Dear all,
I am having a nightmare trying to buy some DS20s (two to be precise)
and I was wondering if anyone could give any hints.
The problem, explained very simply, is that these two boxes need to be
in Cyprus. Note that they need to be there not to be purchased
there. The issue, confirmed by Digital UK (and, through them, by
Digital Middle-East which covers Cyprus) is that of the warranty.
Fundamentally since Digital does not have a presence on Cyprus but are
there only with a "partner" the "3yr world-wide warranty" is world-wide
in a more restricted geographical sense, i.e. it is void there.
This puts us in bit of a muddle and, worse, at the mercy of the local
partner which insist in selling us the machine with 1yr warranty which
they will honour if we buy a service contract for yrs 2 & 3. They will
refuse to honour any warranty on machines not bought from them. I
personally call this blackmail but I can understand that if you have a
monopoly you might as well use it in your favour.
As we are ASAP (now called CSA) partners we are entitled to discounts
which they apply to a phantom "middle-east" price which effectively
makes them the same price as a machine bought without discount in the
UK and shipped over (i.e. including the shipping costs!).
Now, the advice I seek is: what kind of prices are you obtaning for
DS20s in the US/UK? Effectively I am thinking of playing it in this
way: buy the box in the US/UK, ship it over to Cyprus after
configuring it and testing it in our UK offices and then if the
machine fails ship it back to London. I am counting on the fact that
bar the battery problems with PWSs I have never had any problem except
for disks even on an 8200. After 1yr the machine would in any case be
replaced. In practice the problem is: pay a reasonable price & get the
ASAP discount (+ possibly three machines thanks to it) or surrender to
the locals and pay a ridiculous amount and sign a maintenance contract
which is effectively forced upon us?
Am I mad/very mad/should be shut in an institution and the key thrown
away?
On a second front I think Digital should change the wording of their
"world-wide" warranty and state that it is world-wide as long as there
is a Digital office in the country. The people in Galway were very
helpful but I guess they can do no more than say "sorry, your hands
are tied".
Any hints/ideas are more than welcome as I am very stuck,
Ciao,
Arrigo
--
Arrigo Triulzi <arrigo_at_albourne.com> - Peripatetic Wizard
Albourne Partners Ltd. - London, UK
APL Financial Services (Overseas) Ltd. - Nicosia, Cyprus
"Every day, thousands are coming back to BT... with baseball bats!"
Received on Tue Jun 08 1999 - 20:41:52 NZST