#Australia Upbeat!
15 messages in this thread
Hi Wes,bb
I am the Queensland retail rep for Commodore. I sometimes drop into the forum
to check the wind. Your message is so close to home that I can't resist
replying as I have been involved in the structure of Commodore's dealer network
here.
Some comments on your message.
—-"In Brisbane – Australia a city with a population of 1,300,000 people there
is only one recognised dealer that I am aware of."—-
And what a dealer that one is! Very professional operation….highly
Amiga literate staff….two outlets, one in each of the major
population centres in SE Qld….'upmarket' environment (high end
video and audio <g>)…'service' oriented…etc. etc. Manufacturer
heaven. I think quality counts for more than quantity in this case.
—–"The only other place you can purchase Amigas is through the
retail chains with a level of support, service and interest which is
questionable to say the least."—–
Brashs, Dick Smith and Myer are the retail chains stocking Amiga here.
Between them they have a total of 34 stores in our immediate area,
not counting the 20 Brashs Record Bars that stock the CD32. That's a
lot of representation in the major retail market place. Almost the
equal of the PC machines and more than Apple have. Around 60 outlets
for Amiga in SE Qld? Plenty.
As to the level of support, service and interest in the Amiga within these
stores…..
At a managerial level they support the Amiga as strongly as any other
product they have on their shelves. These stores are not interested
in allocating valuable shelf space to products they don't want to
sell.
As to service….each of these retailers has a very strict customer
satisfaction policy. In my experience, they are far more likely to
provide customer service (frequently at a financial loss) than a
smaller, less accountable, less able to absorb the loss store. This
applies to all products sold…including Amiga.
As to interest….that is purely dependant on the sales staff in the
store. Some staff members are PC fanatics, some are Macintosh
fanatics and some are Amiga fanatics. Some are not fanatics at all,
but just sell what the customer wants. There are at least four major
suburban stores within these groups that have very enthusiastic Amiga
owners on staff. I count each of these stores as being as valuable
to us as our 'specialist' dealer. Simply because the Amiga customer
gets a high level of service from Amiga literate staff. The other
stores have staff members with varying levels of interest in the
Amiga, from good to very little. But there is no one platform that
enjoys across the board enthusiasm from the sales staff.
I think it is a major achievement on Commodore Australia's part that these
retailers have enough confidence in the Amiga to stock the product. Most
customers know that they do not stock sub standard products (for long
anyway)…so the Amiga gains credibility simply by being there. I have heard
(I don't know) th
Hailing from Queensland originally, I drop into Brisbane occasionally.
I was very impressed with two dealers I visited last time; very
knowledgeable and happy to give advice and assistance. They were
exceptionally good. Actually, one was a dealer while the other was a
video production company using Amigas.
It's when you get to department stores that you notice the
difference. Usually, the lone Amiga sits there with the screen
saying, "Please insert Workbench disk" or whatever the message is and
no disk in sight. None of the mouses have a rubber ball because of
past theft. Therefore, even if you can scare up a disk, you still
can't do anything. It's very rare that seeing an Amiga in a
department store leaves a good impression.
Specialist electronic stores such as Brashs and Dick Smith are quite good
but don't carry much software. The staff have some knowledge but it is
generally superficial. Good places to buy a CD32 but otherwise, I always
go to an Amiga dealer for my purchases.
Having talked with the bloke who is / was the retail rep in Sydney, I know
how difficult it is to get department stores to make decent displays. The
person you arrange everything with one month isn't there the next. Do you
have any suggestions on how to get stores to lift their game? I've
sometimes considered whether it would be worth having the local user group
run a few demos in the computer section. However, that would be a one off;
probably not enough to make any impact on sales and why should the user
group be doing the advertising?
Anyway, it's good to hear from someone from Commodore who is feeling
upbeat about the market. BTW, any bets on whether there will be a WOC this
year?
Regards, Allan. Life is just a tyre swing
on AutoPilot, Sydney, Australia
I would have to question your evaluation of – Very professional
operation – I will agree that they reasonable but . . .
This is the same company that firstly sold – Scala 2.2 to a Workbench
1.3 user.
Then exchanged that for a older Scala 2.0 version – which was
supposed to work. Then advised the customer that they need a Rom
upgrade – 2.04.
Sold the customer the upgrade – Still not working properly. The
customer needed more memory – Sold the upgrade – Still not working
properly.
Then advised the customer that they really needed a 1200 "to do the job
properly" – should have mentioned this in passing 6 weeks earlier 🙂
But I digress . . .
Quoted the customer for a 1200 . At this stage the customer concerned – a
small local production house were getting rather toey. They handed me the
quote to check if the system was viable.
Your very professional operation hand quoted them a standard 1200.
you know the one with 2 meg of C H I P ram !! !! !! – the result SCALA
still would not work
It seems it had slipped their mind that some additional memory might be
need – strange considering the prior upgrade 🙂
As a result the customer – unwilling to deal further with this store
cancelled the order and was left with an unusable – upgraded – 500.
And a Less than current version on a product they had just purchased.
————————————————–
It is ironic that the only reason for this incident was the sales efforts
of your professional company that convinced the customer that his Pro
Video Plus software was old and outdated – even though the customer was
apparently happy with the results it was providing.
————————————————–
I very rarely jump on my soap box about any issues but as computer
professional with 12 years experiance this farse annoyed me considerably.
I have been a Amiga user for many years and had planned to utilise the
Amiga platform widely in the new BRIZ 31 television station – currently
being constructed.
However, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to convince
people that this is a wise choice when situations like this occur.
Especially when the persons involed are also closely involved in the
BRIZ 31 project.
It will be a shame if the installation of 10 IBM PC based Video machines
is the result.
Wes Tatters
STATION MANAGER – BRIZ 31 – Brisbane Australia.
–> Television is the fishbowl of Life.
Hiya Wes,
When I replied to your message, I didn't want to say that Commodore
are great….professional etc. All I wanted to point out was that
the retail dealer network in Queensland was put together with some
thought. This is the only area that I am directly involved with.
Sorry to hear about the stuff up with SCALA. Thats something none of
us need. I'm surprised I didn't hear about it from the store
involved. Regardless, there is no excuse. Hopefully, the Commodore
staff member you dealt with was amongst the many recent
retrenchments.
I have seen SCALA running on a stock A1200, but it is slow and you
don't get all the fancy wipes and fades.
I'd like to offer my assistance should you still be considering
dealing with Commodore. In any case, tell me about BRIZ 31…it
sounds interesting.
PS. ——- "It will be a shame if the installation of 10 IBM PC
based Video machines is the result."—— It wouldn't be a shame
Wes, it'd be a disaster<g>
Hi Dallas,
BRIZ 31 is the Brisbane Licence holder for the Sixth High powered
television licence.
We are currently in the final development stage of the project with
the implementation phase already commenced.
Telecom Broadcast will provide our broadcast facilities and it is
hoped that McWirters Market Place will similarly provide our home.
We are about to call on "Invitations to Quote" for the provision of
hardware with a number of local suppliers already indication a
willingness to provide assistance.
I see BRIZ 31 and the sixth channel in general as a potential windfall
and marketing opportunity for Commodore. The money available to
Sixth channel broadcasters will not be at the levels of commercial
broadcasters with SVHS and Hi8 shaping up as possible standard
formats, instead of BETACAM.
Commodore needs to make the Sixth Channel broadcasters aware of the
capabilities of the Amiga series – Opal Vision included. If this can
be done and AMIGAS installed, instead of Video Machines and D-Vision
or Mac Quadras, these broadcaster could become the new advertising
force Commodore needs to promote its products ie. We use it ! why
dont you ?
If the AMIGA can be shown as a commercially viable – for broadcast
product – the industry might regain its original interest in the
product instead of discarding it for the – better advertised and
promoted – new PC and MAC based products.
It seems that I hear increasing comments from around the industry
that reflect – Yes, our 2000 died last week, but there was – not
enough support – software – no broadcast products – so we wont bother
upgrading.
–> Television is the fishbowl of Life.
>It seems that I hear increasing comments from around the industry that
>reflect – Yes, our 2000 died last week, but there was – not enough
>support – software – no broadcast products – so we wont bother
>upgrading.
Huh? MOST of the software and hardware released these days on the
Amiga is for video, why on earth would they think that?
Because the existance of these – yes I agree – great products is being
brough to the attention of the people who spend the dollars.
When ever I mention the Amiga, I seem to be in a position of having to
defend its existance.
Usually it is – Oh yes the AMIGA, we had one of those but . . . .
Yes there are a number of good AMIGA products but somehow they need to
make the transition from being – GOOD to BROADCAST – in the minds of the
television industry.
The AMIGA is still stigmatised – It needs to be advertised and promoted as
THE Solution. It needs to be seen in Industry Standard journals such and
Broadcast Engineering and Broadcast News. This is where the IBM / MAC
video systems are gaining a big foothold.
The only reason for this is because they are visable !! even if the Amiga
has been doing it for many years. The industry needs to be reminded and
to a great extent reintroduced to the New AGA Amigas.
Most industry people are not even aware of the advances made in the AGA
systems or the benefits and capabilities it brings. They see their old
tired 2000 and compare it to a shiny SVGA 486DX33 often quite unaware of
the existance of any better options.
–> Television is the fishbowl of Life.
Well, HERE we don't have that problem so much. The Amiga is being
used to generate all the special effects in both Babylon 5 and
SeaQuest, and for countless commercials and cable systems. Almost
anyone in the industry who has a fast turnaround time turns out to be
using Amigas. The worst problem is that many of them consider the
Amiga a secret competitive weapon, and don't want anyone to know. . .
Yeah, then again, I just got the latest Millimeter magazine (a
Hollywood trade monthly) and though it used to mention the Amiga now
and again, it is now fast becoming a magazine for Mac heads. Even
PCs, SGIs and rack-mount stuff like Quantels get shorter shrift than
Macs, and there seems to be no rationale. Most of the stuff they
discuss regarding the Mac involves still-photo enhancement (say,
improving a matte painting for a movie) or A/B editing, either of
which is a snap on the 'miga. They did do a big piece on "seaQuest"
and credited Amiga and mostly the Toaster, but somehow even managed
to slip the Mac into that article.
Down here in Australia we dont have the Video Toaster.
Probable the single reason for Babylon 5 – Seaquest and all the rest.
That is the reason why every now and then someone will do the following.
NEWTEK how about a PAL toaster – even Video Machine can do PAL 🙂
–> Television is the fishbowl of Life.
Over her in the states, I would say its a very different situation.
The Amiga market here is so overwhelmingly industrial/broadcast video
that Amigans tend to be keenly aware of our options, and I wouldn't
be surprised if broadcast-level hard/software was more easily
obtainable. OTOH, Amiga activity outside of video is desolate.
My impression of the Euro/PAL market is that those Amigans still
cling to the hope that it will be a general-purpose machine, which
explains its popularity in the home to this point. The non-US
Commodores may even be doing a decent job of promoting the Amiga in
the home or office, but without wide support from US developers, your
functionality will at best be squeezed into a niche and yor software
base too anemic to compete with the other platforms that do have
substantial support in the US.
I have long been frustrated with the Amigas progress, and since 1988
I have been waiting hopefully for Commodore's attitude to change in
this country. I have recently given up on the Amiga because C=
didn't honor my warranty for my defective motherboard, but before
that I was already coming to the conclusion that the Amiga is too far
gone.
After realizing that things wouldn't improve in the US, I started
waiting for the software support we needed to come from Europe; I
figured if Amigas have such a large market share over there, they
must start to write finance and productivity software eventually.
Wrong. Unfortunately, the global software industry still revolves
almost entirely around American business and culture. It will
continue getting worse over there, until it gets better over here
(and I can tell you it's only getting much worse).
-Chris
This is all a little academic now…I was sacked yesterday. Don't
give up on the Amiga because you had a bad experience with a store
and a Commodore staffmember. Find a good store and put some effort
into making contact with competent Commodore staff in Sydney. They
do exist. Good luck with your tv station.
Dallas,
Very sorry to hear about the sacking. Seems to be the way with
Commodore here in Australia. Last year, we had three Commodore people
come to a demonstration night for our user group. They were committed
to their products and the company. Within three months, none of them
were working for Commodore.
What can be said? I hope you're not on the unemployment lines for long.
Regards, Allan. Life is just a tyre swing
on AutoPilot, Sydney, Australia
Folks,
From these messages, there appears to be a big misconception about CBS
(Commodore Business Systems) in Australia.
CBS is a privately owned distribution company. It is not related to
Commodore International (other than as a client). While CBS did $40M in
sales last year it was forced into receivership by 2 of it's creditors …
Commodore International being one of those creditors. In this case, the
failure was not that of Commodore International, but of the locally owned
distribution company.
Amiga warranties are being honored in Australia.
Following is a story from Sunday Mail (qld), February 27, 1994…
——–
Good News for Amiga Owners
The collapse of the Australian distributor of Commodore Amigas, Commodore
Business Machines (CBS), will not leave new Amiga owners in the lurch.
Although the $40 million CBS has gone into liquidation, its warranty
obligations and spare parts stocks have been taken over by repairs and
services company CompuAid.
Liquidator Max Donnelly of accounting firm Ferrier Hodgson, said the
average Amiga owner will not suffer any problems with the 12-month
warranty on their machines. Mr Donnelly is now advertising for
expressions of interest from companies looking to pick up Commodore
distribution rights in Australia.
However Greg Perry, Queensland co-ordinator of the Australian Amiga
Developers' Association, predicted the demise of Commodore Business
Machines would have little impact on the availability of Amiga systems.
"The situation will be up in the air for some time, but I believe it will
resolve itself and the flow of Amigas to Australian users won't be
dramatically affected," he said.
The Amiga range of general purpose, game-playing and professional
multimedia systems were "still the only multitasking machines in their
price range", he said.
The departure of Commodore Business Systems won't be mourned by many Amiga
enthusiasts who felt the company's support for their favourite system had
been lacking.
Among their complaints was the poor publicity given to the
recently-released Amiga CD32. Featuring a new chipset, a double speed CD
drive and a module for handling the MPEG video compression protocol, the
CD32 was one the hits of the recent multimedia conference in Perth, Mr
Perry said.
Meanwhile, graphic artist Lindsay Whipp, one of Queensland's best-known
creators of games for the Amiga market is poised to bring out a new one.
-sja