Looking for Dealers/Service in Wisconsin...

[Fester]

Hi there,

I'd like to know if there are dealers and service shops for Amiga computers in Wisconsin or even in the south-western part of Chicago.

I may get help from a dealer located about 430 miles from my home but otherwise would like to know if there's anything closer. I live in Wisconsin.

I have a half-built towerized 1200. Need help in finishing it up...

Thanks,
Fester

[paulvm]

I think theirs a deal in mpls. mn, they were on the links for amiga.org last year

[Olecranon]

Hi Fester,

I live near Eau Claire Wis.  Good to see another somewhat local person here.  Raymond Commodore Amiga is the shop in Minneapolis, MN.  Unfortunately I dont think he will be much help for what your doing with the A1200 tower. I was in his shop a few months ago and the place is a disaster.  He had Amiga and old commodore 8-bit parts stacked on top of eachother in every corner of the store along with machines that were half ripped apart.  I saw lots of broken A500s, C64s, and A2000s.  Didn't see a single high-end component, A1200, A4000, or even an A3000.  He doesn't return email, and his web site hasn't been updated for years.

Honestly, I'm not sure if I would trust any shops in the United States for new, high end components.  The shops in Europe seem to be much more professional, keep their sites updated, and actually have inventory.  My guess is that its pretty hard to make a living selling Amiga items here in the states.  The people running shops here are doing it on the side.  (now I hope some US shop comes behind me and post that I'm wrong)

[amigan24]

I myself live in milwaukee and have been looking for years. No dice. I'm not even sure if the local amiga users group still meets.

btw...did you have that address (email..web) to the place in mlps?

[beller]

I live in California and gave up looking for a local repair facility.  I mailed my A4000 MOB to Amiga Center France.  Jean Jacque did a wonderful job in restoring it to like new condition.  Replaced faulty capaciters, put a coin style rechargable battery in, fixed the par: port and failing audio too.  Great job and reasonable prices.  The shipping is a tad long and expensive but, it's ultimately worth it!!

You can find the website at:

http://www.amigacenter.com

Bob

[Olecranon]

Yep, here is the web address.

www.visi.com/~raycomp/

Email: raycomp@visi.com

[Fester]

Olecranon wrote:

I live near Eau Claire Wis.  Good to see another somewhat local person here.  Raymond Commodore Amiga is the shop in Minneapolis, MN.  

Hi there,

I will most likely visit Raymond Computer on Monday. It's the closest I've found and Ray responded to my emails in record-fast time.

By the way, I'm not the only Amiga enthusiast in my Wisconsin small town. To my great surprise, there's a developer here in Edgerton WI. Visit BITbyBIT Software Group, http://bitbybitsoftwaregroup.com/index.php. That's phenomenal as we're a sneaze-and-miss-it size town! I would ask him to help with building my amiga but he is extremely busy with his Amiga software business. I wouldn't want to take up his time for my issues.

Thanks for all who responded with ideas. I would not hesitate to send my Amiga to France if I had to. I'm already natively fluent in French. By the way, I'd be more than willing to do translation work for Amiga software documentation...

"Festeurrrr"

[beller]

Good luck in Minnesota!

Just completed putting my A4000 back together after a couple of months of repair work.  First the motherboard needed refurbishment, and then the CPU card blew.  Two trips to France (cause I didn't send the CPU the first time) but it's now it's like new! Certainly better than the day I received it from EBay.  For about $400 (ebay fees and refurb costs) I have an excellent A4000!!

BTW, Jean Jacque at Amiga Center France can handle the transaction in English.  I never had any problems understanding our emails.

Bob

[Fester]

beller wrote:
Good luck in Minnesota!

Just completed putting my A4000 back together after a couple of months of repair work. [...] Two trips to France [...]

Hi Bob,

If I'm right, you're writing from California? Wow, I guess my 430 miles for Amiga repair is pale in comparison to your trips to France. Looks like you are a real dedicated Amiga fan.

Last time I was in Paris, I lost my wife in the train. She jumped on one while I was reading directions on a wall. We finally found ourselves at our rendez-vous site eight hours or so later...

Fester

[beller]

You misunderstood my "trips" didn't involve me, except to the Post Office.  It was all handled via international mail!!  Much cheaper...

Bob

[Fester]

beller wrote:
You misunderstood my "trips" didn't involve me, except to the Post Office.  It was all handled via international mail!!  Much cheaper...

Bob

Ha! Ok,

I just thought you were just the most enthusiastic Amiga user in the world.

International mail makes more sense...

Fester

[Olecranon]

I will most likely visit Raymond Computer on Monday. It's the closest I've found and Ray responded to my emails in record-fast time.

Good luck with that Fester.  You'll have to post your "experience".

[tonyvdb]

You should take some pictures of the "store" and post them here I would love to see some of the inventory and see how he has it set up. It sounds like a desaster. :-o

[Fester]

Olecranon wrote:
Good luck with that Fester.  You'll have to post your "experience".

I just visited Ray's computer. Ray is very nice. Had a long chat about this and that. It's true, there's a lot of inventory in his shop. Never saw so many Amiga parts in all my life.

It was quite a drive. That's ok, I don't get out much. I live between Madison, WI and Chicago, IL. Left at 9 AM and got there around 2 PM. Coming back was a bit longer since it's full-fledged road repair season on I-94.

Fester

[Fester]

tonyvdb wrote:
You should take some pictures of the "store" and post them here I would love to see some of the inventory and see how he has it set up.

Ray probably reads posts here. He might want to share photos. I saw a nice case (top part) from an A2000. This gives me an idea to build a mini-itx pc using a left-over Amiga 2000 case. I could probably fit at least two epia boards in there with an a-b switch. This would make for an interesting machine...

Fester