RE: Hyper-threading

[Robert White]

Note to US consumers (or people purchasing things through any US institution
or facility) WRT this sort of thing.

If, in deed, your ordered this thing under a set of specifications that it
isn't meeting (e.g. the gigabit isn't there but it is on the listing from
the advertisement etc. the seller is all sorts of liable.  (I am presuming
wrong doing, if you just didn't shop around but you did get what you
ordered, this doesn't apply to you 8-)

Particularly if you used a credit card.

The things to do (and these really do work.)

1) (no matter what kind of payment was used) go to http://www.ftc.gov and
file a complaint.  This is something between advertising and wire fraud and
there are armies of petty bureaucrats at the FTC who live to vent spleen on
that sort of thing.  Example: Bank of America "held" a _certified_ check my
roommate deposited into his account, even after the funds cleared the
issuing account.  He had proof.  There is a %1000 fine for that (yes, three
zeros!) and BofA paid just over 60,000.00(USD) in fines for "being slick"
with his account.  The more proof you have (print out of the advertisement
or web page etc) the more likely you are to get satisfaction; mention what
proof you have etc in the complaint.

2) If you used a credit card (again on a US bank or institution) complain to
your bank and/or the lead company (e.g. Visa Corp for a purchase made with
any thing imprinted with a "Visa" logo).  The person or entity who listed
the charge against your account has an agreement with the issuing bank or
the main company that, among other things, makes them liable to provide the
goods or services paid for, or to make good on the mistake, or to abrogate
the sale.  They have also agreed not to be fraudulent about their actions
since Visa Corp (et al) cant make you pay for charges that are
inappropriate.  Even "all sales are final" notices accompanying a sale do
not supercede this agreement if what was delivered didn't match what was
purchased.  A business can lose it's entire ability to process a card (e.g.
Visa will pull their contract, and that can end a business) for something as
small as one failure to perform.

It's amazing how quickly a business will bend over and get all helpful if
they get caught out and you actually make the call.

It all boils down to proof.  Did you print that "receipt" page?  Do you have
the invoice?  Did you (can you) print the Advertisement?  Does it say it
will on the box?   All these things are useful as proof.

At the very least, if they didn't deliver, you may not have to pay.

And remember, a merchant can disclaim fitness for a particular purpose ("you
balancing your checkbook" for example) but they can not "disclaim" anything
in the sales agreement, and claims on the page and on the box are therefore
binding no matter what they say.

Call the merchant one more time.  Get the name of the guy you are talking
to.  Say "This product doesn't do what the box says it will.  Replace this
with something that does, or give me my money back, or my next calls will be
fraud complaints to my bank, Visa corp., and the F.T.C."  Ask for his
supervisor, get his name, repeat your statement.  If/when they say no, thank
them for their time politely.  Then assert your right not to be screwed...

Rob.

-----Original Message-----
From: [e-mail]
[mailto:[e-mail]]On Behalf Of Richard B.
Johnson
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 9:59 AM
To: Mike Dresser
Cc: [e-mail]; [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Hyper-threading

These were purchased together to be a "hyper-thread" board
for my new system. I have always had two CPUs since SMP became
available, and I wanted to experiment with the new "single-CPU"
SMP architecture.

I got ripped off. I got sold a board that doesn't have the gigibit
adapter populated plus, you can't tell from a distance because the
connector is present, but has some metal tape covering the hole.

This board costs $275 plus the CPU was $635. I got badly raped
and the vendor won't take them back.