<<I'm long ONSL but I've never bought anything from them. Know many people who've bought a ton of stuff, though, and they're very satisfied.>>
I have bought from ONSL, and although the products didn't always perform to my expectations, that was the fault of the products, not ONSL. In one case, the modem drivers just didn't work right, and there was no fix (the computer BIOS manufacturer is no longer available and the computer manufacturer wouldn't help) since the flaw was a compatibility issue with an off-brand computer. Live and learn.
I have not had good experiences with ONSL customer service, but then I could say the same for just about every store I deal with. It seems to be inherent in the retail experience.
That being said, I am hesitant to go long on ONSL. I was in the stock for quite a while, but have since liquidated my position. Notice I didn't go short either. The future is just too cloudy at this point due to the abrupt change in direction evidenced by the atCost store concept. I am not saying the concept won't work - I think there is some great potential there - I am just not convinced. It seems that there are far fewer barriers to entry for that concept, since there is nothing to prevent TechData from offering the same service to any other computer products vendor. It would be very easy for Yahoo or any of the other portals to offer the same service, and since there traffic is considerably higher than that of the resellers, it seems they could easily take over this market.
I've taken a wait and see attitude. I'm willing to pass up a double or two in stock price to see if ONSL can make this concept work. |
