CompuServe Thread

Educational Purchase pln

27 messages in this thread
#16922From: Brian CowanMar 8, 1991 11:08 PM
Has C= updated their educational purchase plan since August? If so, could someone PLEASE upload the price list?!?! The information in the Commodore news forum is hopelessly outdated. I need to know just how much $ I need to try to accumulate for a 3000. And I'm praying that C= dropped the educational prices as much as they did the retail ones……
#16993From: Betty Clay/SYSOPMar 9, 1991 9:07 PM
Brian, The way I heard it, there have been many changes at Commodore's Educational Sales in the past few weeks and things there are currently in less than ship-shape order. I believe they are getting things all straight and will be getting out a new educational price list right away. I've seen some lists lately, have seen that they are right, then that they were wrong, etc. How would we know which list to upload? I suspect we will see an official one very soon now. Betty
#17400From: Chris PeckMar 14, 1991 11:29 PM
I saw a list in Jan with real nice deals, but the list we just got is horrendous – it looks like C= doesn't want to sell Amigas to any faculty,staff or students! All the prices as of March 1st went up from January. Besides this, trying to get C= to come to a campus is next to impossible, our local dealer will come to the local Ed. shows but he can't compete with IBM and Apple – they've got nice LaserDisc players, MIDI's, and all kinds of neat video/multimedia platforms that they demo at the Ed. shows. Yes, I know they cost ALOT more, but nobody else there does… Oops – I should save my flames for elsewhere, maybe???
#17431From: Betty Clay/SYSOPMar 15, 1991 12:15 PM
Chris, Commodore is just getting started in educational sales to colleges. Apple and IBM have been at it for years. Also, each of them is many times as large as Commodore, and has more people, more resources, etc. It didn't have to be this way, but it IS this way. I wish it were otherwise, too. Commodore is still suffering from poor decisions made back in 1981-1982. But the current people at Commodore are having to live with that and work around it. I think they are doing the best they can. They have chosen a few schools where most of their efforts will go, and then they will spread out as they can afford it. What else can they do under the circumstances? Betty
#17540From: Ethan SolomitaMar 16, 1991 5:42 PM
When Commodore came down to Columbia they came with one of those pretty laserdisc players you mentioned. No problem there. — Ethan
#17548From: Mark D. ManesMar 16, 1991 7:08 PM
Well the price changes in the educational program were made so that the dealers made a bit of change. It became absolutely amazing the number of "students" that came out of the woodwork.. 🙂 Also, Paul Van Reed from Commodore came to Norfolk State University to demonstrate the Amiga 3000UX. If I were you, I would pressure your dealership, the services are available from Commodore. -mark=
#17542From: Ethan SolomitaMar 16, 1991 5:42 PM
Things are now all straightened out, things have settled down. Paul Calkin is now firmly in control. — Ethan
#17541From: Ethan SolomitaMar 16, 1991 5:42 PM
A500P $531 A2000 $1164 A2000HD $1455 A2500/30 $2766 A2500/30+ $3239 A3000/16-50 $2183 A3000/25-50 $2547 A3000/25-100 $3421 A1084S $282 A1950 $520 Monitors and peripherals have gone back up since the February list, but the machines went down slightly. — Ethan
#17588From: John GagerMar 17, 1991 1:48 AM
Ethan, I noticed on the price list that the A3000/25-50 goes for $2547. And the A3000/25-100 goes for $3421? Geez, another $1000 bucks just to gain 50 megs? With the current pricing of the Quantum 105, I could almost buy 3 of them for that amount. Sometimes I just don't understand CBM's pricing policy. John
#17595From: Ethan SolomitaMar 17, 1991 5:56 AM
The extra $1,000 also includes an extra 3MB of RAM. — Ethan
#17707From: John GagerMar 18, 1991 2:11 AM
Ok, that makes more sense. Getting the extra 3MB of ram accounts for some of the $1000 price difference. But you would still be better off purchasing the 25-50 and then purchasing the 105 and ram on the open market. Of course, a lot of users don't want to open up the case at all, so would pay the extra $$$. John
#17727From: John PendergrassMar 18, 1991 10:52 AM
That's even if they are ALLOWED to open up the case at all. I understand that Commodore is sealing all 2000/3000 cases now (marking a screw with red putty or something) and if an average user opens it it voids the warranty? Is this true? How the **ll is a user supposed to add ram/toasters/harddrives/etc if that's the case? –jp–seattle–
#17788From: John GagerMar 19, 1991 1:20 AM
John, well if Commodore doesn't allow one to install their own memory or boards, then they had better remove it from the User's manual that comes with the 3000. Either that, or they had better be prepared to go to court if they refuse warranty service. John – via Whap!
#17819From: John PendergrassMar 19, 1991 11:38 AM
Well, what exactly are the limitations on opening your new 2000/3000? Since there is that red blob on the back screw I assume that official warranty folks would know you've been inside? If you had a motherboard problem a month later will Commodore still repair/replace? If so, what is the purpose of the red blob? I don't know, and hope someone can clear this up, since I know two people with new 2000's, and when they ask me for help installing memory later, I want to know what to say. –jp–seattle–
#17866From: Roy PahnkeMar 19, 1991 10:16 PM
John – This subject came up last month on the CBMService forum. It appears that C= is also putting these stickers on their line of MS-DOS machines. One guy had a 386sx Commodore, that he got mail order. The machine arrived with the stick broken and the guy was concerned. He mentioned that the CPU had Windows installed and yet only 1meg of RAM. Well he pointed out that the first thing one would probably want to add ram to this machine (Hmm, one of the things we Amy's user have in common ). Anyway, to make a long thread short, the guy had a right to send the machine back because the sticker was broken, but he questioned what he was suppose to do with the sticker when the time came that he wanted to add RAM. Dave Minnich (CBM support), told him he wasn't sure about the sticker situation. Said he, (A direct Snap Quote) "I'll have to dig around to see exactly why we're putting these stickers on machines that allow user expansion. Doesn't seem appropriate to me." Then, a few days later, Dave said to an Amiga owner; "… If a customer takes a user-expandable system to a dealer/service center for repair, and the warranty sticker is broken, the only thing they should be checking for is whether or not expansion boards have been added. If so, the warranty is still in effect. At least, this is how I would interpret it. Dave" I have not see any other messages in this thread. Now I know Dave from C= Customer Support doesn't have a chance to get over to these forums very often. So I'm just tellin' ya what he said to another user. I asked this same question last November, when I had a customer who wanted me to add RAM. Got no good answers at that time either. I wish we could all get a decent answer from C= as to the exact meanning of having these stickers and what broken one will or will not do to our warrenties. But I don't think it's going to happen. Just my thoughts on this subject. – Roy Pahnke – Casper, Wyomin' – Crazy Mountain Software –
#17879From: Don Curtis/SYSOPMar 19, 1991 11:35 PM
John, Tell them to read their warranty cards…or the warranty page in their manual. More than likely, if the case is "sealed", breaking the seal by other than an authorized dealer/tech will void the warranty. Don
#17889From: John GagerMar 20, 1991 12:58 AM
John: I'm not sure what their Warranty policy is now. After reading their Warranty, I think it comes down to this. If you install a board or chip in the Computer and it frys your poor Amy, then it is not covered under warranty and you pay for the repairs. Now in the situation where you add the memory chips and a couple of months later something goes wrong, then you would have to prove to the person doing the repairs that what you did had no relation to the current problem, which may be difficult to prove. My advice: 1 Your friends have the memory installed by a authorized service center. 2 Let them install it, or 3 If they insist, go ahead and install it, but make it perfectly clear that you will not be responsible for any damage. I've had enough experience installing memory, boards, and Hard drives to my Amigas that it doesn't bother me to open up the case. But if I fry something in the process, I will be crying as I pay the repair bill. John – via Whap!
#18068From: Ethan SolomitaMar 22, 1991 12:02 AM
I have not heard about the sealing of A3000s or any A2000s except the A2000 itself. — Ethan
#18090From: John PendergrassMar 22, 1991 10:16 AM
Well, it sure doesn't make sense to seal them. But that's never stopped them before 🙂 Some questions to dealers out there: Are all your A2000's/A3000's coming in sealed? How do you handle warranty service if the seal is broken? Are you going to charge an owner who brings you a sealed A2000 to install some memory/hard drive/etc who has purchased their memory/hard drive/etc mail order or at another place? (ducking at this question) –jp–seattle–
#17698From: Jim SakladMar 18, 1991 12:00 AM
> The extra $1,000 also includes an extra 3MB of RAM. More specifically, the 3000/25-50 comes with 2 megs, 1 chip and 1 fast, but the 1 fast is the kind (256K X 4 ?) that can be moved over to chip when you go buy 2 megs or 4 or whatever of the good (1M X 4 SCRAM ?) fast ram chips. The 3000/25-100 comes with 5 megs, 1 chip and 4 fast, but the 4 megs of fast ram are all those 1M X 4 SCRAMs. Your next expansion would be getting the second meg of chip ram. . . . . . JimDoc
#17709From: John GagerMar 18, 1991 2:26 AM
I purchased the 3000/25-50, took my Quantum 105 out of my 2000 and put it in the 3000, and then bought 4MB of 1Mx4 Static Column ram, and then moved the DRAMS over for the extra Chip mem. Even if I would have had to purchase the Quantum, I still would have come out ahead by adding the goodies myself. John
#17954From: Jim SakladMar 20, 1991 10:42 PM
> Even if I would have had to purchase the Quantum, I still would have > come out ahead by adding the goodies myself. That's good to know — I hadn't gone pricing chips yet. I will probably swap my new Quantum 210 for whatever came in the 3000 that I eventually get. . . . . . JimDoc
#17637From: Tim DevlinMar 17, 1991 3:05 PM
Do you have to buy a CPU to get the monitor at the edu. prive? A friend of mine has an A500 and wants to get a 1084S for it with the discount. Tim
#17738From: Ethan SolomitaMar 18, 1991 3:52 PM
You don't need to buy a CPU anymore. As long as you don't buy more than one of each model per year. — Ethan
#17772From: Ben A LottMar 18, 1991 10:19 PM
Yep that's true, and with the new pricing they've filalized the "buy from stock" policy (they put it in writing, at last(funny we acutally make more on educational sales then on standard sales (WOW)). BEN Leigh's Computer's
#17798From: Ethan SolomitaMar 19, 1991 4:05 AM
That is pretty funny, and sad. They've raised the prices so much. But you'll note that the Unix machines are good deals (considering their list price) and they did lower prices on all the machines except the A500. It is just peripherals/monitors that really went up. — Ethan
#17848From: Ben A LottMar 19, 1991 8:08 PM
Actually it wasn't the raise alone that did it, to the end user it less than what we sell the system for (A500=$875 normal A500ED=813 educational, those prices are with monitor), but after C= STO fee we make more on the ED sale and then they give us Coop $ too! BEN Leigh's Computer's