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What happened to Briel Computers?

C

cappy2112

Experienced Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2014
Messages
53
Location
Bay Area California
I've ordered a Pocket Term from Briel Computers, but never received any acknowledgment of my order.
I also would like to buy one of the Micro Altairs is there is another run, but I cannot get in touch with Vince Briel.
I've emailed him at two different addresses, but no replies.

Does anyone know what is going on with Briel ? Are they going out of business?

thanks
 
What happened to Briel Computers?

I ordered a PocketTerm from Vince Briel on January 26th, 2014 but never received the order. I emailed him on February 2nd and his reply on February 3rd was....

"Sorry I didn't email, I just got a little busy. I will try and get your order shipped today or tomorrow at the latest." Cheers, Vince

I still never received the order, but saw him in person at the Vintage Computer Festival East in Wall, New Jersey on April 5th. Again he said that he'd been busy and would try and get the order out.

I emailed him again on September 1st, but did not receive a reply. It's now October 4th and I've asked him for a refund of my $111.95 for the PocketTerm after not receiving my order in over 8 months.

I will update this thread either when I receive a refund or when I receive the PocketTerm.
 
barythrin said:
Have you tried contacting him through his forums over at http://www.brielcomputers.com/phpBB3/? Looks like he's active there (probably also taking a lot of his time away from visiting other forums/email groups).
Click to expand...

No- I can't. He's got it setup that he must approve of new users joining the forum before you can post any messages.
It's been over a month since I sent him emails.
 
CGeele said:
I ordered a PocketTerm from Vince Briel on January 26th, 2014 but never received the order. I emailed him on February 2nd and his reply on February 3rd was....

"Sorry I didn't email, I just got a little busy. I will try and get your order shipped today or tomorrow at the latest." Cheers, Vince

I still never received the order, but saw him in person at the Vintage Computer Festival East in Wall, New Jersey on April 5th. Again he said that he'd been busy and would try and get the order out.

I emailed him again on September 1st, but did not receive a reply. It's now October 4th and I've asked him for a refund of my $111.95 for the PocketTerm after not receiving my order in over 8 months.

I will update this thread either when I receive a refund or when I receive the PocketTerm.
Click to expand...

Wow, I wish I'd seen this thread earlier. I ordered the Superboard III on August 15. Vince posted something on the forums stating that production was delayed due to flaky suppliers and to expect delivery in 4-6 weeks. 6 weeks later nothing from Vince, and people who had ordered started grumbling about it on the forums. A number of people started comparing notes on SBIII delivery. Two people said they'd received assembled units (Vince had earlier said that unassembled units would ship first), everyone else said nothing had arrived and no word from Vince. I checked in and said I'd ordered an aseembled unit and hadn't received it.

On November 14 I emailed Vince and asked for the status of the order. I asked him for either a delivery timeline or a refund. The next day -- a Saturday -- he sent me the following:

Hi Michael,

I just got home sorry. I will be working on your order this afternoon. The post office is already closed but it will ship by Monday.

Cheers,

Vince
Click to expand...

The day after that, he pulled down the forums from his site. Still no SB3, and no refund of my $260.00. Unfortunately, I paid through Paypal, which won't let you file a complaint after the 45 day mark. So I guess I'm out of options. I suppose I could contact the attorney general in his state, if anyone knows what state that is.

Maybe an AG complaint would carry more weight if a number of us filed a joint complaint. I'd like to get a refund, at least.
 
mpopham said:
Wow, I wish I'd seen this thread earlier. I ordered the Superboard III on August 15. Vince posted something on the forums stating that production was delayed due to flaky suppliers and to expect delivery in 4-6 weeks. 6 weeks later nothing from Vince, and people who had ordered started grumbling about it on the forums. A number of people started comparing notes on SBIII delivery. Two people said they'd received assembled units (Vince had earlier said that unassembled units would ship first), everyone else said nothing had arrived and no word from Vince. I checked in and said I'd ordered an aseembled unit and hadn't received it.

On November 14 I emailed Vince and asked for the status of the order. I asked him for either a delivery timeline or a refund. The next day -- a Saturday -- he sent me the following:



The day after that, he pulled down the forums from his site. Still no SB3, and no refund of my $260.00. Unfortunately, I paid through Paypal, which won't let you file a complaint after the 45 day mark. So I guess I'm out of options. I suppose I could contact the attorney general in his state, if anyone knows what state that is.

Maybe an AG complaint would carry more weight if a number of us filed a joint complaint. I'd like to get a refund, at least.
Click to expand...

Something must have happened to Vince, he has my 8800 board that he was looking over, and was prepared to ship it, and needed some more info, then disappeared. I still have not heard from him nor received my board back so I don't know what to tell you other than it must have been a personal thing? I don't have my account on the Briel form so if anyone has heard of anything please let me know too. :(
 
I actually emailed him this week inquiring about Altair 8800 micro, and he replied pretty quickly... answered my questions, indicated that he was behind on orders, but that orders would be filled, he also indicated that his father passed away which must be very hard on him. I placed my order hoping that the issues i have read about in the forums are more a thing of the past. My fingers are crossed along with all my other appendages, hopeing that this is the case and I wont have to wait more than a month for my order. I emailed him today a couple of questions and got an out of office notification indicating that he is out until the 6th of April. This was a present to myself for my 50th birthday :) so I'm hoping i wont have to wait too long :)
 
He has shown up on his forum again after a long period of silence and things are maybe moving again now - some people have started receiving their kits now.
 
As far as I'm concerned he appears to have disappeared again. I ordered a Replica 1 kit on June 8, paid by PayPal. Heard nothing. Emailed on 20 July to find out if there was a problem, still heard nothing. I've just emailed again today.

This is similar to a previous transaction I had when purchasing the Micro Kim last year, except it wasn't as long a wait and I did get a reply. If I don't hear anything there'll come a point where I will have to open a dispute with PayPal - I don't want to have to do that if there's a good reason why there is a delay but there needs to be communication with people to make them aware of problems if there are any.
 
I've just had an update from Vince, he's away at the moment and it going to sort things out when he gets back. There are obviously things happening that he has to deal with.
 
Anyone have any update on this?

I wish I had seen this thread before ordering something from him. I've been in contact with someone who ordered (and paid) for something in June and he hasn't heard anything since. No replies to any emails or any indication of when the order will be fulfilled. You can see from his own forum that he is active online; the last time he logged in was last night:sly:

BTW, according to this he is from Ohio, but his LinkedIn profile, suggests that he is based in San Diego.
 
Vince moved from Ohio to San Diego a few years ago. The obsolete info on the linked page is my fault. I should have updated it.
 
I ordered a Micro Kim july 26th and didn't hear a word for 5 days. I sent Vince three emails during the next week and still nothing. I opened a dispute on Paypal August 3rd and lo and behold - I got a reply a couple of hours later. He explained something about not having access to email in the time period and that everything was fine now. He shipped the product a few days later. I got the product, but now that I need support because of stability issues he is gone again and doesn't answer emails.

I so wish that he would communicate why he isn't fulfilling orders and isn't answering email from customers. He is ruining his reputation and his business right now.
 
I ordered a an Altair Kit + Ram Drive kit from Vince on May 28th. I knew it would probably be a bit of a wait. However, in watching the forums I noticed some people who ordered after me were getting kits. It took quite a few emails to finally get a reply (though I did send some of the early ones to his @yahoo account, not sure it is checked or valid) . He said he said his work has been busy lately and would send the order out. I received it just few days ago in good condition and have it built and ready to test.

I think Vince is a genuinely honest person and just get busy at times. He is a hobbyist and does this in his spare time.
 
Last edited:
OK, this comment thread has good information, since I've just ordered his mini-Altair at the beginning of October 2015 and haven't heard anything yet, so I won't start to panic yet
 
I have ordered and paid several items worth of roughy USD 500.- in 2014 and never got anything delivered.
I have emailed him several times only got one reply saying that he will ship and nothing happend.
Just be very very careful buying from Briel Computers. For me personaly it seems to be a big loss...
I have tried to contact him every few weeks without any luck of a response.
Just to let you know...
 
Oh dear, similar issues:

Ordered KIM1 replica in September 2015 (paypal transaction dated 28th September).

Sent an email November 18th asking for order status and requesting to be added to forum. Got a reply November 19th saying he was busy with work and would finish order that night. He never added me to forum.

Sent chatty email November 19th confirming order etc. No Reply.

Forgot about it over Christmas (although kit was meant as xmas present to self :)).

Sent email on Feb 5th, 2016. requesting status update. Got reply same day saying he was at work but would get order processed that weekend.

Sent email Apr. 4th, 2016 requesting update. No reply.

Sent email Apr. 27th, 2016 requesting update and asking that if there was a problem with parts etc. I would be happy with refund. No reply.

Sent email May 24thm, 2016 asking for refund. No reply.

Tim.
 
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