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Be careful at "Computer Shows"



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 14th 03, 07:33 PM
William W. Plummer
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Default Be careful at "Computer Shows"

I was trying to buy an APC battery backup. The seller went routing around
in the box to find a "good" one but it didn't seem to work. When he turned
it over, there was a sticky saying, "Returned. Doesn't work.".

Probably a lot of what you can buy at these shows are just some company's
junk box, rather than outdated, but new stock.

Caveat emptor.


  #2  
Old December 14th 03, 08:31 PM
ToolPackinMama
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Default

"William W. Plummer" wrote:

I was trying to buy an APC battery backup. The seller went routing around
in the box to find a "good" one but it didn't seem to work. When he turned
it over, there was a sticky saying, "Returned. Doesn't work.".


I wonder if they remembered to hook up the battery.
  #3  
Old December 15th 03, 04:49 PM
Gary Tait
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Default

On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 18:33:06 GMT, "William W. Plummer"
wrote:

I was trying to buy an APC battery backup. The seller went routing around
in the box to find a "good" one but it didn't seem to work. When he turned
it over, there was a sticky saying, "Returned. Doesn't work.".

Probably a lot of what you can buy at these shows are just some company's
junk box, rather than outdated, but new stock.

Caveat emptor.


IMO, you would go into such deals knowing you migh get something
needing repairing. If you want a device that surely works, you go and
but a new one.
  #4  
Old December 15th 03, 04:55 PM
jeff findley
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Default

ToolPackinMama writes:

"William W. Plummer" wrote:

I was trying to buy an APC battery backup. The seller went routing around
in the box to find a "good" one but it didn't seem to work. When he turned
it over, there was a sticky saying, "Returned. Doesn't work.".


I wonder if they remembered to hook up the battery.


We got a batch of UPS's here at work and many of them "didn't work".
Turns out they were shipped with the battery unhooked (clearly
detached and taped out of the way). Unfortunately, not everyone
installing them knew this, so many of them "never worked right".

Jeff
--
Remove "no" and "spam" from email address to reply.
If it says "This is not spam!", it's surely a lie.
  #5  
Old December 16th 03, 05:28 AM
Gordon
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Default

On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 18:33:06 GMT, "William W. Plummer"
wrote:

I was trying to buy an APC battery backup. The seller went routing around
in the box to find a "good" one but it didn't seem to work. When he turned
it over, there was a sticky saying, "Returned. Doesn't work.".

Probably a lot of what you can buy at these shows are just some company's
junk box, rather than outdated, but new stock.

Caveat emptor.


In my case I had a mobo that went bad on me within a week. I called
the number on my receipt and they told me to just catch them at
another show to exchange it for another.
Well, that is exactly what I did. That particular vendor is one I
always see at computer shows. This vendor and like a lot of them do
have stores also. So I would believe they are for the most part in it
for the long haul.
  #6  
Old December 16th 03, 06:06 PM
MikeW
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Default

A month or two ago, I went to a computer show for the first time in a
while. I wasn't too impressed. The selection was only okay, the
prices weren't any lower, and in most cases higher, than name brand
websites (Newegg especially), and I would have had to pay sales tax.
Why bother?

And by the look of the show, alot of people seem to agree with me.
When I used to go to these things, they looked pretty prosperous.
This one looked like it was barely alive.

"William W. Plummer" wrote in message news:B12Db.539373$HS4.4103597@attbi_s01...
I was trying to buy an APC battery backup. The seller went routing around
in the box to find a "good" one but it didn't seem to work. When he turned
it over, there was a sticky saying, "Returned. Doesn't work.".

Probably a lot of what you can buy at these shows are just some company's
junk box, rather than outdated, but new stock.

Caveat emptor.

  #8  
Old December 16th 03, 07:17 PM
Al Dykes
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Default

In article ,
Robert B. Clark wrote:
On 16 Dec 2003 09:06:16 -0800, (MikeW) wrote:

A month or two ago, I went to a computer show for the first time in a
while. I wasn't too impressed. The selection was only okay, the
prices weren't any lower, and in most cases higher, than name brand
websites (Newegg especially), and I would have had to pay sales tax.
Why bother?


I'd agree with you. Several years ago, I used to frequent computer shows.
You had to pay $10 a head to get in. Generally, I either wouldn't buy
anything at all, or I'd only buy a few small items like HDD mounting
brackets, cables, etc. The prices were a little better than Best Buy and
the like, but no comparison to quality online vendors.

Plus, that admission fee bugged the heck out of me.



The high point of the dealer shows was before google, ebay, and
pricewatch made it easy to find just about anything, new or used. I
used to get more than my gas and admission charge back every time I
went. I never bought big items, just lots of parts that I was able to
use on my day job.

In the same timeframe the magazine "Computer Shopper" was the monthly
catalog of parts and systems we used to read. This was a newprint
monthly the size of the Sears Roebuck catalog (does that comparison
even make sense anymore?) I believe this morphed into pricewatch.com.




--
Robert B. Clark (email ROT13'ed)
Visit ClarkWehyr Enterprises On-Line at
http://www.3clarks.com/ClarkWehyr/


--
Al Dykes
-----------


  #9  
Old December 16th 03, 11:56 PM
Jim Strand
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Posts: n/a
Default

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 04:28:41 GMT, Gordon wrote:

In my case I had a mobo that went bad on me within a week. I called
the number on my receipt and they told me to just catch them at
another show to exchange it for another.
Well, that is exactly what I did. That particular vendor is one I
always see at computer shows. This vendor and like a lot of them do
have stores also. So I would believe they are for the most part in it
for the long haul.


It could easily have turned out differently. Such as never finding
the vendor again, anywhere! Also amazing how much "no name"
merchandize they pan off.

With outfits like NewEgg I wonder how the computer shows even manage
to exist.


  #10  
Old December 16th 03, 11:57 PM
MikeW
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Posts: n/a
Default

We just called Computer Shopper the phonebook. I always knew I'd be
buying a new computer when I started unconsciously buying phonebooks.

(Al Dykes) wrote in message ...
In article ,
Robert B. Clark wrote:
On 16 Dec 2003 09:06:16 -0800,
(MikeW) wrote:

A month or two ago, I went to a computer show for the first time in a
while. I wasn't too impressed. The selection was only okay, the
prices weren't any lower, and in most cases higher, than name brand
websites (Newegg especially), and I would have had to pay sales tax.
Why bother?


I'd agree with you. Several years ago, I used to frequent computer shows.
You had to pay $10 a head to get in. Generally, I either wouldn't buy
anything at all, or I'd only buy a few small items like HDD mounting
brackets, cables, etc. The prices were a little better than Best Buy and
the like, but no comparison to quality online vendors.

Plus, that admission fee bugged the heck out of me.



The high point of the dealer shows was before google, ebay, and
pricewatch made it easy to find just about anything, new or used. I
used to get more than my gas and admission charge back every time I
went. I never bought big items, just lots of parts that I was able to
use on my day job.

In the same timeframe the magazine "Computer Shopper" was the monthly
catalog of parts and systems we used to read. This was a newprint
monthly the size of the Sears Roebuck catalog (does that comparison
even make sense anymore?) I believe this morphed into pricewatch.com.




--
Robert B. Clark (email ROT13'ed)
Visit ClarkWehyr Enterprises On-Line at
http://www.3clarks.com/ClarkWehyr/

 




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