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Best Electronics - problem with ordering


St(r)yker

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Been dealing with Brad a LONG time. Only time he got a little stern with me was when I ordered about $250 worth of IC's. The problem

arose with the amount of each IC (5 to 10 of each). Must have been about 30 different IC's for: 800, 800XL, 130XE, 850, 1050, and a 835 modem.

He told me to keep my orders down to 5 to 10 things.

That is too funny :rolling: Never heard of a merchant getting upset with someone for ordering too much stuff !!!

 

- Michael

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That is too funny :rolling: Never heard of a merchant getting upset with someone for ordering too much stuff !!!

 

- Michael

I had the same problem, but when I asked how small my order needed to be I got some reply about the shipping or accounting or technician staff member throwing my orders into the trash because they were too big.

 

That's a good clue though, my orders of 5 or fewer items have gotten processed.

 

Also, watch what happens on the Addendum page the day after you place an order. I've noticed nearly all hardware goes up in price the next day (to his credit, he does honor the original price).

Edited by GlowingGhoul
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Ugh. A lot of talk about Brad of B. E. again, including both bickering and defense of same.

As a fellow who's done business with him and see talk from others who have, I can just say that he's a little kooky; I mean no disrespect thereby. If you can deal with it, then support Best; and if you can't, then walk away.

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I think the moan about the number of items on that order completely confirms that its just him and possibly his wife doing the order and picking, possibly finding the old moving around a tad tough and getting a bit crankier..

 

Old age isn't fun, I have a few problems of old age a bit prematurely at 55 and it really is no fun at all. When a simple walk to the local shop around the corner leaves you in agony then life isn't all rosy.

 

He has my sympathies...

 

Brad, the Marmite of Atari Sales... :)

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I made my first order from Best this Monday by email, and got my order on Thursday. He may be a bit eccentric compared to the online ordering I'm now accustomed to, but he delivered the goods almost as fast as Amazon would have.

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  • 2 years later...

Two previous orders went without problems but this time I asked for about a dozen different items (with multiples of some) and was told to limit it to 3-4 items because of heavy demand at least until mid-Februar.

 

I replied that I would really very much appreciate if he could fill the order, even if that would result in some waiting time, as it would go via a forwarding service to Europe (so I'd rather have it all in one go to save on overseas postage) but if he couldn't do that, I listed the stuff in order of importance and asked him to quote as many as practicable.

 

Second reply was: can't do that and it will probably stay busy for the remainder of the year.

 

Now waiting for a reply on a third mail with just 4 positions, one of them "just in case you happen to have it" (Atari 822 printer spindles). Curious whether I'll get a reply at all and if 3 pieces of one item will be accepted.

 

Sounds strange when other people tell it but feels bad if it happens to you as you need some stuff that probably no one else on the planet has in stock....probably we're too accustomed to the customer being king or at least having endless choice.

 

Still find it strange that he has so little interest to sell 200+ USD of merchandise in one go and prefers to ship smaller orders, especially when about ¾ worth of the stuff I asked for originally was his own merchandise (super pots, CX40 replacement parts, new 7800 PSU).

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Its probably to do with age and ability these days, its him alone I think and I can only imagine the hard work has taken its toll on him.

 

I iguess he see's it as a pocket money filler rather than a full on business these days...

 

But what can you do, he has stuff that's hard to get and you can bet he knows that.

 

Shame its come to these but the ball is in his side of the field....He's always been cranky though..

Edited by Mclaneinc
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Two previous orders went without problems but this time I asked for about a dozen different items (with multiples of some) and was told to limit it to 3-4 items because of heavy demand at least until mid-Februar.

 

 

 

He will soup-nazi you if he thinks you are wasting his time, are going to resell, are trying to horde etc. If you tried to order 2 of something you might be on his bad list now. I ordered a restored 800xl off him some years back and a couple months later wanted a restored 2600 too and he acted like he didn't want to sell and like he suspected me of trying to make some flipping profit, I explained my mother had been talking about how she used to play my brother's 2600 and I was buying her one for her birthday (which was the truth) and BAM invoice.

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I ordered a refurb Atari St from Best a few years ago, went off without a hitch and he was very helpful and polite the whole time.

 

I tried ordering 10 boxed 7800 games and some of the Euro style 7800 controllers last December (no questions, just a list of games I wanted to buy from him, listed on his site), and got the "shipping dept is busy, you need to cut your list down to 3 items" reply.

I replied with the three items, and he never responded, so I just shop elsewhere now. No hard feelings on my part, it's just not worth dealing with his moods.

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I replied with the three items, and he never responded, so I just shop elsewhere now. No hard feelings on my part, it's just not worth dealing with his moods.

 

No reply to my last order yet. I'll give him a day or two more. I'd go elsewhere I won't get his super pots elsewhere and when he lists a special price for 10 you'd suppose he's going to sell you 10.

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Other then some back and forth emails, I've never had any problems ordering stuff from Best. In fact my last order consisted of quite a few different ICs, 1050 parts, crystals, and a few misc items. Got a quick response to my order request, and had the parts in my hand a few days later. Word of advice, any emails you send should say "Atari Parts Order" in the subject line, else you might go to the junk mail folder on Brad's end.

 

BTW, it sure would be a tough world to live in if someone stopped talking to you for the rest of your life simply because you had one bad day. Give Brad a break, as other's have suggested, he's probably doing a one man show, certainly isn't a young pup anymore, and has a BIG warehouse to search to find your parts. And good luck finding someone else that's got the Atari parts you need :) .

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I know that he has at least one other male person working there because sometimes someone other than Brad answers the phone and writes down my order.

Once when I asked where Brad was, the voice on the other end said that once in a while Brad has to stop and go to the bathroom. That has always made me

smile. Brad does stop for something other than sleep.

 

David

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Only ordered from him once and he was really pleasant, shipping was super fast to Australia.

 

Got one of the last NOS 1050 power supplies from him for my NTSC 800, already had a 240v to 115v stepdown so that wasn't going to be a problem. Besides, those are impossible to find in Australia and it was cheaper to buy from the U.S than to build my own from scratch.

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I have ordered from Brad many times over the past three decades, always got what I ordered. I do tend to order in small(ish) batches for specific, most common type items. So, I can understand why he may get winded on huge orders that contain some obscure items. On the other hand, he even says on his website that all the parts he has may not be listed in the catalog or online, to call him. I guess we all need to try and figure out when is the best time to call him. I will continue to use him, when I have to. I try to find alternative sources first. His shipping is not cheap either, but they are always packaged to the extreme. Never had a damaged good.

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

No reply to my last order yet. I'll give him a day or two more. I'd go elsewhere I won't get his super pots elsewhere and when he lists a special price for 10 you'd suppose he's going to sell you 10.

 

Well, Brad got back to me after a couple of days and fulfilled my order but still I couldn't get more than three items. Saved me from buying fake-veneer VCS cart storage boxes, though ;) At least I got my super pots.

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Well, Brad got back to me after a couple of days and fulfilled my order but still I couldn't get more than three items. Saved me from buying fake-veneer VCS cart storage boxes, though ;) At least I got my super pots.

 

I am curious why he won't allow you more than three items ? Maybe something about international ? I have bought more than three in the past .

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I am curious why he won't allow you more than three items ? Maybe something about international ? I have bought more than three in the past .

 

 

I don't think it's about international. Some people here have speculated that he sometimes just doesn't want to bother with large orders and/or keep his stock longer (which I would find strange for stuff like the CX40/Paddle parts which he sources himself).

 

I originally ordered 16 items (some of them multiples) and that's what I got:

you are going to cut your Atari want list down to 3 – 4
Items max.  Our very very busy (7 days a week, 14 to 16 hour
days here) Atari shipping department already has more placed Atari orders than
they can ship out to the middle of February.  So they
will simply not do any Atari shipping quotes over 3 - 4 items max

I politely asked if I could have more if I waited a little bit and got this back

we will have to pass on your Atari order.  Simply too many already placed Atari orders now to the middle of
next month now.  It will be like that hear for the rest of this year.  More Atari orders than we can ship out.

So I cut down to four (one of which was not available) and received a positive reply after a couple of days.

 

I looked through my mail and I found two orders roughly the same size as my original order which went through without a hitch, even though I added some stuff after his reply. I never tried a large "international" order.

 

As a nice touch the package included some color printouts of a German(!) ABBUC magazine article from 2007 with an interview, a leaflet about his joystick/paddle parts, about why he no longer sends leaflets with up-to-date game availability info and a certificate showing him to be best Atari vendor in 2003 or so.

 

I really would have loved the other stuff as well but with Atari it's never "life or death"...

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