Vital Tips when buying Computer Equipment

Some Tips

Bad support: Companies promise support but have you ever spent 3 hours in the middle of a busy day waiting on hold for technical help to take your call? Unfortunately the computer industry has become notorious for promising support but hardly ever delivering it.

Tip: Before you buy a machine from someone try their help/support line and see how long it takes before a person actually answers your call. Try at various times of the day. Try at 10 in the evening. Try on a Sunday. Make sure the number is not a Premium Rate Number.

Late deliveries:
Tip: Find out what the procedure is should the computer become suddenly ‘out of stock’ after you’ve paid for it. Will you get a refund if the delivery is beyond 48 hours late?

Incomplete quotes: Many advertisers take the short cut to reducing prices - they don’t advertise complete systems. Look at the small print to make sure that a monitor is included in the price. Also look for other components that your system would be useless without - ex: Hard Disk, keyboard & mouse. If a major component is not included in the price then adding the missing part/s could cost several hundred pounds!

Don't assume anything. Printers, scanners, modems and software are some items that could add cost to your quote. Extra costs that sales staff generally "forget" to mention include delivery and credit card charges, the VAT and sometimes even the warranty!

Tip: Make a list of what you are looking for in a machine and call out each item slowly and clearly and make sure that it's all included, or get it in writing. Ask the exact figure that is going to be charged to your card.

Proprietary parts: What is proprietary hardware? Ever tried to fit a Eureka vacuum bag in a Hoover vacuum cleaner? How about trying to get the wheels on a Fiesta to fit on a lawn mower? Some computers have proprietary parts. In other words, you have to buy parts (diskette drive, hard drive, memory, etc.) that are specifically made for that model or brand of computer. When IBM came out with their microchannel architecture years ago, the only components that you could install in the computer to upgrade or fix something, had to come from IBM. Needless to say, these parts were always more expensive than the non-proprietary parts. There are still a few computer companies today that use proprietary architecture like this. Make sure that none of the parts of your machine are proprietary parts. Companies big enough to design parts (like motherboards, video cards, memory) in-house have a tendency to charge you an arm and a leg when you need replacement parts/upgrades, as they have a virtual monopoly on them.

The Myth of "Free" Software: There is no such thing as Free Windows. Bill Gates didn’t become America’s richest man by giving Windows away. Get real. The software price is bundled into the price of the machine. YOU are paying for it. More info on software.

Is what you see what you get? Changing specifications: As the components that go into a machine are numerous and constantly changing you may find that the machine you receive is rarely the exact machine you ordered. Usually the differences are to your benefit. These differences are caused by the frequent non-availability of various components. For example: An advertiser offers a 4.3 GB Hard disk when the ad goes to press but when your machine is actually manufactured (which can be several days later) 4.3 GB disks might not be available in the market and you get a free upgrade to the next size up.

The free upgrade could be from a 48 speed CD to a 52 speed CD or a 128 MB video card to an 256 MB Video card. Just be careful that whatever the change it is an upward revision rather than a downward one. Also remember that just because you got a free upgrade of RAM does not mean you should accept a downgrade on the hard disk. Check that each individual component is at least the "spec" you ordered.

Particular problems with Mail Order firms: Apart from possible late deliveries mail order/direct sellers may be based several hundred miles away. If your machine comes with a Return to Base (or RTB) warranty it means that should something go wrong with your machine it is your responsibility to get it to them for repair. You might want to check that you have the option of an "On-site" warranty rather than RTB.

How valuable are the PC Magazine awards? Do the fancy awards from the PC Magazines impress you? Well, here are some things you didn’t know: The ‘Unbiased’ tests conducted by the media are usually restricted to only those companies who advertise with that magazine. Not all of the computer magazines are guilty but some magazines will refuse to review/test a product unless the advertiser is spending his advertising money with that magazine. (Try it out - call the computer magazines, tell them you sell computers and would like them to review some of your machines). So what is not said is that the 'unbiased' review is a review not of all the good products but of the products that feature in that magazines' adverts. That's something the magazines don't tell you.

Also, when a product comes out as the top product in a review, scan the next 10 pages of the magazine and don’t be surprised if you see a full page, full colour, glossy advertisement for that product. Did the favourable review have anything to do with that big advertising order? Has anybody else noticed this?

Tip: We do not condemn all magazine awards- we have plenty of them :-) ourselves. Most magazines have an editorial department completely independent of the reviews department. However, there is still the bias at those magazines that refuse to review products not advertised with them.

It's a good idea to look for genuinely unbiased awards like standard certifications: ISO 9000, CE, British Standards etc.

More about magazine awards:

This is how it works: A computer company submits a product for review. Of course they are going to make sure that this computer represents relatively good value. The computer wins an award. Don't assume that all their other computers offer the same type of value. It is common to work on a lower profit margin for the reviewed computer and to work on higher profit margins on all the other computers. The hope is that the spin-off from the favourable review will sell a lot more of all models and compensate for the lower margin on the reviewed computer.

No manufacturer guarantees exactly the same computer as the one submitted for the review. They can't guarantee the exact same specifications and components. The magazine do sometimes buy the same model incognito to blind-check. But you should also not assume that the computer you are buying is the same specification as the one in the review. Ask in what way it differs from the reviewed machine.

How long to trust an award?

Note that best value awards are really relevant for only short periods of time. A £999 computer reviewed as the "best value" in its class in January will not represent good value if it's still being sold at that price in April.

Deceptive Numbering: Very often companies use model numbers to say things about their computers that are not true. For example a model P4-3200 may not necessarily be an Intel P4 computer with a 3200 MHz processor. It could be anything from a 486 computer to the latest. Businesses do have a responsibility not to deceive customers, but then they can always claim that it was your fault to make assumptions about the computer from the model number. Companies do not have a legal responsibility to ensure that their model numbers reflect the computer specifications.