🚀 go-pugleaf

In <2B6PgB2w162w@eosvcr.wimsey.bc.ca> aew@eosvcr.wimsey.bc.ca (Alan Walford) writes:

>wwong@wimsey.bc.ca (Will Wong) writes:

>> Anyone knows where to find cheap 486DX clones with good support?

><flame on>

>That is a contradiction in terms !   All places that sell cheap 486DX are
>interested primarily in the sale and will not provide very good after
>sales support (ie. Cardz, Doppler etc).

I agree.  A company, one of the ones you listed above, has been extremely
aggravating to deal with, and they definitely are out for your money...>sigh<.  
I was sold a wrong video card, and it took 1-1/2 months to remedy that and
get the card I was supposed to have in the first place.  The staff were
rude and the tech. support was extremely incompetent, so much so that I had 
to show the guy how to install different video drivers for Windows 3.

>They all say they provide support but in my experience and the experience
>of many of my friends this support is just not very good.

OK, I'm a contract computer programmer for TLD Computers, Inc., the corporate
computer division of London Drugs. (disclaimer)  I've dealt with 
cheaper companies because I thought that if I knew exactly what I wanted, I 
could just go buy it for cheap.  I don't think I'll make that mistake again.  
Tech support and after-sales service are more important than I thought.

If you're looking for a 486 or 386 system with good support, you might
want to try London Drugs.  OK, OK, so I work for them, but I've tried many
other computer places before.  I've had good luck dealing with them before I
was an employee.  Their own Certified Data brand computers are pretty
good performers, and the 386-33s are priced to sell at under $2000 with
80MB HDD, SVGA, FDD, etc.  They also have a 2-year REPLACEMENT warranty on
them as well.

What I like about LD is that they are not totally committed to squeezing you for
money, since they have always been glad to refund my money or exchange.  I
suppose that's because they don't have to worry about the bottom line as
much as a smaller company would.

I believe they would be getting 486 boxes in the stores soon.  What's good 
about these systems is that they are fully CSA-certified.  What happens with 
most clones is that they only have CSA-certified power supplies in them, which 
isn't the same thing--Just ask your insurance company.  It costs money to
certify a computer, and most companies are usually changing their motherboards,
cases, power supplies, etc., according to which is cheapest, so certification
doesn't make sense.

You can be assured that the CD systems will work, because the tech staff at
TLD have been involved with testing the boxes with Windows, OS/2, etc. as part
of the process of selecting a decent motherboard.  They even wrote a pretty
decent manual for the system.  Part of the reason LD hasn't gotten any 486 
boxes out yet is that they didn't find a decent, stable 486 motherboard that 
would pass their tests (pretty scary, if you consider how long 486 boards 
have been around) until about a few months ago.  So compatibility shouldn't be 
an issue. 

These are good computers.  If you are more interested in the bottom line, you 
should go elsewhere at your peril!

-MC

-- 
Martin Chung (chung@sol.UVic.CA)
Programmer/Analyst & full-time student!