Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    Abel has been great for me.  I've ordered quite a few products from
    them with no problems.  I've read that others have had problems with
    them.  I tend to order from Safe Harbor now.  Their prices are about
    $5.00-$10.00 more than Abel's but their service is EXCELLENT!! 
    
    mark
    
    p.s. i usually order from Abel through their BBS.

    My experience has been that Abel has two delivery speeds - now
    and never.  If they have what you want in stock you get it right
    away; if they don't have it you may wait months.  They'll tell
    you when you call them if it's in stock or not.  Be wary if they
    say they're expecting something to come in in a "couple of
    days".  That translates to "never".  I steer away from their
    online ordering system because there's no way to check their 
    inventory.

    I dunno about service - I've never had to send anything back.

    - Cliff

    re: -.1
    
    	All too true, I ordered a spirit st506 adapter and the 1.3 rom , both
    where out of stock....
    	About 3 or 4 months later I recieved the ST506, another month after that
    I recieved the 1.3 roms.
    	After swearing I'd never use Abel again, my will power broke (also I 
    read some of the same stuff in the previous reply elsewhere) and I ordered
    some software from them monday, it showed up thurs of the same week.
     Ground UPS.
         Thats the fastest I've ever recieved anything from anywhere...
    
    
    							Ed
    
    					

    So what you folks are saying is:
    
    1)  If you call to order something and they say they have it in stock,
    go ahead and get it.
    
    2)  If they say it may take a couple of days, go somewhere else.
    
    Correct?
    
    Steve
    

    Based on my personal expierences, yes.
    							Ed
    

    
    Some of you might be surprised at how much stock Abel actually keeps at
    any one time. They stock PRACTICALLY NOTHING!! Every time I have
    ordered hardware and all but two times I have ordered software, the
    item was not in stock. This is not unusual for any mail order company
    (other than the big PC type outfits). Inventory costs money to keep
    around. So if you follow the rule "if it's not in stock, don't order
    it", don't waste the phone call unless you are interested in one of the
    better moving items that thay keep on hand.
    
    What is important is what kind of relationship Abel has with it's
    suppliers, Supra for example seems to be very quick in getting their
    products to Abel when requested, others may be slower.
    
    The most important aspect of dealing with any mail order company is to
    make sure thay DO NOT BILL YOU BEFORE IT IS SHIPPED!!
    
    The moral of the story: If you are in a hurry, nervous about getting
    ripped off or don't like big phone bills, see your local dealer.
    
    	Regards....   Clint

Last Friday I called Abel to order (COD) a Xetec Fasttrak HD controller. They 
told me that they didn't have any in stock and that it would take a couple of
days for them to get it, plus another couple of days for 2nd day air delivery.
I called today (Friday) to see where the order was and they told me that their 
supplier had shipped it out on Wednesday and that they should have it by Monday 
and I should have it by Wednesday. We'll see.

Dave

    I never had problem with Abel, but according to this topic,
    few people actually mentionned that they spoke to someone from 
    Abel *on the phone*!!! Did you really?
    
    I dialed their number many gazillions of times and *never*, i.e:
    not even once, not get a busy signal.  They definitely should get
    extra lines.
    
    Their BBS is THE only way to order.
    	Once though, they lost one of my BBS order, unknown reason.
        I re-ordered.
    
    Vince.

     I know what you mean, while I was waiting for one of my orders (out of 
    stock), I tried to contact them voice, it was busy all day...........
     That was really aggravating.
     However there BBS # always goes through.
    							Ed
    

    if you're ordering mutiple items request
    they ship it all in one box.... I got burned on shipping charges when 
    3 items were all delievered the same day in seperate boxes.

    Re: .-2
    
    It is often easier to get through in the evening - Usually about 1/2
    hour before they close (9:00 EST).
    

            <<< Note 3526.7 by LEDS::BUSCH "Dave Busch at NKS1-2" >>>
                                -< We'll see. >-

< Last Friday (Feb 23) I called Abel to order (COD) a Xetec Fasttrak HD
< controller. They told me that they didn't have any in stock and that it would
< take a couple of days for them to get it, plus another couple of days for 2nd
< day air delivery. I called today (Mar 2) to see where the order was and they
< told me that their supplier had shipped it out on Wednesday Feb 28 and that
< they should have it by Monday Mar 5, and I should have it a couple of days
< later. We'll see. 

Well, true to their word (again, by phone) Able received the controller on Mar 
6. Trouble is, Xetec had sent it configured with the unpopulated memory 
expansion board (which I hadn't ordered) and Able had to call them up to find
out how to reconfigure it for me, which they did the same day and, lo and
behold, the package arrived 2 days later. 

As for ease of getting up and running, after reading some of the entries in this
file I thought I'd have a hard time configuring and formatting things. Actually,
the software that came with the unit was very easy to use, as was the manual. I
had to do a bit of machining to adapt the mounting rails for my drive and I had
to install a wire-wrap jumper to configure the system to draw 5 volt power
from the drive unit (they had left out a jumper) but aside from that, everything
worked OK from the start. After I got my system utilities, tools, etc. installed
I started transporting all my useful software to DH1. It was then that I 
discovered how truly amazing a HD's performance could be. I had no idea you 
could delete that much data in such a short time, just by clicking on the wrong 
icon. WOW!!!   :^(

Dave