Sometimes fun to talk to CEOs, and sometimes fun to talk to the people in the trenches. This is an interview from the trenches. Kent Smith was an Atari customer service/technical support rep for the Atari 400/800 from 1982-1984. I interviewed him on September 19, 2014 via Skype.
The videotape that he mentions at the end of the interview -- you'll want to watch that too, for a look at life in some of the Atari offices around Christmas 1981, which has never been on the Internet until now. Kent sent it to me, and I posted it to Archive.org.
Link:
Atari Christmas 1981 Video
ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast