New AES catalogue (or, "catalog" to you whippersnappers) today...

[W3MIV]

Over the years, I have found GigaParts very good overall. Workable website. Good service and very fast ship. Bought my 756P3 from them (free PS), as well as the AL80B.

There used to be a really good, fun ham shop in Newcastle, DE, some twenty-five or so years back (but then, there were LOTS of fun ham shops twenty-five or more years back, even in Maryland). I drove up to the HRO in Newcastle a couple of times, but the travel was not worth the trouble. Disappointing store; disappointing stock. Prices are generally close to the same everywhere.

[n0eq]

Over the years, I have found GigaParts very good overall. Workable website. Good service and very fast ship...

Just goes to show ya' how different people perceive "good service".
I bought a coax switch from GigaParts. I wasn't happy at all with
the quality of the item. I wrote to them and asked how to return it.
They replied that I could send the item to them and then they would
inspect it to see if they thought there were quality issues.

I wasn't interested in THEIR opinion of the quality, I simply didn't like it.
Any company with good customer service will accept an unused item
for any reason at all; poor opinion of the part, buyer remorse, wrong
shade of blue, whatever.

They were a little too proud of their merchandise. I contacted the
manufacturer who issued me an immediate payment for the item,
and a sincere apology. No return necessary.


Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke
www.n0eq.com

[n6hcm]

I wasn't interested in THEIR opinion of the quality, I simply didn't like it.
Any company with good customer service will accept an unused item
for any reason at all; poor opinion of the part, buyer remorse, wrong
shade of blue, whatever.

good luck with that. ham radio retailers != nordstrom's. this drives up the cost of stuff for everyone and puts the merchant at (modest, imho) risk since they then have to return the item to the manufacturer and hope to get credit for it. when folks are as price conscious as they are this becomes a practice that's hard to justify.

[n0eq]

[return something because you simply don't like it]

...good luck with that. ham radio retailers != nordstrom's. this drives up the cost of stuff for everyone and puts the merchant at (modest, imho) risk since they then have to return the item to the manufacturer and hope to get credit for it. when folks are as price conscious as they are this becomes a practice that's hard to justify.

They don't have to return something to the manufacturer if the customer simply doesn't like the color or the perceived quality. And if it IS a defective product, then they do indeed need to deal with the manufacturer, not just leave it in the hands of the consumer and say "no, sorry". Besides, the option is I can have my CC vendor reverse the charge, then the retailer will be out the total of the income. I can also get a refund from the manufacturer, bypassing the retailer, which is what I did in this case.

In both cases, the retailer loses because not only will I no longer spend money there, I'll come on a forum like this one and share my negative experience.

It's all just something retailers have to figure out how to deal with. And the ones that survive do figure out how to deal with it. Just another cost of doing business. Still way, way less expensive than keeping a physical store front open for me to physically walk in, examine the color of the widget, then deciding not to buy it.

Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke
www.n0eq.com

[n6hcm]

They don't have to return something to the manufacturer if the customer simply doesn't like the color or the perceived quality.

they can't sell it as new, either, since it isn't.

getting a refund from the manufacturer is lucky at best--most warranties don't say anything about cash refunds. that you were able to get it this time was nice, but i wouldn't expect that as a matter of course.

[W3WN]

Over the years, I have found GigaParts very good overall. Workable website. Good service and very fast ship. Bought my 756P3 from them (free PS), as well as the AL80B.

There used to be a really good, fun ham shop in Newcastle, DE, some twenty-five or so years back (but then, there were LOTS of fun ham shops twenty-five or more years back, even in Maryland). I drove up to the HRO in Newcastle a couple of times, but the travel was not worth the trouble. Disappointing store; disappointing stock. Prices are generally close to the same everywhere.

Local ham stores are disappearing, one by one.

The one in DE I miss is the old EGE. Dealt with them a lot when I worked at Westech (also long defunct). The EGE stores were bought out by HRO, and were never the same afterwards.

[KG4CGC]

HRO Atlanta is stuck in 1975.

[W3MIV]

HRO Atlanta is stuck in 1975.

Not sure how you mean that. In many ways, except for the CB craze (and having to walk thirty-eight miles to and from the FCC testing office in a raging blizzard, which Glenn Zook and others assured me was the case), I wish we were back in 1975! Lots of amateur retail outlets, filled with lots of fun folks; Heathkit in full swing; I think both Lafayette and Allied were still in business; even Radio Shack was a way different operation.

[W3WN]

Not sure how you mean that. In many ways, except for the CB craze (and having to walk thirty-eight miles to and from the FCC testing office in a raging blizzard, which Glenn Zook and others assured me was the case), I wish we were back in 1975! Lots of amateur retail outlets, filled with lots of fun folks; Heathkit in full swing; I think both Lafayette and Allied were still in business; even Radio Shack was a way different operation.

Lafayette was. They didn't meet their demise until much later, after the CB craze abated.

I still have the Lafayette SW receiver I bought as an SWL circa 1971... still works, too. Looking back, I know now it was the wrong radio for a budding ham to buy (GC tune only and no BFO), but my father insisted to me that the salesman knew what he was selling me. Either the salesman saw a kid as a sucker, or (more likely) my dad thought I had no long term interest in radio and didn't want me to waste a lot of money, so he went with the cheaper rig. So it goes.

[KG4CGC]

My 1975 comment, store, building, smell.
As for the market availability of having a place (several many) to walk into to look at and touch, I miss that too.