[no subject]

I carry a leatherman tool with me at all times... I keep my tools on me 
(leatherman, flashlight, laptop (for information access, with PCS 
"modem" card). If I was feeling pissy on a parts return, I would have 
also carried a VOA, and maybe even a butane powered solder-iron.... :-)

OTOH, I have sent some vendors 50-200K worth of work for not charging 
me for every damn screw they use for a "free" fix. It's a fine balance. 
There was one vendor who I worked with who had great hardware rates, 
but if you brought a broken part back. Explaining how it was broken was 
the customer's problem (hence the great rates). Other vendors cost much 
more, to pay for the costs of a "no questions asked" policy.

While this particular store does seem semi-lame, keep in mind that mail 
order companies have no tech department to borrow tools from, no 
testing equipment to use, rent, borrow, or cajole. You might have had 
to return 6 parts to six places instead of six parts to one place, 
taking days or weeks instead of hours. *shrug*

Then again, what do I know. My time's worth way too much to me and my 
clients to do hand builds. I prefer to deal with whole-box-swap 
vendors. Sure, it costs more, but I'd rather "outsource" most low-level 
tasks like hardware assembly and testing to other vendors. It's cheaper 
for me.

-Bop


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<li><strong><a name="00002" href="msg00002.html">[ale] How NOT to buy/sell a computer.</a></strong>
<ul><li><em>From:</em> scherrey at proteus-tech.com (Benjamin Scherrey)</li></ul></li>
<li><strong><a name="00023" href="msg00023.html">[ale] How NOT to buy/sell a computer.</a></strong>
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