[Coco] Cloud-9 Tech

Mon Nov 9 20:24:43 EST 2009

That's ok Mark.  There are a lot of others out there that feel as you do.
All you can do is ride it out.  No need to apologize to me.  

Leonard

-----Original Message-----
From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On
Behalf Of Mark Marlette
Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 01:41 PM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [Coco] Cloud-9 Tech

Chad,

I have be on vacation, more than a week. Just returned to work today but
will not be to the office till Wednesday, sorry three houses that all
require care, attendance, etc...

I have been hunting at Cloud-9 Lab Central. For VERY good reasons, I have no
phones, no cell reception, just Dish Network.

I am processing over 400 Emails right now.....So instead of order processing
I am filter this thread and other inquiries.

I am behind, plan on working on Veteran's Day to try and catch up a bit. A
day won't cut it but it can't hurt either

Hopefully things will be on the up. Got my daughter hopefully back on track,
nowhere where she needs to be but a start.

I do not work for UPS or FedEX. I do work for the second largest defense
contractor in the world. We might be slipping due to the current
administration's social agenda, national defense is not a major concern. We
are entering round two of our layoffs, currently 550 out the door here,
projecting another 200-300 on this next round. Please run my health care so
that can go to crap as well....What a joke. I know this is not a forum for
politics I apologize in advance for this. This hits REALLY close to home.

We are still in business for now...

Regards,

Mark

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chad H" <chadbh74 at hotmail.com>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 7, 2009 11:44:08 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: Re: [Coco] Cloud-9 Tech

Dang all I did was post a question as to the status of Cloud-9 and inquired
if anyone knew why I wasn't getting replies to an order/info request...now
it's turned in to a thread that's lead to this!?  Geez.  Guess I should have
searched through this forum's posts to determine Boise's or Mark's email
addresses and contacted them directly.

-----Original Message-----
From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On
Behalf Of Derek
Sent: Saturday, November 07, 2009 10:50 AM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [Coco] Cloud-9 Tech

As I said last year on the email list because of the way you treat customers
and your attitude that we are all ignorant and a hassle to deal with is why
I will never again purchase from Cloud-9 as long as your part of the
company. Every time you reply to a product or service question it is done in
a way that shows a total lack of respect for people and that fine,. I
respect your right to feel the way you do and to express yourself. I reserve
the right to not do business with your company until how you treat people
changes. 

My budget for my vintage computing hobby is not large but I can tell you I
have bypassed your company's products this past year in favor for expansions
and accessories for other vintage platforms because every time I have gone
to possibly place an order for Drive wire or the Super IDE controller I
remember how you have treated me and others on the email list in the past
and I just cant bring myself to do business with you.

** Mistrust Authority. Promote Decentralization **

--- On Sat, 11/7/09, Boisy G. Pitre <boisy at tee-boy.com> wrote:

From: Boisy G. Pitre <boisy at tee-boy.com>
Subject: Re: [Coco] Cloud-9 Tech
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Date: Saturday, November 7, 2009, 7:05 AM

Mark really should address this since Cloud-9 is his business and I sell my
products through him, but since he's on vacation, I'll respond.

I think your message doesn't convey a sense of disrespect as much as it does
an ignorance of how Cloud-9's business is handled.

Cloud-9 order fulfillment works this way: Mark buys software product in bulk
from me and stocks those products at Lab North.  As orders come in, they are
evaluated.  If it's a purely software order, I'll fulfill it here at Lab
South, since I have the capacity to make the software products.  If it's a
mixture of hardware and software, Mark will fulfill it at Lab North.  We do
this to prevent having to ship from two different locations for the same
order.

That's why some folks get packages sent from Minnesota, others from
Louisiana.

When Mark is away (he and I stay in touch regularly, so I know his
schedule), I will fill orders that I can.  For those that I can't, I'll
inform the customer of the delay.  When Mark gets back in zone, he takes
care of those orders.

Sometimes we go an extended time without getting orders, so it's not unusual
to have quiet periods without emails. As a result, when things break, like
the email seems to have, we don't notice it right away.  Since Mark handles
the IT stuff (email routing, knows passwords, etc), he will have to return
before the situation becomes rectified.

Aside from all this, Mark has a busy life these days, and he's given a
glimpse of what's going on in his life in prior messages.

Now from this point onward, I'll speak for myself.

Between managing and running my own successful business, attending graduate
school, running a household and seeing after all of the other goings on in
my life, the CoCo is really way down on the list of priorities.  Sorry if
that hurts, but that's the facts.   I have less time and more commitments 
on my plate than ever, and the revenue that I obtain from Cloud-9 is
infinitesimal compared to my other sources of income.

There's an equation that I derived some years back that describes my
philosophy on how I spend my time.  I call it "Boisy's Formula of
Probability of Continued Effort." This is my formula; it works for me:

P = V / (E*T*H))

Where:
    P is the probability of continued effort for a given task;
    V is the value that I obtain out of doing the task (value can be in the
form of money, food, or even something as intrinsic as happiness and
fulfillment);
    E is the level of effort required to generate that value;
    T is the amount of time I have to spend doing the task;
    H is the hassle factor that comes along with performing the task.

The goal is to maximize V while minimizing E, T and H, thus keeping P at or
above 1.  High values of P are very, very good.

For everything I spend my time doing, I apply this formula in my head.  And
it answers a basic question: "Is this worth my time?"  For my work in the
CoCo, V, E and T are pretty much constants, with the large majority of V
being enjoyment of the hobby and the positive interactions I get with the
majority of our customers and friends.  Very little of V is in the form of
monetary compensation.

Without a doubt, Mark and I have built a great network of friends and
customers through Cloud-9, and I appreciate their business and support. 
They keep the value of V pretty high, but it's the value of H that I watch
carefully.  It increases when I have to write long emails like this one when
I would rather be doing something else on a Saturday morning.  It increases
when people wrongly assume that we are ignoring them and then send nasty
emails.  It increases when my time gets taken advantage of by others without
fair compensation or under false pretenses.

Thanks for listening!

On Nov 7, 2009, at 7:31 AM, Derek wrote:

>> Remember Cloud9 is not Mark's prime source of income. It is done for a
love of the Coco
>> and the community.
> 
> I mean no disrespect to the folks at cloud 9 and have even purchased my
512K Ram upgrade from them but if you going to run a business there is a
right way and a wrong way to do it. If there are problems with filling
orders you should at least post on your web page about possible delays or
reply back to your customers about how long the delay will be. It sounds
like a few folks have emailed but got no reply back and they have had to
post here or on coco3.com to get an answer.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco

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