Computer retailers - what's going on? (General Comments on Computer Companies and Retailers)

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	General Comments on Computer Companies and Retailers
Date:	17/02/01 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They sell computers

Disadvantages: erm...

With the advent of the internet and secure shopping, the general public now has a wider range of retailer to buy their goods from. Having read a lot of opinions in Dooyoo about computer retailers, I’ve decided to pitch in my tuppence worth to see what happens.

Like any business genre, computer retailers have good and bad vendors. Hopefully, the experiences of Dooyoo members will be able to pinpoint to other members of the general public which ones are good, and which ones are bad. This should be irrespective of whether they are online, offline, or both!

Now, it would be stupid of me to advise people to read the opinions here on Dooyoo before handing probably over £500 to a computer retailer because if you’re reading this, then you’re already aware of these opinions (or at least that they exist!)

My opinions on various, specific retailers can be found elsewhere in this website, there’s no point in me repeating them verbatim here, but I’ll maybe give a brief overview if I think it’s helpful or necessary.

I would imagine that the general public falls into two categories: those who know enough about computers to buy systems/components confidently, and those who don’t. If you are one of the latter, then find one of the former (friend, family member, work colleague) – these people will help you out, and you won’t have to worry about getting bad advice from someone who’s just looking to make a sale!

Generally, smaller (and online specialist) retailers can be a lot more flexible when buying systems as you can usually tell them exactly what to put into it, thus tailoring your computer for what purpose you want it for. These people are also more likely to sell individual components for upgrading whereas the larger “High Street” shops are more interested in shifting complete systems.

Larger retailers (as I’ve just stated) are more concerned with s
elling complete systems, and as such may be cheaper as they buy in bulk, but will offer less flexibility when trying to upgrade or downgrade components in the system. You also end up paying for a lot of “free” stuff which may not be useful for you!

It should be stated that most retailers – online or high street will not let you walk away with a nice new PC under your arm (If you have big arms!) they’ll have to ship them in from somewhere else, or if you have pick ‘n’ mixed components, then they’ll have to build the machine from scratch!

I think overall, I prefer shopping from online retailers – I’m one of those people who’s fairly confident in buying, and installing individual components for their PC. I also have the rime, and the knowledge to be able to hunt down cheap prices from retailers on the World Wide Web. Generally, their prices are cheaper (even with p&p) and because they’re more likely to be interested in the subject themselves, they’ll have done the research for you and will stock quality products, not the ones with the highest profit margins.

That said, if you do not have access to the internet, there’s no reason why couldn’t or should get a good deal from a high street retailer (even one with a bad reputation like PC World) as long as you have someone with you who is knowledgeable about PC innards, and you are able to tell the salesperson what you want and not the other way around.

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