[lug] local EEPRO gigabit dealers?

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Mon, Sep 25, 2006 at 10:47:26AM -0600, Calvin Dodge wrote:
>For me the problem with most retail establishments is their limited
>selection. Prices are sometimes an issue, too, though a few retailers

Yeah, I'm with you on being pretty unhappy with retail these days.  First
of all, I'll often buy something I wasn't planning on buying.  Also, it can
be incredibly hard to find what I want.  They often have something, but the
choice for what I'm looking for, when it comes to electronic stuff, tends to
be just horrible.

For example, about a year ago I had this camera I was enamored with.  I
decided I wanted to check it out in person, so I went to two of the listed
dealers.  Neither had it.  A few weeks later I went in again.  They were
just putting out the previous model of the camera.

Last week I was looking for an external USB enclosure for a SATA drive.  I
spent half an hour looking around for one locally, and all I could find was
parallel ones.  One of the places I went had 4 different models of parallel
ones, but no SATA.

Another time I was looking for another SATA controller to try, and one
place had them listed on the shelf, but had none in stock.  "We get new
shipments on Wednesday."  A few weeks later I was in there again, again
they had none on the shelf.  Their price was $60, I ended up getting them
online for less than $20, IIRC.

Contrasted with buying online, I can get reviews from other people who have
bought it, usually good pointers for other alternatives, and tons of
choice.  I think I ended up picking between 30 different external SATA
enclosures.  With next-day shipping, it was slightly less expensive than
either of the local places.

So, when it comes right down to it, going out to a shop takes more time,
offers me less choice, less expertise, less opinion, at a much higher
price.  With a few exceptions, of course.  Like the receiver I got was at
retail price, because the manufacturer limits the warranty to only if you
purchase from authorized resellers.  In some cases, it allows a faster
response time, but it's been pretty rare for me that I can actually take
businesses up on it.

Sean
-- 
 If I built a talking Barbie, it would say "Date math is hard."
                 -- Sean Reifschneider, 2000
Sean Reifschneider, Member of Technical Staff <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com, ltd. - Linux Consulting since 1995: Ask me about High Availability