[Coco] A warning to readers regarding Roger Taylor

[Blake Patterson]

Hello,

I am a long-time retro computer enthusiast and collector. I run the ByteCellar retro computer blog and TouchArcade, the iOS gaming news site.

I have not sought to slander anyone in my post blog post about my experiences in connection with Roger Taylor. I sought to share my experiences and, based on those, urge users to beware of dealing with the man. I tried to be very thorough so as to let the situation speak for itself.

I greatly appreciate the work of people like Taylor, and I have gladly purchased similar products from individuals far and wide to enhance my retro computing experience. I was eager to get a Drive Pak and start exploring the CoCo, one of the clearly most powerful 8-bit computers around.

I was not highly perturbed by the delays that stretched into months -- obviously -- as I was willing to purchase a second unit, without canceling the first. Based on what he indicated in his August email to me, some of the units get sold on eBay to fund the overall process -- that made sense to me. It was when I heard that the unit that was listed as "Available" was actually not yet assembled at the time of purchase - on eBay - that I finally became upset at his actions. His lack of response to my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th inquiry into the eBay item along with the item not having come to me in over a month (the eBay stated delivery time was December 16th) seemed a clear indication that something was not right. The situation surrounding the second unit I purchased is much more concerning than the nearly year-long wait I am still enduring for the first unit.

I have not reported Talyor to eBay as one having sold a unit that did not exist, and I don't intend to. But several, hearing the story, have urged me to do just that.

Whatever respect and friendship you have for Roger Taylor has little to do with my experience. I assure you nothing that I have accounted in my post has been exaggerated or falsified.

I find it difficult to believe that most reading the account would not at least take issue and feel concern surrounding the eBay item situation.

I realize that Taylor left coco3.com some months back, and have not only been emailing that old address, but several others that he has used over the past year to communicate with me, as well as the internal eBay messaging system for messages concerning the eBay item.

In the end, I still am anxious to play with this CoCo 3, try out OS-9 / NitrOS, and numerous games that a few highschool friends of long ago used to tell me about. I still want the devices!

I hope this better explains the intent of my post, if it was somehow cloudy before?

Thanks.




bp

::
:: http://blakespot.com 
::
On Jan 11, 2012, at 8:46 AM, Fedor Steeman wrote:

> Excuse me, but who the fuck are you!?
> 
> Roger Taylor is a well-known and well-respected member of our community,
> and you have come to the wrong address on our CoCo mailing list slandering
> him like that!
> 
> I am sorry for your bad experiences. I personally and many other among us
> have had many good dealings with Roger. Yes, on occassion there were
> delays, but for good reasons always. The worst you could say about Roger is
> that he sometimes overstretches himself and takes more than he can handle.
> But he is no scammer, as you seem to be implying.
> 
> This message will be replicated on your blog too.
> 
> /Fedor
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 11 January 2012 14:24, Blake Patterson <blakespot at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I wanted to share my experience to protect other potential customers of
>> Taylor's.
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.bytecellar.com/2012/01/10/a-cautionary-tale-for-the-tandy-coco-community/
>> 
>> FYI
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> bp
>> 
>> --
>> Coco mailing list
>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>> 
> 
> --
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