took forever. I did
some tracking and it turns out my order had been lost at
McGill). I told the CC director he should either press
NeXT or do something himself.  He has promised to look
into it.

I have tried to write Mr. Lagarde directly, but it bounced,
so I hope you see this Jean. If you do, give me a call.

Sorry if this is of fairly limited interest to the rest of
the world, but I happen to think (at least for now) that
this case is not the fault of NeXT, and wouldn't want to see
them tarred with the wrong brush. Of course, if I find out
otherwise, I'll post a correction.


				- peterd

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+-------+ 	Peter Deutsch		McGill University
| u # u |	peterd@cs.mcgill.ca	School of Computer Science
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