Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: Commodore USA Alive ?  (Read 42169 times)

Description:

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline CritAnime

  • Previous Life Time Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1143
    • Show all replies
Re: Commodore USA Alive ?
« on: August 24, 2012, 05:15:25 AM »
Barry responded to one person on their new forum. He blames been caught off guard with the sheel volume of units they ship, *pfft*, and also lays the blame on some guy who he has now sacked.
 
Quote
Your C64x Extreme is being shipped today. It is presently being loaded with COS Vision, and will undergo a final check before it is picked up this afternoon by USPS. You will receive an email confirmation with tracking info later today.

Your experience is just beyond what I would ever expect a customer of Commodore USA to endure, and for this I sincerely apologize. Without even offering any excuses, since there are none, there is an explanation that highlights some of the issues that we have experienced during the past year. It is unfortunate that you had to be the recipient of a perfect storm of miscommunication, horrific customer service, and a customer service issue that simply just fell through the cracks.

It has been just over one year since we began shipping, and needless to say we were totally caught off guard, and somewhat surprised as to the huge amount of orders that we received, and continue to receive on a daily basis. Thousands of orders have been processed and shipped with absolutely no problems at all. Considering the volume of shipments, there have been very, very few customer service issues that were not resolved in a timely manner. However, that is not to say that all is perfect in OZ, and there has been instances where we were less than stellar in resolving these issues, but nothing like the problem that Panna has had to go through in getting his unit returned to him in Norway.

Although it may seem to Panna that over 100 calls were made to our office, I believe that number is somewhat exaggerated due to the utter frustration he must have felt in trying to contact us without success. I will say that since our phone system is strictly VOIP ( we use two service providers; Net Talk and Voice Eclipse, both of which are acceptably reliable as far as VOIP is, we have had problems with calls coming in from various overseas locations. This could explain a part of the communications issues we have had. Additionally, we have changed and updated both our email servers over the last six months, and in the transition from POP to IMAP, we "lost/ misplaced/or simply misdirected emails that were directed to our various email accounts. That issue has been resolved. And finally, when I inquired about Panna's order status and shipping details, I was given incorrect info from our staff (who, needless to say, is no longer employed here). Put all of these conditions together,throw in a few that I haven't even included, and I can see how this horror show escalated to the point where Panna had to resort to posting his frustration here on our forum.

Let me assure all our members, customers and visitors that we are making every effort to resolve these issues. I note that a member here suggested that we hire a full time customer service rep to handle these issues, reply to customers requesting some type of email assistance etc. Luckily, there are so few of these customer service issues that a full time employee is just not warranted. We are very fortunate in this regard, since our barebones units rarely, if ever have any type of problem, other than requests for order status updates and tracking info. Additionally, our configured units enjoy an incredibly low failure rate as we only source components with the highest quality from major manufacturers and OEM suppliers.

I hope this addresses the very valid concerns that were raised here by Panna, and to those who have an interest in both our company and products.

Barry

The Forum post.
 
That post has been edited a couple of times. The thing about there been thousands of units sold was the latest addition. Personally if I had the money, burning a hole in my pockets and really bored, I would just build a much better PC with the money.

Offline CritAnime

  • Previous Life Time Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1143
    • Show all replies
Re: Commodore USA Alive ?
« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2012, 02:37:03 AM »
Quote from: bitcpy;705029
The Amiga Mini is even much worse. This time around, they only sell it as a BASE configuration which shows up as CASE & FAN for $295USD???? This is just a Wesena ITX2 with Amiga engraved on the front which can be bought for a whopping $67USD!!!

Never noticed that. It must be a rcent change to the price guide. As the Mini page still states the hardware that comes with it. Also if you try to "configure" the case you still get the 295 price tag with or withour the engraving. Also someone on their forums pointed out the extreme config of the 64x has gone. Meaning you can now buy an over priced Atom based c64x, overpriced greatwall computers or an overpriced zotac.
« Last Edit: August 25, 2012, 02:49:18 AM by CritAnime »
 

Offline CritAnime

  • Previous Life Time Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1143
    • Show all replies
Re: Commodore USA Alive ?
« Reply #2 on: August 25, 2012, 03:07:02 AM »
Quote from: bitcpy;705084
Nope.. Go back and check again. They dont charge more or less for the engraving, but, if you DONT get the engraving, then you really are paying 4.5x the price for a $67 case.
 
They must have recently removed it because the mini page clearly states:
 
"Amiga Mini chassis only, for a configured unit in this form factor, see Amiga Mio".
 

Thats what i said. the price does not change no matter what you click. Along with the fact the Mini page still states the hardware it comes with but it's obviously not the case on the purchase page.
 
It's a massive ripp-off. Even the c64x internals match a zotac machine with a price tag of just under £300.

Offline CritAnime

  • Previous Life Time Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1143
    • Show all replies
Re: Commodore USA Alive ?
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2012, 03:43:09 PM »
Well for anyone interested then here is a thread that was on their forums of someone who built a computer using the Wesena case. It's in MHT format because it's a dump of the page.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5RajerP9VC1alJ0YnJYS1laNTg

Offline CritAnime

  • Previous Life Time Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1143
    • Show all replies
Re: Commodore USA Alive ?
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2012, 12:51:32 AM »
Even if I was a local PC store/inidpendent builder I wouldn't buy them. You have to buy in minimum bulk of 10 (with the 15% discount) which is $2201.50 for the Amiga mini and $2932.50 for the C64x not to mention inport taxes. Which is a large chunk of money to be spending on cases you could possibly not sell. And even if I was doing it as a one off purchase I still couldn't justify it as the importation costs would be just silly on a single unit.
 
They have been through lots of hardware revisions since they have been selling these things. My understanding, which is based upon snippets from the old forum which now no longer exists, is that they were buying complete board configurations in bulk that were close to the end of their retail life. The reason been, as I mentioned, they said things like the boards or components weren't been manufactured any more such as one of the atom chipsets.
 
suppose I should mention that Amiga Mini is no more. its been removed from their product listing.
« Last Edit: October 11, 2012, 05:01:52 AM by CritAnime »
 

Offline CritAnime

  • Previous Life Time Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1143
    • Show all replies
Re: Commodore USA Alive ?
« Reply #5 on: October 12, 2012, 01:38:25 AM »
Quote from: vexar;711061
Their elimination of the old forum seems to me like they were trying to erase some of their own mistakes or cover their tracks. I mean, I had my (shared) story with the power supply coming up short, and yet here is one more.
Quote

They have also moved onto a completely new board system so that even rules out them porting the informattion over as it's probably a completely different data structure to the databases. Far too much for their busy time.
 
Quote from: persia;711067
Launching a desktop in the tablet age was never a bright idea. They chose the wrong market. RIP Commodore USA.

The tablet market is saturated. I doubt if they entered it that they would make a big enough impact for it to be really viable. And if their PC prices are anything to go by then they would probably price it right into the firing lines of Sony, Samsung, Acer, Asus, Apple and not to mention the hundreds of brands that saturate the cheap end of the tablet market.
 
I think their next venture will possibly be into the whole Raspberry Pi thing. Not enough people have jumped on that bandwagon yet.  
 
Quote from: commodorejohn;711069
Alternatively, it may just be that going up against every other established computer manufacturer with middling and badly-executed hardware builds, free-as-in-quality-not-as-in-price software, at luxury prices and with crap support is doomed in any circumstance...

This is probably the most realistic view. I feel their very much like how Commodore Gaming was. Making so so computers and premium pricing them right into the same brackets as much more powerful and feature packed brand computers. And we know how it ended for them.

Offline CritAnime

  • Previous Life Time Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1143
    • Show all replies
Re: Commodore USA Alive ?
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2012, 04:23:59 PM »
Quote from: Darrin;711818
The sad thing was, this is exactly what we were trying to point out to them right from the start, except they were trying to cover it all up.

They might have had a chance selling cheap PCs equipped with Windows and/or Linux and configured to play retro games right from the desktop... and stated just that.

All of this fluff about their own "OS" coupled with what was obviously rebadged existing  hardware, marked up to skyhigh prices and configured/assembled by an amature was going nowhere.

Didn't they have one single person who knew something about the computer market working for them?

I'm afraid that Barry (whatever his intentions) seemed to think selling computers was like selling coffee tables:  You by them as cheaply as you can, mark them up and resell them.  Unfortunately the margins on furniture are not the same as those on computers and you don't need to provide 24 hour tech support on a sofa.

As for the lies, he makes Pinochio look like Mother Teresa.


There has been a lot of fluff over the OS. This comes from their forum.

Quote
Unfortunately, incompatabilties were found with COS with the newer hardware, and a new version is in development.
Your computer can run a multitude of OSes other than COS, and it is regrettable, that at this point of time there is a requirement for your intervention and effort to install one of these.
The lack of a working COS, however, should not have prevented you from using your computer in the meantime with any number of free operating systems available over the internet.
I believe that at least a version of Mint is being installed on machines in the meantime.
I wish I could give you an ETA, but a more realistic answer is 'when it's done'.
I would be highly surprised if it is not available by mid November, a year after its launch.
Commodore OS (in its current incarnation) is provided for free to everyone.....and we are making best efforts to support our hardware.......


This is not the first time that they have admitted that something is wrong with the OS. I have seen a few other posts saying that they were having issues with it and were trying to get COS Fusion, basically a ubuntu build with a Mac like dock and some wallpapers, out to fill the gap. But now it looks like they are dumping that and sticking with just Mint.

The entire OS thing has obviously been far too much for them to handle and why they felt they needed it I don't know. They should have just done the original plan and dumped Ubuntu on them.

Quote from: Maximius;711829
hi,

the amiga mini barebone is missing now too? that's incredible. Are they going to restore it or not?


Oh didn't you know the Mio is the Mini mk2?

Quote
The Amiga Mio is more like the Amiga Mini version 2.0, rather then an entirely new product. They both have the same motherboard, it's just the Mio is IMHO laid out better and easier to work on..
Other improvements are the case design allows more airflow for better cooling, there is now a built in SD card reader, the eject button on the Bluray drive is functional, it comes with an IR remote and receiver, and not only does it handle a second hard drive, but we've already installed the cables and everything, so its incredibly easy to install a 2nd HD or replace the first one..


Must be really difficult working on a prebuilt machine lol. But I feel that they realised just how much of a pain it was to do laser etched stuff and probably thought it was easier to stick to pre-builts. Don't forget the Mio went from been the Vic Mini and Amiga Mini for a brief spell.

Quote from: amiga1084;711840
Who Cares!!!


We don't it's just funny. And besides this is in it's own little section now so why bother posting ;)

Offline CritAnime

  • Previous Life Time Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1143
    • Show all replies
Re: Commodore USA Alive ?
« Reply #7 on: November 13, 2012, 05:53:44 AM »
Reading their forums it would appear that they are in the middle of yet another product reshuffle. Someone mentioned something about a new 1000x and keyboard, I would assume this is the one that dammy tried to tout a while back, but nothing more than that. After that c-net interview thing they also claimed that they were trying to promote their custom config thing where people becaome dealers. So far nothing has come from that.

Offline CritAnime

  • Previous Life Time Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1143
    • Show all replies
Re: Commodore USA Alive ?
« Reply #8 on: January 11, 2013, 12:04:05 AM »
Quote from: Darrin;721974
That C-Net effort was a feeble attempt to push their "Emu Eggs" on an unsuspecting community. I emailed C-Net about that piece and asked them whether they actually researched the people they interviewed beforehand or whether they wanted to be held liable for the losses these "dealers" might face when they discovered they bought into a bad deal based on C-Net's apparent endorsement.
 
They never replied. :)

It's funny because when the article first appeared I sent the author a tweet showing the original case. His response was to call me a troll and I didn't know what I was talking about with fake products. I then sent him a set of links to Barry gems on here and Amiga world and never got a reply.

Offline CritAnime

  • Previous Life Time Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1143
    • Show all replies
Re: Commodore USA Alive ?
« Reply #9 on: January 12, 2013, 04:50:31 AM »
Jason Perlow is supposed to be one of the top 100 tech experts on Twitter if your to believe what wiki says.

Still sitting back with a tub of popcorn watching the spectacle.

Offline CritAnime

  • Previous Life Time Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1143
    • Show all replies
Re: Commodore USA Alive ?
« Reply #10 on: January 14, 2013, 05:12:54 PM »
Doubt it Optimus. I can't see why they would halt sales if it was a simple case of getting a new ip or new products. They are playing damage limitation and I feel something major has gone wrong. Or at the very least something serious enough that it means they can't sell their only viable products.

Even if they were moving production facilities I can't see why there would be this break in sales. It all seems to fishy.

Offline CritAnime

  • Previous Life Time Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1143
    • Show all replies
Re: Commodore USA Alive ?
« Reply #11 on: January 14, 2013, 09:53:54 PM »
I wonder how much money they are bleeding in rent for office space, worker pay and other things while this is going on.

Offline CritAnime

  • Previous Life Time Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1143
    • Show all replies
Re: Commodore USA Alive ?
« Reply #12 on: January 16, 2013, 12:50:14 AM »
Quote from: Darrin;722572
It is obviously running at a massive loss, but as I've said before, it is still a tax write-off at the moment. Time is running out though.

How long could they realistically leave it before it can't be a tax write-off?

Offline CritAnime

  • Previous Life Time Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1143
    • Show all replies
Re: Commodore USA Alive ?
« Reply #13 on: January 16, 2013, 07:30:38 AM »
They have sold 1 c6x in the entire time they have been on amazon, about the same time they announced the Mio.

Offline CritAnime

  • Previous Life Time Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1143
    • Show all replies
Re: Commodore USA Alive ?
« Reply #14 on: February 13, 2013, 04:11:39 AM »
We don't know what is actually going on with them. I was half tempted to sign up to their site and try and find out. But supposedly the Itallian reseller has some stock so maybe try them.