CompuServe Thread

After all the nice folks on this forum gave me advice about CDROMs I'm delighted to return the favor with a tip to a new product at a good price. There's an outfit in San Francisco called MPS Multimedia Inc. that's currently selling a double speed Panasonic drive for $299 w/interface. The specs run like this: 200 ms access, 300kb/sec transfer, 64kb buffer, XA and photo CD multisession compatible, AT bus, auto-eject tray. The vendor's model number on the system is MI-562 (the Panasonic model number is CR-562). Not bad for $299. OK, now for the weirdness. The salespeople I talked to at MPS told me they got these drives by fluke and that all the other Panasonic drives of this class are earmarked for OEMs (Creative Labs, etc.). The MPS folks say that once they are out of these drives they probably won't have more until the fall. One fellow said they expected to sell out by week's end. Who knows whether it's hype or not? Not me. But I bought one of the drives anyway. And a word of caution. The first time I called about the drive, MPS had just closed. The guy I talked to gave me the specs on the system, the price and then told me to call back the next day. When I did so, I talked to another guy who didn't know squat about the drives. He stumped off to check, came back and said the drive cost $449. I mentioned that I was told the night before that the drive cost $299. He paused, stumped off again and in the background I could hear the clatter of things falling to the ground. No kidding. When the guy came back, he said the price was indeed $299. In other words, make sure you get them to confirm the price. I got the impression MPS isn't real sophisticated in the mail order business yet. One of the salepeople I talked to had trouble with English and couldn't answer basic questions about the hardware. Then I reached this guy named Jeff and he cleared everything up. He knows what he's talking about and even called me back on his dime when a way of configuring the bundle to save me $35 dollars occurred to him. I've never, ever, had someone from a mail order outlet call me back after the sale was made and tell me a way to save more money. So, one weird clerk notwithstanding, I like this vendor already. Now, as I await the pkg. I hope the strange clerk didn't screw things up….. The number for MPS Multimedia is 1-800-533-4677. The address is 342 W. Portal Ave, San Francisco, CA 94127. You can find an ad for the company in the June issue of PC Sources, pp. 288. (Note the specs on the access and transfer speeds on the drive are inaccurate in the ad. MPS says since it's a new drive they didn't have the correct info at the time the ad was placed.) Best to all, Bob Cauthorn o