Great machine...but service. What service? (Tiny Entertainment Power)

Member Name: jdesa

Product:	Tiny Entertainment Power
Date:	22/10/01 (117 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast Machine, Lots of RAM, Lovely display

Disadvantages: Poor service, Poorly trained assistants, No freephone customer hotline with extended warranty

I've been looking around for a PC for the best part of 2 years and have been put off by the proliferation of new deals and cheaper models.

However 2 weeks ago I finally bit the bullet and seriously started my selection. My brief was to get a good machine (1.5GHz Pentium) with as much RAM as possible and a large hard disk. It had to have a DVD drive and a CR writer. I also wanted a printer/scanner and for all my sins an LCD monitor. I also wanted the Microsoft Office software so that I can work from home from time to time.

Well I searched the internet (and the high street) for my ideal machine. Finally it came done to cost with Tiny falling the cheapest.

Well I've heard mixed reviews about Tiny - good machines and poor service. Well I have to concur. I visited the showroom in Croydon and was impressed by the speed of the machines on show, but didn't have the model I wanted or the display on show.

The assistants (except for the resident guru) knew less about computing than I do. What are you going to do with all that RAM and hard disk space they asked! Obviously they haven't noticed that 5 years back most programs came on (several) 1.4M floppy disk whilst now they come on several 650Mb CR-ROMs!

Well I ordered my machine and a 3-year warranty (mainly for the sake of the monitor) - but they do offer a 12 month interest free period.

The machine came a whopping 512Mb of RAM (more than most other machines) and it is supplied with a desk and chair - but I still haven't managed to assemble the chair!. The desk is ok, but the printer/scanner is too big to fit in it's allocated space so it sits next to the monitor.

The monitor is excellent 17" of glorious colour and worth every penny of the £600 I had to fork out. I like the look and feel of the Windows XP that comes loaded on the machine.

However the Lexmark X73 printer/scanner is temperamental ? I still haven'
;t got the scanner to work, time to activate that warranty. This is another bone of contention as they don't even give you a freephone customer hotline.

All in all I'm pleased with the machine, but where will I find the money to pay for it all ? I suppose writing this may help !!!

*** update

Well the machine is still working fine, I've hooked it up to broadband cable and it is sweet. On the downside Tiny have gone out of business and been taken over by Time. Oh well I'll just have to see what happens next!

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