Jim asks:

> Question #1:  What is the legitimacy of these third-party suppliers?
> Are they truly gray market?  What is HP's "official" stance on them?

Hmmm..."official"?

Although they're a small percentage of the market, HP wants them to
be a smaller percentage :(

IMHO, this is short sighted on HP's part ... probably a consequence of
the way the company is structured.

> Question #2:  What have your experiences been with third party suppliers?
> We've pretty much decided who we're going to buy from, but specific
> recommendations/warnings via private email would be appreciated, as well
> as general warnings/recommendations.

The only 3000s/9000s (and disk drives/tape drives) at our office that
we've purchased have been from third parties (ConAm and ICS), and
we've been quite happy with them.   (Ok, we bought a new DDS drive
from Bering, and it's working fine, too :)

--
Stan Sieler                                          [log in to unmask]
                                     http://www.allegro.com/sieler.html