I have bought about R4000 worth of hardware from Computersonly in the last month, and last Friday, I decided that the time was right for me to blow a couple of grand on a shiny new ATI Radeon 9700Pro.

So I call up asking for some info. They tell me they will get a salesperson to give me a call later which I never received. So I called them back of course...

This is how the conversation went:

Me: Hi, I'd like to find out if you have any 9700 Pro's available!
C/O: 9700 Pro's? No, sorry, none available, they have been taken off the market.
Me: Taken off the market????
C/O: Yeah. the 9700 series has been replaced by the 9600 range.
Me: Crap! There is no such thing as a 9600 (I found out later there IS a 9600, so no flames please, I know I was wrong)
C/O: See how new it is!!! You havent even heard of it!
Me: So the 9600 is replacing the 9700?
C/O: Yeah, with the 9700, you need to download a patch for every single new game you want to play.
Me: Crap! Ive never heard that about the 9700...

NOW comes the bit that REALLY gets me!!!

C/O: But dont worry, the 9600 is a MUCH faster card than the 9700. We ran the 9600 on a lower spec system than the one we ran the 9700 on, and the 9600 outperforms the 9700.
Me: Really?
C/O: Yes
Me: (Under breath: I am not a moron!)
Me: So I CAN NOT get a 9700 in this country any more?
C/O: Nope. But the 9600's arrive on Tuesday next week...


So anyway, after this, I decide to go check the veracity of this mans claims myself... /me moseys on over to tomshardware... Aaaah, there IS a 9600, BUT its touted as a BUDGET card, and under-perfoms MASSIVELY when compared to the 9700...

So who is smoking crack here? Me or computersonly??? I dont know, maybe solar-flares are affecting my mind, but I DONT think so... What do you reckon? All I know is that I wont be buying from them any time soon... I may end up asking for a new 120GB S-ATA hard drive, only to be told you dont get them anymore as they have been replaced by floppies...

WHOA, stop posting in the wrong topic you MORON! What the hell??? Are solar-flares affecting your mind???

Now could one of the mods PLEASE move this post to "Bitch 'n Moan"...

Who you talking to?

I've had the same with Zenweb.

"Okay We'll order a Radeon 9100 for you, Will arrive in about 2 days."

Zweet I think, only to be phoned later and told that the 9100 has been obsoleted - Man this was like in End Feb/Begining March! The 9100 was just launched in SA!

Yeah... I know the feeling...

This type of thing REALLY tweaks my nipples...
Sales people should at least have a CLUE as to whats happening in their deparment...

Being told something is obsolete before its even reached the shores, but has been replaced by a "much better" alternative is fine... WHEN ITS THE TRUTH!

Oi vey... Sometimes, I just dont know.

Just a quick question guys..f there service is so shit and they're definately idiots, then why buy from them ?? Surely or are their prices really good ? I've never bought from them so I wouldn't know...thus my question...

Their prices are not very competive at all.

I don't. Well, not anymore that is.

Found other people to deal with

computer only used to be called puma technologies....

and friend and i ran them out of business when they were in Kelvin!!!

he he he

we under cut every quote they gave ppl who came to us with a written quotation....

they just down the road from me now....

Call them back and thell them they are morons.
The 9800 replaced the 9700 .... makes much more sence hey ... the better card replaced the older card.

I very much doupth you will find a 9700 pro anywere, I realy had a hard time finding one in Canada a month ago and lots of US sites also had none in stock.

ATI stopped production of that chip the instant that the 9800pro was launched so you were only getting whatever inventories werent sold off for the last few months and im sure that i started a post about this here somewhere - you wont find a 9700pro nor a 9500pro for love or money now - and tell them that the 9600pro replaced the 9500pro but it was slower than the card that it replaced - the highend cards are only the 9800range now but production of those will soon stop since the 9900pro is due out within a month or two

buying a card now is a traumatic experience and only lots of reading and asking around is gonna save you from making a mistake

try sahara
they seem to be lacking in breaking technology
i got my 9700pro there - not so expensive at all . catch? powercolor , but is verbatim a reference card

fin

well sahara will only supply you if you have an account with them and you need to be a reseller to get one of those - they are also the people who supply all the powercolor cards in this country and as far as i know they dont have any 9700pro's at the moment unless they managed to get some very recently - seem to be getting in 9800non pros for around similiar pricing though so you may start seeing those filtering through soon

I've had one experience with Computersonly and I must say it was a good one....sortof....I emailed them asking if it would be possible for them to obtain a 9500Pro for me. That night (a Sunday night nogaal) I got a reply saying that wouldn't be able to get one because ATi stopped production and replaced it with the 9600Pro etc. Darkwing you must have got a dud.

CHEERS!!!

A company telling me they are unable to get stock of a particular product is one thing, but when they feed me some crap about it being replaced by the BETTER, FASTER 9600, I literally feel my nuts being sucked up into my body for protection as my REALULTIMATENINJAPOWER'S start to boil over...

WHY tell me that? Just tell me whats going on without trying to convince me to buy an inferior product by LYING to me...

thing is he probably thought he was right.
i was at a computer shop in tygervalley a while back and me and my friend were looking at the graphics cards on sale there. we were just looking at the boxes there talking about them when i saw a fx5200 box...my friends says how much he wants a geforce fx (he dont know about models) and i tell him what a POS the 5200 is. just then a salesman pops is head in and proceeds to tell me all about how the fx5200 beats the ti4800 hands down in all tests. i stare at the guy blankly...laugh in his face, tell him he is talking absolute shit and direct him to futuremark.com where he can tell the people there tat lovely story and walk out of the shop and vow to never again return to that pos shop :/
the dumbass actually believed he was right...so maybe he not lying on purpose darkwing :/

If he isnt lying, he KNOWS he is talking out his ass... And why do that???

Besides, he actually told me they had compared the 9700 with the 9600 in the shop, and the 9600 outperformed the 9700 on a LOWER spec machine... How could he NOT be lying?

lol...thats almost exactly wot the guy im talking about said to me...he also said that they had benched the 5200 on the same machine and it had done better than the ti4800...
oh well...customer support is to the dogs these days :/

Sez greyhound...

The funny thing is that Puma Technologies owns Computers Only and has never closed down they are according to PC Format rated as the second biggest and best SA e-tailor in South Africa. I buy there often, they are a hell of good bunch of guys and always willing to help with problems that no other computer place ive been to wants to.

So get the facts before saying you put somebody out of business.

Um, his facts ARE correct...

Notice he said

"computer only USED to be called puma technologies...."

He and his friend owned ICE Computers, and they took over Kelvin before the one partner moved to Poland...

Computers Only left after the market in Kelvin was hi jacked.

*Cough

The only reason they left Kelvin was because of the crime and the bad area cramped there style some company's grow big and strong and some stay small in Kelvin.

Uh huh...

I bet they told you that right?

And, to a degree, I bet they would like to believe it themselves...

That is not the case though.

See, Kelvins property value has almost tripled over the past few years...

The house we sold for R320 000 in 2000 is now going for roughly R760 000

*Cough

Crime?

Bad Area?

WHAT EVER!

My Gf's father bought their house for R240 000...

It is now worth R1.5Mil.

*Again cough

END!

*thinks to himself "I love it when ppl who dunno what they talking about chirp shyte..."

Has anybody heard of ice computers what is there webaddress what publications do they advertise in. Sorry small time I rest my case.


This discussion is getting stale and a total waste of time.

Um, ICE closed in like 2001...

I did say, "after one of the guys moved to Poland"

It still doesn't change the fact that they ran Puma outta Kelvin.

And if they (Puma) can get nailed by a "small time" operation like ICE. Imagine what will happen if Rudi had to come back and move to Kyalami.

Besides the fact, all companies start out "small time" and grow into something big.

The fact that they forced the only competition out of Kelvin is proof enough that they were "on the rise"

DUH!!!

Shit!

Look at Marc Shuttleworth, he was 1 guy...

Look where he is today...

Have fun with ur friends at computers only

*cough

I don't think I have to say any more on this issue...

I wonder what happened to this Jthang loser...

wahahahaha couldn't win the arguments

As a side note, it's easy to run the only competition in town out of town if you can undercut all their written quotes (that, I assume, are presented to you). Hell, why didn't they have the balls to see how much they can earn without getting an idea where the line in sand is drawn? Bunch of cats... Anyhows, they b ded now.

Whenever I intend on buying something, I first make sure of the products that is available and see what it is that I want / can afford. Only then start shopping around. People are far too often blaming shops of ripping them off - just make sure you know your apples from your pears and you should be fine whenever shopping. If someone is telling you something that you know to be a lie/fib/uninformed comment whatever you want to call it - tell them to their faces.

See that is how they were doing it.

People would bring in a quote - they'd thrash it... No overheads you see...

Also, they would do market research by going into "Puma" and shopping around for components when quoting some one. That way they knew what "Puma" was charging and they could determine which price to quote.

I used to hang around with Rudi ona daily basis and we'd often take trips to Incredible Connection and/or "Puma" with a shopping list to check prices.