Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!gcwilliams
From: gcwilliams@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Graeme Williams)
Subject: Re: Acorn Compters Ltd. (to the rescue!)
Message-ID: <1991Feb10.221355.22525@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Sender: gcwilliams@watdragon.waterloo.edu
Organization: University of Waterloo
References: <DBH.91Feb6112054@asun4.doc.ic.ac.uk> <g5P5w1w163w@sideways.gen.nz>
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 1991 22:13:55 GMT
Lines: 37

In article <g5P5w1w163w@sideways.gen.nz> patrick@sideways.gen.nz (Pat Cain) writes:
>
>Can't be worse than what it is here in New Zealand.  Prices are
>too high compared to the UK price.  People here used to order their
>machines direct from the UK by ringing places such as Watford
>Electronics and order an Acorn machine.  Doing this usually means
>paying less than HALF the NZ retail price!  Now Watford etc. say Acorn
>has forbidden them to sell machines like this -- is this true Acorn?
>
>In Wellington we have a total of two Acorn "dealers", one of them
>sells gear out of his house (calls himself "Ralph Hill Associates"),
>[stuff deleted]

On prices:
Things are better than they used to be, 2 or 3 months back
an A540 cost 3000pounds in Eng. and $10000 in NZ. Given the exchange
rate of around 1pound=NZ$3 that means the NZ price is about 10% over
the odds. (And no the difference isn't in freighting the thing - it costs
around NZ$200 to *air* freight the machine from Eng.)

Question: What price does Watford offer A540's for ?? (I want one see!)

One aspect of Acorn operations that was a year or two ago, (perhaps still is)
abysmal in NZ, has been the marketing of the products. As far as I could
tell the importers (Barclays?? - not sure) made virtually no attempt to
advertise Acorn products *AT ALL*. I never saw an ad on TV, or radio,
or in the newspaper, or anywhere, except in local Acorn club bulletins.

I personally know of 2 persons in NZ who bought Ataris or Amigas
simply because they were unaware the Arc even existed. I'll bet there
were hundreds of others in the same boat. Its annoying because a bigger
user base would see lower prices, more software, more hardware, better
service, more and better dealers, etc etc. (Oh!, and presumably more
profit for Acorn too - hint hint)

Graeme Williams - a Kiwi in Canada
gcwilliams@watdragon.waterloo.edu
