🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <41974@unix.SRI.COM>, wallcave@updike.sri.com (Steve Wallcave) writes:
|> You are correct, although Holly in customer service said it would cost more
|> to order separately, Glenn at gateway@aol.com said the following:

I repeat, I specifically asked my sales rep whether I could order, say, the
CD-ROM *after* I ordered my system, at the same price, and he said
unequivocally YES.  I probably won't order anything soon, because I've spent
enough money, but I will expect to pay the current advertised price, possibly
plus a reasonable shipping charge, for add-ons.

No offense to customer service, but I got very little useful or correct
information from them while I was waiting for my order.

In article <1993Jan6.230623.25374@nntpd2.cxo.dec.com>,
j_manning@csc32.enet.dec.com (John Manning) writes:
|> They either get the cards at a BIG discount
|> or they do not want to sell the machines without the video card...

Both of the above are probably true.  I don't know for a fact that computer
hardware margins are as high as for, say, cameras, but it wouldn't surprise me
a bit.  And I know that NY camera stores were selling cameras for *LESS* than
I paid for them, when I managed a small camera store; yes, retailing them for
below my wholesale.  So it's pretty reasonable to assume that Gateway can get
great deals on mass purchases.

In article <1993Jan7.180543.14981@clark.dgim.doc.ca>,
tennesen@mars.dgrc.doc.ca (Andy Tenne-Sens) laments Gateway's slow shipping
and lousy customer service.

Well, we could have paid a lot more and gotten just as lousy service.  I was
complaining to a friend about Gateway, then I said "Well, if I'd wanted to get
good service I could've spent more and bought a Dell system or ..."  He
snorted loudly; turns out he's had no better success with Dell than some 
people have with Gateway.

The bottom line is that it's a great system, at a great price; the CAVEAT
EMPTOR is just that they have to cut corners somewhere to sell at the price
they sell at, and some of those places are support and things like
not keeping huge backlogs of parts inventory [although in November/December, I
can believe that no amount of backup inventory would have been enough; the
impression I got from my rep was that they could've sold every sound card they
could get their hands on, for example].  They are *not* cutting corners on the
system configurations to get the price down, unlike some other vendors, and I
consciously opted to take the risk and responsibility of doing more of my own
tech support than I might have with another vendor in return for outstanding
hardware.