Tried to get Elektronika MK-161

[ekrampitzjr]

This is my first post since joining a couple of months ago.

One of my interests is the Soviet/Russian RPN calcs, as my signature shows. We've had threads about the Elektronika MK-52 and MK-61. Several years ago Semico (that company's chosen English spelling) in Novosibirsk began production of models, including the Elektronika MK-161, that are meant to be able to run standard programs for the old RPN MK series in addition to having advanced capabilities of their own.

This year I decided to go for broke and try to get a new Elektronika MK-161 directly from Semico. Based on the current price in rubles, this calc would be about US$250 plus shipping costs. My assumption was that the total cost to get one would be $400–$500.

I sent an e-mail to Semico to ask if the company had any agent in the US and how I could purchase an MK-161 otherwise. The e-mail was sent in Russian and English with the Russian part carefully machine-translated using Yandex, meaning the resulting Russian sentences were retranslated back to English to ensure they made sense.

Semico responded to my e-mail in both Russian and English to say it had no US agent and it accepted bank payment via Western Union. I responded to ask about total charges including shipping and any other fees so I could send the correct amount, listing the calc, the AC adapter (which I would use with a converter), and a couple of other related items to be part of the order. Because the company's web page gave two different numbers for the bank account, I asked for clear directions about which number to use.

That was in early April. There was no response. Early this week I sent a followup e-mail. So far still no response.

Well, that was a good try. At this point, even if Semico were to contact me with directions, there are too many doubts in my mind about this company to go through with wiring money. I know of people who were badly burned doing business with Russians in the 1990s. To be fair, maybe the company is afraid to deal with Americans or there is some misunderstanding from my e-mails. But not responding is not the way to deal with any of that.

Just thought some of you would find this info of interest in case you had wanted to get your hands on one of Semico's MKs. TL;DR: forget about it.