Justin said:
Not a retail outlet, but I do run my own home business. Then of course
computers are my life as well as my work.
So no, you are not a retail outlet and you do not do enough volume to be
effective in this conversation.
I as well, "to a point". But I also recognize there is no point in
missing out on sales. If someone comes to me and says they want Vista and
I say no....then what? If I say yes and build them the exact machines
I've already put together for Vista then they'll have as many problems as
myself. Which is close to none. For whatever problems they do encounter
and I help them through it, odds are I have customers for life. What
support do you guys think you need to provide? I create restore discs for
every machine I build.
So yu purchase a license of whatever imageing software you use for each
computer you build? This would become quite expensive very quickly and make
your computers too expensive for most customers.
So they can either fix their own problems are call on me for help to walk
them through it. So far, of the Visa machines I've built no one has had
any problems. Other then incompatible software. They are certainly made
aware of that issue before their purchase.
This is the first thing you have said that I agree with, this is also what I
do.
Ok. But don't you see the problem here? You have a solution in place.
Bill does not. You are giving your customers CHOICE. Bill is not.
Bill is just making a choice, albeit a bad one. He will alienate customers
as a result of not progressing.
I have not required anyone to sign an agreement. If the customer has a
problem with Vista and I can not fix it then it's MS problem. I've used
MS approved hardware. I've done everything I'm supposed to have done as
outlined in MS Partner documents. Having done as such, I'm not worried
about it.
As the computer builder you are required to support the operating system,
re-read your agreement with MS. You as the OEM builder are the support.
So, then no major PC vendor practices "due diligence"? You do realize
that new PCs are being sold with Vista right? Yes, there are some bombs
out there. But there are also some very nice machines as well.
I as an OEM will build a computer for a customer with Vista if they request
it, but in due diligence I will not be offering Vista full time for some
time to come. Even though your experience has been good so far, drivers are
still being tested and refined by major manufacturers such as AMD, Nvidia,
Intel and others for the OS. Though the OS may be stable, drivers as of yet
are not. The other side of the coin is MS as per usual did not offer Vista
to the small OEM's quick enough and we had to wait along with everyone else
for the final release, almost a month and a half behind the big OEM's. Even
though I did beta test, the differences between the beta's and the final
release do not leave me comfortable enough to be very sure I can support my
customers that use Vista. In the future I hope MS is a little more proactive
with its smaller OEMs. Another gripe is the Business Partner program only
allows us to play with the business version of Vista instead of all the
versions so we can play and learn with all versions. Having to purchase 3
OEM versions of Vista really hurt the ole business pocketbook, and the real
shitty thing about it is we cant really play and break the OS with the OEM
versions either with the more proactive registration program.
Angry American
Frustrated small OEM with an actual store.
