byard pidgeon wrote: > It's best that Mr. Hemingway is "moving on", as is Polaroid with it's out of > touch with reality concept of customer service. > Time to get in touch with the new paradigm...you bought it, it's all yours. > Yes, a sad statement on the "new reality" of cutting every corner to keep the price point over anything else. I just want to know when filmscanners are going to be sold at Walmart. (Satisfaction guaranteed ;-)) The truth is its is our own doing. We will buy at the store that saves us the extra $5, even if for that $5 you get a local retailer who provided tech help. service, and liaison with the distributor. I do not buy goods on the internet (other than ebay on occasion, where I expect to be ripped off, and 80% of the time I am, so I never pay what something is supposed to be "worth" because the odds are I won't get what was advertised anyway). Not only is there shipping, and often customs and exchange to here in Canada, but I have no control over if I get a factory sealed box or a return that's been repacked, I don't want to pay double shipping, I don't want to spend hours on a toll free (if you're lucky) lines waiting to speak to some surly character who tells me I have to pay a 15% restocking charge after they sent me the wrong item or it was damaged in shipping, or it was defective. Hey, but that's just crazy me. I'm sure I could save, heck, $100 a year on my thousands of dollars of purchases if I went that route. Instead, I buy from a local brick and mortar dealer who I can look in the eye, scream at if necessary, and even bring to court on the rare occasion that was necessary. But, honestly , by picking a good retailer, and a good manufacturer, and paying a bit more, I've found most of my headaches have been "lessened". Scanner example: My HP S-10 (defective) became 2 more, (found to have an inherent defect) became an HP-20, also found to be problematic, and finally nearly two years later my local dealer took back the HP-20 and did a straight exchange for the Minolta Dual II, which unfortunately also has problems and I'm on number two, soon to be three. My dealer OFFERED this to me. I did not even have to ask. He knew of my problems with the HP models and he asked what was happening. I told him I had reached a dead end with HP, and he said, well, what if we take it back and send it back to HP for you, and use the money toward another brand. He special ordered the Minolta Dual II, since at the time the store didn't carry it, and gave me a straight across on it. He even offered to help me with the Minolta exchanges, but I decided that he had not made any money, in fact probably lost money on the whole transaction, so I've been dealing directly with Minolta since. What internet company would ever do something like that? Its when things "go wrong" that a local dealer really is a great investment, but since you never know when something will go wrong, why risk it? Now, as I said local repair service is quite another matter completely, and I avoid them like the plague. The same, I suppose, holds true for manufacturers. If you find a company that has pretty consistent quality control and good customer service, they are worth paying more for. How much more, I suppose, depends upon your level of tolerance for dealing with angst. ;-) Art - Turn off HTML mail features. Keep quoted material short. Use accurate subject lines. http://www.leben.com/lists for list instructions.