On 26 Jun 01, at 15:35, jethro at freakzilla.com wrote:

>   Hi,
> 
> Quoting Colin Kilbane <colin at tyr.med.umn.edu>:
> 
> > then factor in shipping, at least 10 to 30 bucks and the fact that you
> > get exceptional service right here in town, no RMA's no mailing anything
> > anywhere.  It's a better deal in the end.

Well, at least with most mail order outfits you could get an RMA # and return 
something if you needed to.

I recently went to Tran to purchase some RAM for a new system I am piecing 
together. It was a pleasant enough experience I guess, the owner was 
friendly. I don't think I care for the refund/exchange policy though.

I told him I was looking for a pair of the 256MB PC133 Micron DIMMS they 
advertise on their web site. Well they didn't have those, but this other brand 
XXX is better for sure!  Well, I don't know... ok I guess. I wouldn't know if they 
were or not.

Anyhow, the point is this: I told him exactly what motherboard I planned to put 
them in - an Abit KT7A-RAID - which they sell and their site says that they 
have in stock, and I asked him if there would be any problems. He said he 
didn't know, but it should be OK. I had an several Micron part numbers from 
the Crucial web site that were guaranteed to work with this board, but Tran 
wasn't selling Micron when I was there (last week).

He told me if they didn't work, I was S.O.L. They would only take an 
exchange in the case of physically defective RAM. No money back, and no 
credit for other merchandise. If the RAM was incompatible with my board that 
was my problem.

Since they sell that motherboard I asked again if he knew if the combo would 
work figuring they must have set up many systems based on that mobo. and 
he said he couldn't say for sure. He tried talking me into buying some other 
board and getting DDR RAM since DIMMS would be obsolete soon. Ahhh, 
OK, but no thanks.

Anyhow, I bought the DIMMS and hope they work when I get the mobo 
elsewhere. If their price was close, I would have been happy to support the 
local shop, but the difference was $54, and the tax vs. shipping costs almost 
cancelled each other out.

Mike