Determined to make its mark in the US market with its new line of personal computers, the Dallas-based Amstrad Inc arm of Amstrad Plc has come up free on-site service and support, to be provided by a unit of Dow Jones & Co Inc. Under the agreement between Amstrad and Dow Jones, customers who buy the upmarket PC2286 and PC2386 machines will get on-site service at no additional charge by simply placing a call to the Dow Jones Service toll-free hot line. "The level of support has previously only existed in the mail order channel. It is unheard of in the industry from manufacturers selling through resellers," reckons Amstrad Inc president Christopher Pullen. Amstrad's on-site service warranty goes into effect the day a PC2286 or PC2386 is bought, provided the customer fills in and mails the registration form included in each computer box. Customer information from the form will be entered into a database for the Dow Jones Service technicians to access when they get a trouble call. The on-site programme is valid for one year and does include parts and labour. "Amstrad and Dow Jones also plan to offer second- and third-year on-site warranties through resellers who can benefit from strong margins built into the programs," Pullen added. Amstrad monitors bought with the machines will be covered by the on-site service warranty. The PC2286 and PC2386 are going via the Amstrad Advanced Systems Division to specialist computer dealers serving corporate end users and resellers in vertical markets. Amstrad believes the move will "revolutionise the way the industry thinks of service support" as well as saving users and dealers thousands of dollars in support costs. The PC2386 with 20MHz processor 64Kb cache, 4Mb main memory and 65Mb disk is $6,000 in the US; the 12MHz 80286-based PC2286 with 1Mb is $2,000. First US ships of the machines are set for early summer