Commodore USA Alive ?

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Is Commodore USA alive or is it smoke and mirrors?
 
I've sent 2 emails to them in the past 3 weeks inquiring about products and asking for clarification on details of specs and never got a reply to either one.
 
I even sent the emails from 2 different email accounts just to make sure it didnt get lost in spam.
 
I dont get it. They have all these BUY IT NOW buttons on their website, and no one answers sales questions? They say "ship within 1 or 2 days" on some of the things I was looking at but I was skeptical to order because I didnt get a reply to my emails.
 
Has anyone here bought something from their site? Did you get your product in a reasonable timeframe?

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I have to say Thank you very much for the link.
 
It looks like there is more than just 1 person waiting for product. I am glad I didnt push that Buy it Now button.
 
Also, it seems that all of their products are rebadged standard cases and parts being sourced from Zotac, Wesena, and others. This is sad.
 
I was an original Amiga owner (and I use the term Amiga by itself because  the A1000 was THE Amiga.. lol) back in the 80s and when I found out that there was a Commodore USA I got excited about the prospect of a new-age Amiga. I am really dissapointed that they really havent created anything other than a new badge to put on the case.
 
 

There's someone over on the Vintage Computer Forum who ordered an "Amiga Mini" at the start of the month and hasn't heard a thing back yet, even to confirm whether it shipped or not. Then again, it's not like ridiculous delays aren't SOP for them, so who knows whether this is indicative of their finally having taken the money and run.

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I am not sure whether to believe they are simply going through "growing pains" or they are covering up for very poor business practices.
 
In either case, I've spent a little more time looking over the 2 Amiga models that I was interested in (Mio and Mini).
 
With the Mio, they didnt even try to customize it or change it.
 
It's basically a Zotac ID70Plus that has 2 plastic stickers attached to the front and a C= logo replacing the Zotac logo on the top. See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqy2qAzyha8
 
For $995 in base configuration you get a copy of OpenSource Mint Linux with a "Commodore Theme" + a Zotac ID70Plus. They consider this the sequel to quite possibly the best computer that existed back in the 80s?
 
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!!!
 
They removed the fully configured spec. My guess is that the Pico PSU combined with the Quad core i7 was causing alot of heat issues and power stability issues so they scrapped it.
 
http://www.shop.perfecthometheater.com/HTPC-ITX2-Black-Ultra-small-aluminum-chassis-HTPC-ITX2-B.htm;jsessionid=A1A4157FB1E4345850390B4409A044A4.qscstrfrnt06
 
Its really sad to see all of this with the Amiga specifically. I think they are tarnishing what was once a great Iconic name in the computer industry with silly antics like this.
 
The only thing I can see that they have done so far is create a custom Linux theme, include some free software that allows you to run Amiga classic applications in UAE and made some new stickers.
 
I'm all for captilalism, but, at least give it a new name and dont put AMIGA on the darn things.
 
That's my $0.02 .

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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".
 

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.

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Ahh ok.. I understand now.. you meant on the spec page.. I didnt even notice that one.. someone was in a hurry to remove the "order" button but forgot to update the spec page. lol..
 
 

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.

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Those last 2 sentences just about sum it up for anyone who wants to run a business.
 
To be honest, everything I've seen and experienced has left a really bad taste in my mouth with respect to this new Commodore company. It's not for me.
 
I really dont see anything innovative or new and putting the name "Amiga" on a computer built from standard PC parts with Opensource Linux O/S and a custom theme doesn't cut it for me. Its a disrespect to the real Amiga.
 
There are only 2 things I have seen so far that are new from this company: The re-creation of the C64 case and the brand new plastic stickers.
 
Props to them for investing the $$ into the injection molding. Now if they would just do something innovative with the hardware and/or software they MIGHT have something to offer.
 

 

I tried to impart to Barry the importance of having customer service and this is the response I got:
 
http://forums.commodore.net/showthread.php?257-130-days-still-havent-got-my-C64extreme-back!/page2 (halfway down the page)
 
All it takes is 1 customer service rep (8.00 bucks an hour) to answer phone calls/emails instead of some poor schmuck who is already overloaded with his numerous other jobs.
 
It Takes Months To Find A Customer...
 
seconds to lose one

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My story is similar to yours. I came really close (a few times) to ordering a fully built machine. When I started doing my typical searches looking for reviews of the product and seeing the posts I held off.
 
I went back and forth, emailed them a few times, looked at the barebones models, and then when I saw there was no response from their sales people I posted here.
 
That got me doing more and more research and eventually through some posts I read here and from other sites I discovered what the new Amiga REALLY was.
 

You know, I was |==| this close to buying an Amiga Mini (that is the net on a tennis court). I really appreciate the form factor, and I realize I'm buying "a Linux box." I thought it was expensive, I had a friend tell me "you can buy a whole lot more for less" and i thought, "no, I'm investing in the future, big, bold, etc."
Eventually this summer, I bought a Lenovo Thinkpad E530 with an Intel Core i7 3612 QM (whatever the heck that means, it is a quad-core). I paid $825, delivered, for it. It is very fast, it sips electricity, runs on a whisper, and if I am so inclined, I can spend $100 or so and get it up to 16GB of RAM when I need it for a work project. In fact, I'm using it now. Lenovo has great customer service, I was able to add a video camera to it, and I got a tracking service when I completed my purchase.
 
Commodore: you lost the sale because I realized I was in dream mode again, and that's how I usually make a financial mistake. You are competing with Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple, and the lot, and I realized that's really what I wanted: something business grade. You haven't made a new machine worthy of your brand, and I can't believe I spent four hours offering up a product direction strategy in an email from my corporate account that didn't get noticed. You won't beat Dell in the small margin commodity server market, no matter how hard you try, because you can't be bothered to hire even an overseas outfit to handle your tech support. You are marketing but you aren't selling, and that's not closing deals. Why aren't you actively going after a small business office hardware refresh? Gosh, your market is so easy to get some leads. Fish for a contact at I dunno... Sears, and offer to sell them their desktops for a refresh at an irresistible price, and include a premium hardware support plan for two years. Pay someone locally to be "on call" for your customer, and you'd have unbeatable customer service to have a fella making house calls a couple times a month and taking calls.
 
Also, you wiped your forums to cover your tracks, especially when I (with Xerxes) made a lot of racket about the power configuration being wrong (neither of us take credit for it, someone on Amiga.org pointed it out first, we just went after it). That helped me feel better about not buying your system.
 
Leo: CTO's don't write scripts. You have an executive position and set the direction of technology, nothing else. What you are is a principal architect and QA lead and tech support. Barry isn't coaching you very well (by example) on how to be an executive. I'm sorry about that.
 
Amiga / C= community: Linux Mint is a great distro. I'm sure it will be fine for you. Zotac makes great hardware. As long as you didn't get the Core i7 machine, you should be fine, but they didn't test the configuration all that much at Commodore USA. Nobody feels the "soul" is in these new Linux boxes. Barry is feeling nostalgic, and that will wane. I think he's at the age where retirement is a consideration. Your best bet is to hope everything gets sold again, but I do not see the Commodore USA business model turning into a source of revenue to support $5M / yr in Research and Development and this certainly wasn't started with that kind of funding. If the remaining 10,000 Amiga fans were able to scrape together $10 Million (USD), or even $6 Million and a lot of "share equity" for part-time engineering work, then the Amiga could rise from the ashes.
 
Tesla Motors got 11,000 people to put $5,000 deposits down on a car they hadn't seen, touched, much less driven before, made with radical new technology. That's way over $50 million. I have since test-driven one of their cars and had a tour of their endless factory in Fremont. Be honest with yourselves: if Commodore USA isn't making something as amazing as a Tesla car, they are a flash in the pan and nothing more. I keep wishing Commodore USA wasn't a shanty of an idea, but dreams that I don't pursue/build are not ones I can influence.