Re: Seller won't give feedback until buyer does. Unethical?

On Sun, 21 Oct 2007 17:34:44 -0700, Pogonip <nobody3@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

tony cooper wrote:
On Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:54:34 -0700, Pogonip <nobody3@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


tony cooper wrote:

It takes me about three days to set up a new computer. Adding programs,
bookmarks for my browser, etc. How could anyone buy a new computer and
immediately jump on a plane and expect it to be useful?


I suspect that "mm" is only going to use the laptop for either word
processing or data entry. He really doesn't need to add any programs
to do this. He may add one program like Open Office (word processing,
spread***, database) and be able to use a thumb drive to take along
files he has on his desktop. He could use it to access and send
e-mail.

Even with all the programs I use, it's a few hours to make any new
computer up-to-speed. I can't imagine what would take 3 days.

Browser bookmarks can be put online and you needn't have them on your
computer. You can access them from any computer.


Seems like everytime we get a new computer, it comes preloaded with a
ton o' crap that has to be removed. I don't want a 30-day trial of
McAfee, Office, Norton, and a whole bunch more - did I mention AOL? I
install Office 2000, which we have, but I notice that it's trying to use
the trial version and warning that it's only good for another so many
uses. If what I hear about Vista is correct - that all files are stored
outside of the programs that create them - that shouldn't be a problem.
Maybe I should have removed the trial version before installing 2000.


There's a difference between setting up a computer for use for a
business trip and setting up a computer for long-term use. For one
trip, $100 for a basic tool to enter or view data can be worthwhile.
Theoretically, it could be worth $100 to buy the thing, take along a 1
or 2 gig thumb drive to use to bring home the data entered on the
trip, and then leave the laptop in the hotel room.

Even if the 'puter is used to show a PowerPoint presentation from a
thumb drive, $100 can be cheaper than trying to rent something on the
road in two or more locations. And easier to arrange.

Depending on where the business trip takes you, there's even the
possibility that the buyer doesn't want to risk losing or damaging his
"regular" laptop.

Depending on the nature of the business trip, $100 isn't that large an
expenditure to make sure things go right.

I'm just guessin' here. People do dumb things, but people also do
very smart things for reasons that appear to be dumb unless we
understand the circumstances.




The problem here seems to be doing it all at the last minute. With the
track record on laptops on eBay, I wouldn't want to rely on an unknown
buyer to supply a working laptop right out of the box.

Nor would I, but I don't know what circumstances the OP was working
under. I've been retired for a while, but I've lugged Kodak Carousel
Projectors around the country when they were the only thing we had to
work with, and there's been many a time when I would have been willing
to leave them in hotel rooms at the end of a trip rather than haul one
back home. There just wasn't a source like eBay around then where
cheap replacements were easily available. I'd consider $100 cheap,
even with the value of $100 in those days, just to get on a plane
after a long, multi-stop trip, with nothing more than my Hartmann
carry-on.

--


Tony Cooper
Orlando, FL
.