BM Direct is a surprising underdog in the OS/2 direct retail market. One might assume that with their size and obvious advantage at getting their hands on OS/2 applications, they would be an aggressive price and customer satisfaction leader. The opposite seems to be true.

Readers of OS/2 e-Zine! liked IBM Direct least of the big five companies we reviewed this month, giving them the lowest marks in both Promptness & Reliability (3.5 out of 5) and Customer Satisfaction (3.33 out of 5). Their prices were the highest we found too; our shopping list at IBM Direct would cost us US$458.75 for an average price of US$76.46.

Then there's the issue of even contacting them. As we have found in the past, it's often difficult to actually locate the proper person to speak with at IBM. We were expecting the retail organization to be more approachable but were disappointed not to have this verified.

Our problem (your results may vary) started when we called the US toll free number. A helpful recording identified our call as coming from Canada and directed us to a phone number and extension in this country that would handle our request -- or so we thought. The person at the specified number did not understand what we were looking for and after 5 minutes of holding we were directed to another number. This person was more helpful but still had to direct us to another person -- who was not available for immediate conversation and had to call us back (1.5 hours later!). This final person informed us that all non-IBM retail business in Canada is now directed to independent retailers. Since there are none in our area, there was nothing IBM Direct could do to help us (IBM Direct in the US will not ship outside of the US).

Still, some buyers in the US have been satisfied with Big Blue. One voter wrote: "[IBM] delivered orders to me in from 2 to 5 days. The competence of the staff has been high in my opinion, answering my questions with an ease that speaks of personal use of the products I was inquiring about."

However, another reader echoed our local problem when discussing IBM Direct in the UK: "IBM Direct in the UK gave me very good service when I bought DualStor 2.0 last year. However, they no longer sell any PC software direct and leave it all to resellers! So today they get 1/1."

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