324 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
324 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
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From:
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Robert Briggs
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P.O. Box 7175
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Murray, UT 84107-0175
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SYSOP of FIDO 15/464 (801) 264-8290
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To:
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Anyone who purchases IBM-PC products, all
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Bulletin board SYSOP's and users.
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A bulletin that I have
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posted on my board:
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_________________________________________________________
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WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING
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__________________________________________________________
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The SYSOP of this board has been ripped off to the tune of
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$700 by PC's Limited, 7801 N. Lamar, Suite E-200, Austin, TX.
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Please take a look at the file RIFOFF$.700 in the bulletin
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section( file area #5) , which includes correspondence to/from
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Byte magazine and my recent letters to the Better Business Bureau
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and the Attorney Generals office in Austin Texas. Also, please
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take and distribute a copy of this file to every bulletin board
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that you frequent. Since I don't seem to be going to get my
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money, how about helping me keep other people from being
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ripped off the same way??
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______________________________________________________________
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This whole situation started on the 27th of March, 1985. The drive
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that I originally obtained from PC's Limited was faulty. It was
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returned to them for repair. It came back "Dead On Arrival" - the
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person responsible for Quality Controlling the drive failed to retract
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the heads, this resulted in a bad track 0 which made the drive unusable.
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The drive was once again shipped back to them on June 7th, 1985,
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accompanied by a letter requesting a refund. (it is interesting to
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note that the RMA number issued the second time was 3436, the first
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RMA was 2973 - that means that in a period of roughly 2 weeks, PC's
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Limited had 493 defective products shipped back to them!)
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There was no response to my letter, nor any repaired drive returned.
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I was unable to contact the person who was responsible for handling
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refunds. Two months later, I sent the following letter addressed to
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the Chief Executive Officer of PC's Limited:
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_____________________________
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Correspondence that has led
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to my distributing this file:
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_____________________________
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Robert S. Briggs
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P.O. Box 7175
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Murray, UTAH 84107-0175
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08 August, 1985
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Dear Sir:
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It has now been over 60 days since I returned my disk drive to your
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company for a refund, and nearly six months sine I originally purchased
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the drive, (which has never worked correctly). While I (am) normally quite
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patient, this situation is causing me to become angry enough to take some
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rather strong measures to recover my money. Unless I receive my $695.00
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refund check by the 21st of August, 1985, I intend to do the following:
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1. Send a copy of this letter and a formal letter of complaint to Byte
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magazine, PC magazine, and any other major magazine that I can find one of
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your advertisements in.
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2. Publish a copy of this letter in the public domain, and a warning about
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both the type of service and equipment that you seem to be providing. In
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addition, I will request that anyone reading that warning distribute it to
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any other bulletin boards that they use. I expect that such a warning would
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be distributed to well over 2000 bulletin boards in a matter of several
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weeks, making this letter available to well over 200,000 readers by the
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middle of September. This could have a great impact on your sales...
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The situation is becoming ludicrous; I have been unable to contact the
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mysterious Tammy (the person handling refunds) in nearly two months of
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calling two days a week. A typical days worth of calls (my local time)
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goes something like this:
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9:00 a.m. Not in yet 10:00 a.m. Not in yet
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10:30 a.m. Not in yet 11:00 a.m. Out to lunch
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12:00 p.m. Out to lunch 12:30 p.m. Out to lunch
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1:00 p.m. Out to lunch 1:30 P.m. Out to lunch
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2:30 p.m. Out on break
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3:30 p.m. Left for the day - try tomorrow
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I have enclosed a copy of my invoice; my original copy of the charge
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slip was sent in the last time I returned the drive for repair. The last
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return of the drive was under RMA #3436, the drive was "DEAD ON ARRIVAL"
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when returned from RMA #2973 repair (due to the heads not being retracted
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when the drive was shipped back to me).
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I would appreciate your prompt attention to this matter, and hope that
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this whole situation can be settled swiftly and in a friendly manner.
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Sincerely,
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Robert S. Briggs
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_________________________________________________________________
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After another month with no reply from PC's Limited, in frustration,
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I sent the following letter to the
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advertising editors of several magazines, PC-TECH, PC WORLD, etc.
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_________________________________________________________________
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Robert Briggs
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P.O. Box 7175
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Murray, UT 84107-0175
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(801) xxx-xxxx
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XXXXX Magazine
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Advertising Manager
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xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxs xxx
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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xxxxxxxxxxxx, xx xxxxx
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August 29th, 1985
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Dear Advertising Editor,
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I would like to make a formal complaint against one of the
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companies that advertises in your magazine. It has been nearly
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six months since I first ordered a 20 megabyte drive from PCS
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Ltd., (the drive was originally ordered in March of 1985), and
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in that time they have failed to deliver me a either a functional
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disk drive, or the refund that I have been requesting for over
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two months now.
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Enclosed please find a copy of a letter that I sent to the
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Chief Executive Officer of PCS Ltd. on August 8, 1985. There has
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been no response to this letter. As nearly as I can tell, I
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have simply been "ripped-off" for the sum of $695.00. If there
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is any way that you can assist me in recovering the original sum,
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I would be pleased, I have already "written off" the money spent
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in long distance phone calls and shipping.
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Unless I can recover my money in the near future, I am going
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to place a description of what I have been through and copies of
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the correspondence into the public domain with a request that it
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be distributed as widely as possible. It is a last resort and a
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one way step - once done it can not easily be undone - but maybe
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I can get some satisfaction out of keeping other people from
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making the same mistake. I am not vindictive and would be more
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than happy to let the whole matter drop upon receipt of a check
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for what I am owed.
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I would certainly appreciate any help that you could give me
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in this matter.
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Sincerely,
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Robert S. Briggs
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____________________________________________________________________________
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On September 13th, 1985, I received the following letter from Byte magazine.
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It is nice to know that at least one of the magazines was interested and
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courteous enough to reply. Looks like I will have to re subscribe to BYTE
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magazine....
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____________________________________________________________________________
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September 10, 1985
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Mr. Robert Briggs
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P.O. Box 7175
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Murray, UT 84107-0175
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Dear Mr. Briggs:
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This is in response to your letter of August 29, a copy of which we are
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forwarding to PC's Limited. Rest assured that we shall use whatever
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influence we have to get them to satisfactorily respond to your complaint.
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Please also try to understand that it is impossible, both logistically and
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legally for us to try to resolve all disputes between advertisers in BYTE
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and their customers.
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The best we can do is to provide a conduit to start communication between
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the advertiser and the customer, and to cease offering advertising space
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in our magazine to an advertiser when a clear pattern of unresolved
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customer problems appear. With your complaint, we are sincerely
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attempting to facilitate discussion between the parties which could lead
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to an appropriate resolution.
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We are asking both you and PC's Limited to keep us posted on any
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results obtained from our transactions. Thanks you very much for
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your patience and information.
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Sincerely,
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xxxxx x. xxxxxxx
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Customer Relations
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_________________________________________________________________
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Here is my reply to the Byte Magazine letter:
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_________________________________________________________________
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Robert Briggs
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P.O. Box 7175
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Murray, UT 84107-0175
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(801) xxx-xxxx
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BYTE MAGAZINE
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Attn: xxxxxx x. xxxxxxx
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70 Main Street
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Peterborough, NH 03458
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October 7, 1985
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Dear xx. xxxxxxx,
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This is in reply to your letter of September 10, 1985, concerning
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PC's Limited. I believe that I have allowed a sufficient time for PC's
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Limited to reply, so I must regretfully state that I have received
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absolutely no correspondence from them. I must also assume that they
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have chosen to not reply because they have no intention of issuing me a
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refund - they have simply "ripped me off" to the tune of $700.
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I hope that there is some pressure that you can exert on them as
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advertisers in your magazine. I am also going to correspond with the
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Attorney Generals Office, consumer complaint division, and the Better
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Business Bureau of Austin Texas, in hopes of getting some response (i.e.
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a refund) from them.
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I am preparing to distribute all of the correspondence to date to
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each of the nodes in the FIDO network (watch your BYTE bulletin board,
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all of this information will be distributed under the file name
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RIPOFF$.700 or pc-ltd.rip or something similar) and will request that it
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be passed along to any bulletin board that the users know of, and I hope
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to have copies of all of this correspondence published in several IBM-PC
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specific newsletters. This action should make this whole situation
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available to approximately 200,000 readers in a matter of roughly two
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weeks, and could reach a million PC users, by word of mouth, in roughly
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a month.
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I do not understand why PC's Limited is forcing me to pursue such
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an unfriendly course of action. I think that anyone is entitled to a
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refund and a letter of explanation after attempting to obtain a working
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product or refund for over six months.
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Thank you for your time and the help that you and Byte Magazine
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have given me.
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Sincerely,
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Robert S. Briggs
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SYSOP of FIDO 15/464
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________________________________________________________
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A copy of the original letter to the advertising managers
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suitably modified, has been sent to the Austin Texas
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Attorneys office, and the Austin Better Business Bureau.
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As yet, there have been no replies to the latest round
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of correspondence.
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I guess that I have to leave it up to you, the reader to
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decide whether I have been too harsh on a company that
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failed to deliver me a working product after more than
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6 months, and who seems to refuse to issue me a refund.
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If you can, give this file the widest distribution that
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you have available. Maybe someone else will avoid get-
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ting ripped off by this company. Maybe even you...
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If you are really into such things, how about sending a
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letter to PC's Limited telling them that you have read
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this article, and have no intention of purchasing any-
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thing from them because of it. Anyone having similar
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problems with this company might drop a letter to the
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BYTE Magazine Customer relations department, urging them
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to remove PC's Limited from their advertising.
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You can keep current on the situation and get any further
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bulletins from my board at (801) 264-8290.
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Robert S. Briggs SYSOP FIDO 15/464 (801) 264-8290
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_______________________________________________________
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