Hi Schachcomputer Freunde,

This time I'll say it in English, I'm very upset to try my German. I recently bought a Stratos on ebay from tagesbericht, a seller based in Austria. The seller had advertised that the computer was tested and worked 100%. I paid as usual right after winning the auction with Paypal. I even paid 20 extra Euros 2 days later for airmail surcharges. When I got the computer I noticed that the display was not working at all. I asked the seller to return the item and get a refund. He said that I should try new batteries and let the computer warm up. I gave it another shot because I really wanted this computer. I bought new batteries but the display is dead. I emailed then my friend Arno Kreuzberg, whom you must all know, and who once repaired a badly damaged RISC 2500 for me. Arno made inquiries and got a new display for my Stratos, so I bought a box to send the computer to him. In the meantime I kept testing the Stratos and found out something funny: the computer always thinks from the very first movement, as if there is no opening library at all. Furthermore, on response to 1.e4 it ALWAYS plays d5! I was surprised because the Stratos is supposed to have a very big opening library. I emailed Arno and he said that maybe the EPROM or the CPU are damaged. So I finally started a claim on ebay.

And now the very funny part: The seller gave me negative feedback and even claimed that I hadn't paid him!!! A professional liar! So beware of this guy tagesbericht, he also had some previous negative and neutral feedback on ebay. I hope you can take advantage of my bad experience.

Mit herzliche Grusse,
Andres (Capiton)

Hello Andres,


thank you for this warning!


Robert