prodigy69:
<< I'm out of dog food and my cat's box needs new litter. I know what I'll do: I'll order Dog Chow and Fresh Step online from a sock puppet, and then I'll watch the dog starve and the cat sh*t all over the house while I wait for it to be delivered! Pets.com is over. >>
That's my feeling exactly. I buy out of necessity. If I want a book, I go to a book store. If I'm going to GIVE a book, I'll drop ship it from Amazon using an outrageous coupon.
Sure when I get crazy coupons like $10 off of $15 or $50 off of $74, I'll use them, but for all intents and puproses, freight costs no less than sales tax, and the prices AREN'T THAT GREAT!
Of course, I live in Tampa and you can't pee without hitting a book store or pet store or whatever.
I think my feelings towards this are best expressed in what happened to me this week:
I was building another (yes another) PC to be a dedicated Linux file server/internet gateway. I had a jumperable ISA NE2000 NIC hanging around the house that worked in Windows and I bought a Voodoo3 and Yamaha Waveforce XG from my work (the .COM).
The NIC did NOT work in Linux and neither did the sound card and the video card didn't post in my FIC PA2013 despite working in two other PCs. I called up SuperSix (where's he been anyway?) and he confirmed that there was a compatability issue with that particular board.
Luckily, I have enough PCs around the house where I could swap out the sound card with a true Sound Blaster and swap out the NIC for a PCI Realtek, but I would have to go back to work for a different video card.
I swapped the video card out for a Rage 128 and it posted, but I couldn't get it configured in Windows ME. I could care less about Linux at this point. I want it to work in BOTH operating systems with NO SURPRISES. Figuring it could be an ME/VIA chipset thing because it did work in 98, I abort the idea of using the ATI and just grab a good old cheapo 16M TNT2 Vanta. Luckily, I never left the building.
This all took a total of TWO DAYS instead of ONE and as it is I was pissed.
My point: What if I was a regular online customer? What if I didn't have the other computers around the house?
First, I'd probably "assume" the Voodoo video card is bad and get an RMA to replace it with another. Then that one wouldn't work. If I got the ATI eventually (which seemed like the next logical choice since it's great GL for little $$$) as an online customer, I'd likely tech support it until the end of time if I was using it in ME on a VIA board. I'd call me, I'd call ATI... I wouldn't give up! I'd probably put 98 on the machine if I had to!
What about the sound? It's pretty obvious that the sound is a compatability issue because SNDCONFIG in Linux says "Hey! You have a Yamaha sound card and it's not compatible with Linux! Sorry." What would you do? RMA it, of course.
Now add to the frustration of troubleshooting and physical labor and factor in freight costs and down time waiting for UPS.
Hmm.....
Doesn't sound too hot, does it?
Now, some people I can understand. I talk to a lot of people that live in BFE. I'll get calls where I've come to the conclusion that the power supply is dead:
Me: "Can you go to a CompUSA or Best Buy and buy a power supply just to test our theory? You can always 'borrow' it and then return it after I get this one swapped out for you if that is the problem."
Customer: "Nope. There isn't a CompUSA or Fry's or Best Buy for at least 50 miles."
REALLY?!?!?
I guess I take convenience for granted. The smallest town I've ever lived in was Vero Beach, Florida and although we didn't have a Best Buy or CompUSA, the nearest on was in the next town North and there were other alternatives in town.
Oh well....
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