🚀 go-pugleaf

From: Stuart Friedberg  <stuart>

I have had a monochrome 1040ST on order through my local dealer since
the end of July.  From reading this newsgroup it was clear that 1040's
are scarce all over, so I refrained from flaming Atari or flaming my
dealer.  I simply assumed that production could not keep up with
demand.

However, my dealer got fed up with having a machine on order for two
and a half months.  In addition to my machine, the store paid for 20
machines and received none of them.  520's are coming in months after
being paid for.  1040's aren't coming in at all.  For this reason, the
two store managers and the branch manager had a full day "chat" with
the appropriate Atari representative.  They were unhappy and the rep
left, ah, uncomfortable.  The statements in this paragraph are facts.

I am now going to relate some statements that I can not confirm
personally.  Treat them as rumor, but notice that I have signed this
message.  There are no 1040's in the warehouse.  There are no 1040's in
production.  Atari has been accepting orders, and payment, in order to
build up liquid assets.  I have heard two conjectured motivations:
(1) build up capital for production facilities, and (2) buy Commodore.
I choose not to speculate, but these statements are consistent with
the observed facts.

In my opinion, the ST is an extremely competent machine at an
unbeatable price.  However, it doesn't make any difference what the
price is, if no machines are available.  Whether the statements of the
preceding paragraph are true or false, it remains true that the dealer
has my money, and Atari has the dealer's money, and Atari is not
delivering.  This is not responsive and borders on irresponsible.

Stu Friedberg  {seismo, allegra}!rochester!stuart  stuart@rochester