Calcpro are a bunch of toe-nails

[Paul Fox]

I mentioned the other day placing an order on their web site and never having got an acknowledgement that my order was received....I emailed them subsequently to see if the order had been placed and to ensure they email me at work & home.

Not a sausage from them....

So I waited til I could order from someone in the UK and placed the order a few days back.....

You know the rest of this story. Wife called today to say theres a parcel for me at home...HP49G+. From Calcpro.

So looks like I might be the proud possessor of two buggy-beauties and may need to sell one at a good price.

A pot of used and smelly toe-nail cuttings to calcpro for being such wallies.

[Paul Fox]

Well its arrived and Ive updated the ROM to 1.22.

Nice and fast! The keyboard appears to be fine - no dodgy keys as far as my limited testing has shown.

The key feel reminds me of the difference between Lego and Megablocks .. for those which have children. Lego is heavy duty plastic, perfectly formed and fits together properly.
Megablocks looks like Lego but is cheap and nasty and doesnt stick together properly. The HP keys are like megablocks - look the part, til you press them and then you feel that they are adequate for a $5 calculator.

After minutes of use, I am happy and at home with the keyboard - acceptable but not a feeling of quality. So dont let the keys put you off.

The calc does feel very light but thats no bad thing.

Having followed c.s.hp48 for the last few weeks, the ROM upgrade went smoothly (small issues related to not reading the docs first of all).

Supplied manual is a let down but not a big deal - I have
the HP48+49 manuals plus the downloadable online stuff. (I have Wicke's original books as well, which I cherish).

Now...wheres the games ? :-)

As mentioned in prior post looks like I will have 2 calcs soon so if anyone wants to make a reasonable offer, I'll let it go at a good price (when it arrives).

If theres any poor students or poor out of work IT workers, let me know and maybe we can cut a deal (especially if you are in the UK - especially London area).

Or I could take one to work and leave it there...

[Arnaud Amiel]

I think there is a poor imperial college student lurking in comp.sys.hp48. Look for the thread looking for 49g+ in London

Arnaud

[Paul Fox]

yup - i saw him wandering around feeling lonely.
Not sure if he reads this board .. see if I get any responses by the time it arrives. I think the UK
arrivals are imminent (its nearly November now...
crumbs its nearly Xmas).

Maybe the wife would appreciate a HP49G+ ... not!

[Joshua Belsky]

I seem to remember seeing a c.s.hp48 post by apoor engineer in a country where engineers make very little money. Maybe him?

[Wayne Brown]

It can be difficult communicating with CalcPro; I've found that calling them on the phone and actually talking to a real person is the most reliable method. However, on the plus side, they're good at finding hard-to-obtain items and getting them to customers, even though it sometimes means waiting long periods with no updates from them on what's happening. For instance, a year or two ago I ordered some out-of-production stuff -- HP-41 magnetic cards, magnetic tapes, card holders, module wallets, etc. from them. It took quite a while for the shipment to arrive, which didn't surprise me because I knew it would be difficult to locate some of these items. By the time it arrived I'd almost forgotten what I ordered. Several weeks later another package arrived, containing, if I remember correctly, a couple of mag tapes. At first I though it was a mistake, but after checking my original order I found that I had indeed ordered them. At some point CalcPro had decided to ship what they had managed to find so far, and when they later located the tapes they shipped those also. The point is that there was no communication from them to say that the shipments would be delayed, or that there would be partial shipments made as items became available. I think the assumption they make is that if you order something you want it, no matter how long it takes, and that since you'll get it as soon as they can find it, there's no need to talk to you about it any further after the order has been placed. That can be frustrating when you're wondering if they even received your order or not, but after dealing with them several times I have to admit they always have (eventually!) filled my orders correctly. So I guess that means I'm a satisfied, if occasionally irritated, customer.

(I also have to admit some sympathy with their way of doing things. Sometimes, after attending the umpteenth status meeting at work, I answer questions about when some project will be finished like this: "Not as quickly as it would be done if I weren't wasting time in meetings talking about work instead of actually working!")

[Les Bell]

Heh. I remembered your earlier email about Calcpro, as I had placed an order with them around the same time, for an HP-48 manual set (to replace a lost Quick Start Guide).

The order turned up last week. . . I probably should have mentioned it. . . <g>

Best,

--- Les [http://www.lesbell.com.au]

[Ed Look]

I ordered the HP 48 AUR some days ago, about a week, maybe. I just e-mailed them just for some information on the order. I find that the manuals that came with the 48G's are not extensive enough when it comes to programming the thing to "automate" some calculational tasks. I think it's all the more imperative now that I just received my 49G+ this afternoon!

Did I mention I just received my 49G+ this afternoon? :D

Let me see if I can hook it up to my dinosaur PC and see if I screw up the ROM upgrade!