[HN Gopher] Don't Piss Off Bradley, the Parts Seller Keeping Ata...
___________________________________________________________________
Don't Piss Off Bradley, the Parts Seller Keeping Atari Machines
Alive
Author : zdw
Score : 181 points
Date : 2021-06-21 02:35 UTC (20 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.vice.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.vice.com)
| cmrdporcupine wrote:
| I recall buying some parts for my Atari Falcon from Best back in
| ... 2000. It was ridiculously difficult then, and I'm amazed it's
| still exactly the same now.
|
| But I do recall that I had email exchanges where he seemed quite
| friendly. Looking through my archive I see that I had an
| interaction with him in 2014, and it was cordial, but slow. (1
| month delay in reply).
| neilv wrote:
| I didn't see a Seinfeld reference in the Vice piece.
|
| Example: "No sound chip for you! Come back, one year!"
| neilv wrote:
| I wasn't just making a joke. I suppose that the strict rules
| for ordering, and the temporary banning of people, might've
| been inspired by the 1995 Seinfeld episode. The timeline might
| also fit.
|
| > _Prior to Atari's collapse in 1996, Koda's catalog was 46
| pages long. After Atari folded, he released a new version, with
| 228 pages. But none of this explains the endless rules and
| stipulations, the blacklisting, or the website._
| orionblastar wrote:
| Sounds like he needs to hire some help.
| ufmace wrote:
| If this guy is this much of a headache to order parts from,
| just imagine how much of a headache he would be to work for.
| bsder wrote:
| Someone who buys 7,000 pallets of what is effectively junk and
| then keeps it for 40 years is likely to have a strongly
| contrarian personality.
| ed_elliott_asc wrote:
| But it wasn't, he was in the business of selling Atari spares
| and the last warehouse of Atari spares came up for sale and
| he bought it.
| nico_h wrote:
| Order minimum $50, order maximum 3 parts. There is not much
| margin for profit in there.
|
| 1 order inventory catalogue 20 years of date + X pages of
| "updates". This person doesn't suffer fools and I would venture
| it's more of hobby than a business.
| sersi wrote:
| Given the monopoly he has, he could probably get away with
| multiplying the price of items and trying to transform it in
| a profitable business. It's more of a choice to make it a
| hobby.
| emteycz wrote:
| Maybe he wants to keep it affordable instead of profitable?
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| Right, and in return he just demands a certain amount of
| respect. Doesn't seem unreasonable to me really.
| lsaferite wrote:
| Generally speaking, at least for me, respect is earned,
| not demanded. If you have to demand it, it's not respect
| you are asking for, it's... fear(maybe?).
| thatguy0900 wrote:
| He only has a monopoly on factory parts. How much of this
| stuff has available knockoffs that also work?
| newsbinator wrote:
| He seems to enjoy being the king of the castle, even if it's a
| smaller castle.
|
| Having no objective reason to turn away customers would
| disappoint a person like that.
| dep_b wrote:
| Funny, exactly the same attitude as Vintage Planet, a guy that
| has spares for most vintage synthesizers:
| https://www.vintageplanet.nl/
|
| He also has his own system for ordering, where you select the
| items, then he weighs them, then he'll give you a price and a
| payment link.
|
| No better way to annoy him than to refuse to read his FAQ and ask
| for a total price including shipping, or anything outside the
| possibility of his rigid system.
|
| Talked to him about helping him update his online shop 10 years
| ago or more. Clearly, judging by the layout and functionality
| that still didn't happen yet.
|
| He already talked back then to a generic shop builder that wanted
| to sell him a shop for about 500 bucks or something.
|
| The problem of course was that his unique checkout system was
| sacred and they refused to implement it his way. I told him it
| was possible, but a custom checkout could cost up to 5000.
|
| Clearly, I was out to defraud him charging such an outrageous
| rate for a small change to a 500 dollar website! We never became
| friends. And he never found a honest shop builder.
| canadianfella wrote:
| How do you pronounce honest?
| RegBarclay wrote:
| Surprised no one has made the Seinfeld Soup Nazi comparison yet.
| skywal_l wrote:
| Ahah, I was about to.
|
| No soup for you !
| phibz wrote:
| I'm guessing he's neurodivergent.
| scandox wrote:
| I knew a lad who went to buy a field from an elderly farmer.
| The old man quoted 1.2 million euros and my acquaintance,
| thinking what harm could there be in chancing his arm said he'd
| give him 1 million.
|
| The old man said the price was now 1.4 million. And he got it.
|
| Sometimes people just like to do things their own way. I don't
| think you have to Neuro divergent to care more about your
| principles than money.
| jacquesm wrote:
| I did that exact same thing, highly effective. It essentially
| tells your opponent during the negotiations that you have the
| advantage and that now you are _both_ aware of it.
| kayodelycaon wrote:
| Trying to under pay someone by 200,000EUR and getting told
| the price is higher after trying that is hardly "doing things
| their own way."
|
| I'd to the same to anyone trying to short change me.
| smnrchrds wrote:
| How would you feel if it was during a job offer
| negotiation? If a company offered you 100k, you counter-
| proposed 120k, and then they came back saying it's gonna be
| 75k now, take it or leave it?
|
| In general, I cannot condone punishing people for
| negotiating. It's not about business, it's making sure
| people feel small; making them feel your power and feel
| their powerlessness towards you. It's making people feel
| bad for the sake of making them feel bad.
| cbanek wrote:
| I've actually seen it more the other way - like they ask
| you what you want, and if you say, then they will be like
| okay how about 90% of that?
|
| I had one job offer where I absolutely nailed the
| interview and basically walked out with a verbal offer,
| and then the founder decided to offer me $10k less than
| what I asked for. I didn't respond for a week, and then
| he offered me what I asked for. But because of that, I
| didn't even respond to the second email, I don't want to
| work for someone who will screw things up over small
| points like that. Again, like you say it was just about
| them trying to screw me over because they felt like they
| could.
| smnrchrds wrote:
| In the case of employer and employee, the employer is in
| the position of power. Even in tech where employees are
| in demand and have much more power that in other sectors,
| employers are still more powerful.
|
| In the other cases discussed, the seller is in the
| position of power. And they rub their power in the face
| of the less powerful party because that party was
| operating on the assumption of equality of power and
| dared to negotiate.
| bbarnett wrote:
| Trying to short change you, would imply underhanded
| tactics. ie, not giving back full change, for example, and
| hoping you'd not notice..
|
| Haggling in the open as a counter offer, is hardly that.
| jacquesm wrote:
| Indeed, but haggling can go both ways, there is no set
| rule that says you can only haggle down.
| bbarnett wrote:
| Agreed.
| dagw wrote:
| _I'd to the same to anyone trying to short change me._
|
| I guess it really depends on what your local market looks
| like. In some places the price you list land or real estate
| for is highest you could possible hope of getting and you
| go in with realization that you will almost certainly get
| less. There it is common to start the 'bidding' ~20% under
| asking.
|
| In other places the price you list is the lowest price you
| will consider selling for and you'll never seriously
| consider an offer under that. There you normally start
| bidding at 0-10% over asking.
| pg_bot wrote:
| Anyone raising price after getting a perceived lowball
| offer sends a clear signal that they don't know what
| they're doing. Real estate is often listed much higher than
| the sale price since it's (usually) much more difficult to
| go higher than it is to go lower. The seller has to set a
| price up front which is a disadvantage when negotiating. So
| sellers often set the price higher than what they would
| accept hoping that they can find a high price but having
| some wiggle room to negotiate down without being
| disappointed.
|
| If you are given an offer that is below what you would
| accept, a polite no will suffice.
| dagw wrote:
| This seems to happen a lot in these sorts of circles. My dad has
| a classic car and if you want a certain refurbished part, you
| basically have to order it from this one dude in Australia who
| doesn't answer email, rarely answers the phone and has a delivery
| time of 2 weeks - 6 month.
|
| However everybody who has successfully ordered from him agree
| that his refurbishment jobs are the best you'll get, so everybody
| kind of puts up with it.
| busterarm wrote:
| Anything newer than 1975 generally happens on Facebook
| Marketplace now. Even a lot of the enthusiast forums have been
| dying and seeing their traffic move to Facebook groups.
|
| Probably half of the rotary Mazda parts/car sales happen on
| Facebook now.
|
| Sucks for those of us who choose not to have Facebook accounts.
| mysterydip wrote:
| In a way this parallels IT, with the cranky old person as the
| old time mainframe/old system admin, the only one left with the
| tribal knowledge accumulated to know how to keep it running, so
| the company just puts up with them.
| the-dude wrote:
| We have a name : BOFH
|
| If we don't like you, we'll make you hurt.
| skylanh wrote:
| No, the BOFH is a ancient, self-indulgent series of comedic
| writings done partially as self-help.
| monkeydreams wrote:
| If you're talking Datsuns, I know that guy.
| kirse wrote:
| Yes it's amazing how much of the automotive industry runs on
| word of mouth, ancient web forums, and "call this number" type
| deals. I've got some old Subaru transmissions that I use in
| rally and there's basically one guy in Japan who speaks just
| enough English to help you source OEM gear replacements for it.
| It's always cool beneath all the corporate conglomerate 1-800
| hustle-and-bustle that there's so many small businesses and
| underground connections that drive the economy.
| jhgb wrote:
| So, what's the succession plan for that guy?
| prova_modena wrote:
| There a few patterns I have observed in the vintage car parts
| industry, depending on the demand for the parts (tied to
| collector demand for the cars). I'm sure these apply to other
| industries like the Atari guy.
|
| Consistent demand, med-high value: the business' inventory is
| bought up by a larger business that supplies a related niche
| as part of an expansion plan. This can result in poorer
| availability/service as the tribal knowledge of inventory
| organization and item details is lost in transition.
|
| High value but demand is inconsistent/slow: parts bought up
| by a collector or restorer, they go off the market into
| storage in order to keep a specific collection going. They
| may in theory sell parts to others but usually difficult to
| deal with and almost always requires an "in".
|
| Low demand low value: Scrapped, or stored in indifferent
| conditions (outside or piled up in storage units) until
| everything degrades.
|
| Of course, if another "that guy" appears there is a
| possibility for a stable transition. But as other commenters
| alluded to, these folks tend to have idiosyncratic
| personalities and lifestyles so that happens very rarely in
| my experience.
| Aeronwen wrote:
| You're SOL unless someone else decides to take up the mantle
| of the last guy. So basically every 90's comic book reboot,
| except they turn into a jaded parts guy instead of jaded
| super hero.
| znpy wrote:
| But then again, keeping a classic car is asking for this kind
| of problems.
| dagw wrote:
| Classic cars and classic consoles appear to have lot in
| common.
| bruce343434 wrote:
| Try classic music
| ehutch79 wrote:
| Like Nirvana or Pearl Jam?
| TillE wrote:
| Far fewer moving parts in consoles. I deal with vintage
| SNES consoles, and as long as you replace the capacitors
| and the 7805 voltage regulator, the vast majority work
| perfectly. All these parts are trivially sourced brand new,
| of course.
|
| I guess the original proprietary ICs won't last literally
| forever, but probably long enough for anyone to still care.
| Loughla wrote:
| Vintage/Antique woodworking tools are like that, too.
|
| To get a piece for a tool I'm restoring, I had to figure out
| the cell number of a guy who bought the property that had the
| warehouse from a defunct dealer on it, and beg him to go
| through it for me. He runs an actual business, and bought the
| warehouse as somewhere to store his day-job machinery, not
| realizing it was the go-to for this particular brand of vintage
| machinery.
| chevill wrote:
| I've run into some interesting business practices since I've
| gotten into Woodworking/woodcarving. There's a business I buy
| carving wood from where his process is you place an order, he
| ships you the items, and then also mails you an invoice and
| then you have to send a check or money order.
| Loughla wrote:
| The most fun experience I've had was when I ordered a Vega
| fence for my tablesaw. I'm like 98% sure the guy in
| Illinois that I talked to is also the guy who owns the
| company, makes the fences, packages them, and physically
| walks them to the UPS store.
|
| It was legitimately interesting to hear his perspective
| when I had an issue with my shipment. He literally
| remembered my order off the top of his head and helped
| troubleshoot without any sort of reference material.
|
| Woodworkers are an odd bunch.
| bombcar wrote:
| He seems like a fan of the system operating for the good of
| collectors and not willing to put up with crap - the $5 item
| isn't about the $5 but having to wait for someone who never
| showed up.
| Smithalicious wrote:
| If you try to order more than 3 items or break any of these
| other bizarre rules you get blacklisted for months
|
| He sounds like a cunt who gets off on making a cult out of
| holding this entire hobby hostage
| bombcar wrote:
| The "order more than 3 items" sounds to me like he's dealt
| with resellers before and doesn't want to.
|
| The example of his email given seemed polite, if brusque.
| Demanding someone operate the way we want them to on our
| terms is a bit self-centered.
| Igelau wrote:
| Well said. It would be dishonest to phrase it more politely.
| ed_elliott_asc wrote:
| That is a bit strong, probably could have made the same
| statement without the first few words of the second
| paragraph.
| ben-gy wrote:
| This type of language isn't why I read hacker news everyday -
| please try and be a bit more eloquent with the points you'd
| like to make in the future.
| errantspark wrote:
| I feel like he uses the exact words needed to get his point
| across clearly and concisely. Using expletives effectively
| is part of being eloquent.
| cjrp wrote:
| > This type of language isn't why I read hacker news
| everyday
|
| Scroll past it then? Doesn't seem like a big hardship.
| gopher_space wrote:
| Or just post your fluff on reddit like everyone else.
|
| HN is only useful because of its tone.
| carlmr wrote:
| >the $5 item isn't about the $5 but having to wait for someone
| who never showed up.
|
| Of course, but then again, it seems a bit unreasonable to hold
| these grudges forever.
|
| People make mistakes, forget appointments, have a busy life
| outside of their hobbies. Expecting perfection is unreasonable.
| Especially since this was a loyal customer for years.
|
| Of course he has a monopoly so there's nothing to stop him.
| [deleted]
| Romulus968 wrote:
| Bradley sounds like a crotchety old asshole that would be happier
| if he'd get with the times and use an digital system instead of
| limiting customers to 3 items and not accepting paypal unless the
| total is over $50/
| shp0ngle wrote:
| The website really is something else.
|
| https://www.best-electronics-ca.com
| djaychela wrote:
| Back in the day (When I was an apprentice
| Elecronics/Instrumentation engineer at an atomic installation
| in the UK) there was a company called Bull Electrical who
| stocked only surplus equipment from large industrial sell-offs.
| It was a complete treasure trove of "what the hell is this?"
| moments, and the only way any of us had an interface with it
| was with their by-mail catalogue which was as disorganised as
| this website, and a complete joy to spend time with. You'd find
| things you never even thought existed, all at knock-down
| prices. I never bought anything crazy from them, just mundane
| stuff at low prices. But getting the catalogue from them was
| always an event - maybe once every six months - and it would
| spend all its time being borrowed and thumbed through on the
| loo during breaks.
|
| Happy days!
|
| I _think_ this is their current website [1]. Certainly looks
| about right!
|
| [1] - https://www.bullybeef.co.uk/
| orls wrote:
| Wow, that's a hell of a website.
|
| I love that amongst various gadgets and toys, there is not
| just one but _two_ Spanish holiday home rentals.
|
| (But given the amount of CCTV equipment they carry, I might
| think twice before renting a villa from them...)
| iampivot wrote:
| Check out their anti gravity device.
| csunbird wrote:
| And the Truth Machine !
| vidarh wrote:
| This looks like they're the spiritual siblings of this
| company [1]. Apart from all the tat, they used to be the main
| source of electronics parts for more casual hobbyists in
| Norway, though new rather than surplus.
|
| I grew up going to his shop, and getting their print catalog
| of several hundred pages.
|
| When they went online, they spewed the print catalog onto web
| pages, and added animations. He sold the whole thing to
| someone who wanted make it into a more serious business -
| said acquirer ran it into the ground, and the original
| founder bought it back.
|
| [1] https://www.arngren.net/
| iampivot wrote:
| I think he planned to start selling flying cars eventually!
| vidarh wrote:
| The Moller Skycar [1] [2]. Unfortunately Moller has been
| making the rounds since at least the 80's without ever
| releasing a commercial product.
|
| [1] https://www.arngren.net/moller.html
|
| [2] https://www.moller.com/
| Romulus968 wrote:
| Good god.
| dagw wrote:
| Wow. I had no idea they where still around. Used to love
| that shop.
| carlmr wrote:
| But it does have HTTPS
| blippage wrote:
| Looks like the design was inspired by the old TimeCube site.
| [deleted]
| devoutsalsa wrote:
| Haha, this website looks like it's older than Pacman.
| bane wrote:
| The actual interview with the owner from the incredible ANTIC
| podcast.
|
| https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-5-the-atari-...
|
| It would be a fascinating dive into his finances to understand
| how he makes it all work. The warehouse costs alone must be
| astronomical, and the addressable market is very small.
| ddingus wrote:
| I just want to take a moment and recognize Kay. So many awesome
| interviews!
|
| Each time I enjoy one, I am fascinated by how so many things
| connect, what it meant to people, how they think...
|
| Thank you Kay. Seriously.
| mdavis6890 wrote:
| The problem that causes this is that the supply and demand curves
| drift farther and farther apart until they barely intersect at
| all. At some point they will no longer intersect, and that will
| be that.
| juanbyrge wrote:
| OR, folks can just use Atari emulator in a RetroPie or any other
| media PC and not have to deal with this guy.
| geoffpado wrote:
| A lot of people clearly enjoy the actual hardware, the
| tinkering with it, the feel of the actual controls, etc. It's
| not just about the software.
| Mountain_Skies wrote:
| Plus the emulators, despite being very good, aren't perfect.
| It's not unusual to have minor timing issues cause weird
| glitches in software that was written when the developer
| could expect little to no variance.
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| There are no cycle-accurate emulators for Atari hardware?
| LocalH wrote:
| Even "cycle-accurate" emulators aren't always perfect
| reaperducer wrote:
| It's just not the same thing.
|
| I recently switched from high-end Atari emulators to real
| hardware, and there's no comparison. Even the best emulators
| have latency issues, and compatibility issues.
|
| When I switched from emulators to actual hardware, suddenly my
| paddles work perfectly, and the screen artifacts that appear in
| some games disappeared! I guess emulators just can't handle the
| A/D conversion well.
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| Unfortunately, it looks like the emulation community also has a
| lot of people who are just like this guy. I've read about
| emulation code for obscure systems being removed from MAME
| because it offended some collector and he threatened to never
| release anything again. There's a huge amount of
| counterproductive drama and politics in the community.
| sumtechguy wrote:
| Dont think that has happened in awhile for MAME. But yeah the
| emu community has its share of people like that. Grouchy guys
| who if you do not play by their rules they just ban you.
| There are other emu guys that are great to work with. There
| are also some reformed grouchy guys. But you can still tick
| them off. I think the guys who are holding onto the old hw
| are starting to realize that the stuff just is not worth much
| and yes that stuff is rotting. It was just not designed to
| last 40+ years. There was a point in the early 2000s where it
| seemed like every other week someone was mad someone else had
| dumped/emulated something that made someone else mad. Not so
| much anymore.
|
| MAME itself has some of this too despite basically being a
| GPL2/BSD codebase.
| tinus_hn wrote:
| Don't forget the incredible amount of work that goes into
| releasing an even halfway decent emulator. Just for pirates
| to run with it sending thousands of useless bug reports
| your way.
| sumtechguy wrote:
| Oh yeah forgot about their alt license phase for awhile
| to try to stop that.
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| I thought non-commercial licenses were an old tradition
| in the emulator community. Snes9x and MAME code were
| licensed as such for a long time. I've seen developers
| release code under GPL/MIT/BSD and then object to how
| other people using their code. Is this what you mean?
|
| In the end, none of these licenses matter anyway. I
| seriously doubt anyone in this community will ever sue
| somebody over license violations. People do nothing while
| corporations file DMCA claims against screenshots despite
| Sony vs. Connectix.
| sumtechguy wrote:
| MAME had one of those style licenses. They switched to
| GPL/BSD because of your second point. It did not really
| matter as the companies making these knock off
| devices/packs had zero intention of following the law
| anyway, and the people making the emu did not have the
| money to go after the offenders. It was also a pain if
| they really wanted to have someone make one of those
| devices with your code. For example if one of the orig
| rightsholders to the roms wanted to use MAME they
| basically couldn't because of that license. For a large
| company it does matter for import/export and risk
| management.
|
| People releasing code GPL/MIT/MIT and then getting mad
| when someone they do not like using it is always going to
| happen. Not everyone agrees on everything. In the emu
| case it was more they just did not want to get sued.
|
| What I think is more interesting is there are still
| devices being created that are using the older code
| before the switchover that has the restriction and the
| emulation is worse!
|
| Also Before that Sony v. Connectix it was not very clear,
| with takedown notices every few months to the sites. Now
| you pretty much only see the notices on the rom sites. By
| the point the case was done the license was already
| mostly in place. Even switching over to the new one was a
| large undertaking that they put off for a long time. I
| think a small handful of drivers they could not find the
| orig authors to ask and they pulled them out and re-wrote
| them.
| busterarm wrote:
| It hasn't happened in a while that you know of.
|
| There are a lot of rare things that are completely
| unavailable only in the hands of a sole collector (usually
| Japanese). Then they'll mail it around to friends under a
| strict "no dumping rule". They like showing off what they
| have.
|
| Now of course those "no dumping" rules have been violated
| over the years and usually to disastrous effect but also
| you have situations where the rom dump is ALSO only in the
| hands of a few people.
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| > usually to disastrous effect
|
| Like what? I honestly don't see why these collectors have
| enough leverage to impose any disastrous consequences.
| The rare stuff is in most cases merely a curiosity. In
| the long run it doesn't really matter if those things are
| preserved. It would be nice but it certainly doesn't
| justify bending over backwards for a collector and their
| "rules". Devkits for example would be extremely important
| items but I don't see people talking about stuff like
| that very often.
| busterarm wrote:
| When Labyrinthe/Horror Tour 3 leaked, the collector went
| absolutely apeshit and stopped giving anyone access to
| anything. And that was a ROM collector downstream of the
| collector with exclusive physical copies. It was someone
| who wasn't supposed to have those dumps and probably
| burned a lot of (if not all of) their connections.
| https://kotaku.com/collection-of-rare-japanese-games-
| leaks-o...
|
| Keep in mind that a lot of the rare stuff ends up helping
| contribute to emulator development/accuracy.
|
| The importance of devkits (and these are still hotly
| collected) only goes so far as decapping ICs is hard
| work. A finished game might show you new valid opcodes or
| undocumented system call you weren't aware of.
|
| Keep in mind that the way collecting works in Japan is
| more about archiving and a rare few people get things
| into their collection because they are trusted. They're
| trusted to preserve it, but also entrusted not to make it
| available to everyone who wants to download it for free.
| Creators revisit prior works (or make available for
| resale) far more frequently than we tend to here.
| city41 wrote:
| I'm not trying to defend actions like that. But it can be
| tough to be in those shoes. The video game world now has a
| good number of small outfits serving up very desirable items.
| Such as TerraOnion, Analogue, Black Dog, Game-Tech, etc. They
| are just a few people trying to please thousands and
| thousands of customers. I'm sure dealing with that many angry
| people gets old, fast.
| nla wrote:
| I've bought from both of them and there is a stark difference.
| Lance is a gentleman and a pleasure to do business with. I've
| bought thousands of dollars of Atari stuff from him. I always
| enjoyed our conversations. Lance is great. Bradley is a dick and
| an asshole. I made one purchase and that was it -- I never went
| back.
| reaperducer wrote:
| I agree. I followed his unusual email instructions to order
| something and got no response.
|
| So a week later, I called twice a day for three days and he
| didn't answer the phone. His answering machine says he'll
| return the call, but he never did.
|
| The next week I got him on the phone and he wouldn't sell me
| the item I wanted unless I also bought some other things I
| don't need. It's not like I was trying to get a deal, or free
| shipping, or something. I just didn't want to feel cheated.
|
| I ended up buying a cheap Chinese knock-off part online.
| cptskippy wrote:
| > he wouldn't sell me the item I wanted unless I also bought
| some other things I don't need.
|
| Was this an assembly perhaps? That happens a lot where a part
| in an assembly is prone to failure and cannot be purchased
| outside of the assembly which which is usually 10x the cost
| of the part itself.
| reaperducer wrote:
| Nope. Nothing complicated. Just a very common part that
| plugs into another very common part. I wanted to buy from
| him to keep everything period and authentic.
|
| The part was $x. His minimum purchase was $y+shipping. I
| told him that I was happy to pay $y+shipping for the single
| part. But he then insisted I also buy completely unrelated
| items $a and $b, which would have increased the price well
| beyond $y+shipping.
| Brian_K_White wrote:
| I had practically the same shitty experience.
|
| In my case the instructions were actually technically
| self contradictory and so I just emailed saying what I
| wanted as best I could resolve within those peculiar
| rules, and he of course told me I was not following the
| rules, so I said fine I'll take whatever you require me
| to take in order to get $x however you want to do it. But
| for the record your web site said x rule, and y rule, and
| I actually tried to do those as you can see.
|
| His next email was to cancel the order, complete with a
| smarmy "I'm sure you will be able to find a source for
| those plotter gears somewhere else."
|
| Well I fucking did as a matter of fact. And pens too. New
| ones, not dried out old stock.
|
| http://Tandy.wiki/CGP-115
|
| I wasn't trying to get any thing special or get away with
| anything or buy up too much of a limited supply or
| anything like that. Just a set of plotter gears and one
| or two joystick cables and their new replacement joystick
| pcbs with better buttons. I think I only really needed a
| single pcb and either no cables or a single cable, but he
| insisted one sold in pairs and maybe the other limited to
| one, something. I didn't really care. I was willing to
| buy whatever and the prices were fine. There was
| absolutely no reason I can fathom to treat me like a
| dick.
|
| The only reason I even tried to limit what I ordered was
| so as not to waste something someone else could have. I
| wasn't using an Atari joystick on an Atari. I was using
| it on a TRS-80 model 1 with an add-on that only provides
| a single joystick port. So I really only needed 1 of
| everything, and I really didn't even need that. My
| joystick actually worked fine, I just liked the sound of
| that upgraded new design PCB, and I was hoping maybe a
| new cable would be more flexible. I was just trying to
| patronize a business. I mean, I was trying to be as
| considerate as possible in every dimension possible, buy
| extra stuff just to make more of a sale, yet don't waste
| stuff I'm not actually going to use... I was not doing
| that much thinking for MY convenience.
|
| Every time I see one of the comments that says they had a
| great experience, all that means is not only is the guy a
| dick, he's a capricious unfair dick.
| ggm wrote:
| This happened to the borgward car owners in the UK. One guy
| ponied up to warehouse all the parts and then gatekeeper mode
| went to stun: you had to be worthy to get a prop shaft, he set
| the prices.
| kingsuper20 wrote:
| I love this as a business concept.
|
| I wish I had had the foresight to get my own dragon hoard. It
| seems like anything I was ever interested in (and I'm not young)
| has become a 'collectors' item' in the last few decades.
|
| It's a bummer to get bid out of everything over time.
| ehnto wrote:
| It's happening now with Japanese bubble era cars, and it's
| funny to watch the cars everyone thought were terrible suddenly
| become pop culture icons. I have stock parts in my shed that
| you couldn't give away, and now people are paying through the
| nose for them.
|
| I sold a car for 4k that's now selling for 30-40k just four
| years later, it's judicious. I am kicking myself, I may never
| own another because I wouldn't reasonably pay that much for
| something that's objectively not worth it, but that's the
| market.
|
| Driving a 90s honda/nissan/toyota/mazda? Check the market price
| right now, you might be sitting on a cheeky house deposit.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| DominoTree wrote:
| So _that 's_ why he stopped responding to me after two or three
| emails
| pontifier wrote:
| I hope I'm not becoming this guy. I stepped in to a situation to
| save a warehouse full of media from being tossed in the trash,
| and now I'm dealing with a lot more than I ever thought I would.
|
| There have been unforseen delays, and it's been over a year with
| no progress. Everything is stable, and I'm trying to do the right
| thing for everyone, but there are some customers that are rightly
| annoyed by the delays.
|
| I've had to tell some customers off... Basically you'll get your
| stuff when you get it, and not before. It's really an issue of I
| can't get their stuff out first no matter what they pay because
| it's buried somewhere in the middle of a container I can't
| unload.
|
| It's frustrating on all sides, but my challenges are made more
| difficult sometimes when I feel like I can't ever satisfy some of
| the people I'm trying to help.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _Basically you 'll get your stuff when you get it, and not
| before._
|
| Maybe don't sell things to people until you have them in your
| hands? Seems like basic inventory management.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| It sounds like OP's in possession of an uninventoried stack
| of _specific_ customer data that they 're working their way
| through, and more out of kindness than profitability.
| fencepost wrote:
| It was more a case of "someone else sold a service to people,
| failed as a business, all the physical media of those clients
| was close to being trashed, and he stepped in and took it
| on." http://www.crossies.com/murfie/crossies_history.html
| Angostura wrote:
| You're not the chap who saved the business that was digitising
| people's tapes/LPs were you? If so, good job.
| fencepost wrote:
| Crossies and the rescue of Murfie, and looks like it based on
| the info on the website(s).
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-06-21 23:02 UTC)