Richard Hayes wrote:
Dear list,
Sorry to be so long winded but I think this is important.
Yesterday I went into a "Harvey Norman Technology" store in Martin Place. I have just broken my connectors on my external usb hard drive and wanted to look at the prices of USB pen drives.
The prices were twice that of other stores as normal but I spoke to the salesperson saying the coolest thing you can do with them is install Puppy Linux on the pen drives. He asked "what is that so", I explained it is a small distro that works off the pen drive.
He had never heard of Linux. OK I'm a nut but how can you be working or selling computers peripherals without a least hearing of Linux?
Hardly Normal is the largest retailer of computer equipment is Australia by a long way. If their salespeople have not heard of Linux then I fear Australia is further behind that I thought.
They're "sales assistants", they are not "technical sales assistants", they could be in the white goods or the bedding department tomorrow. Their purpose in life is to remove as much money from the mugs^H^H^Hconsumers^H^H^Hcustomers as possible in as short a time as possible to increase the profit to expense ratio. 99% of the punters who buy through a HN franchise don't have a clue what they are looking for/at and will buy what they are sold on the HN "24 month interest free, pay nothing until 2006" terms.
Trust me, I have a great golfing mate, who works for a HN franchise and he makes big commissions. He used to be in the computing department. Guess who gets to fix his home system up...
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-- Howard. LANNet Computing Associates - Your Linux people <http://lannet.com.au> -- When you just want a system that works, you choose Linux; When you want a system that just works, you choose Microsoft. -- Flatter government, not fatter government; Get rid of the Australian states.
begin:vcard fn:Howard Lowndes n:Lowndes;Howard org:LANNet Computing Associates adr:;;PO Box 1174;Lavington;NSW;2641;Australia email;internet:howard [AT] lowndes [DOT] name tel;work:02 6040 0222 tel;fax:02 6040 0222 tel;cell:0419 464 430 note:I am heartily sick and tired of telemarketers, therefore I do not answer phone calls which do not present Caller Line Identification, they get flicked to voicemail. I apologise if this inconveniences you, and I respect your right to not identify yourself, but I also ask that you respect my right to not answer your call if you choose not to identify yourself. Try dialing 1832 (#32# from mobiles) before the number, to present Caller Line Identification. x-mozilla-html:FALSE url:http://www.lannet.com.au version:2.1 end:vcard
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