Harvey Van Sickle wrote:

On 20 Oct 2004, troubleinstore wrote


Sorry to post something off topic but I hope sincerley that
someone can help.

In the past I have always built my own PC's, but now, I am after a
laptop, well actually 3, my brother and his sonwants one as well,
so we thought if we all had the same we could help each other if
things went wrong.

Question is, what is the best place to get one from?

Whenever you ask anyone Dixons, Currys, PC World or Tiny, they
always shriek with laughter, so where do I get them from that
should anything go wrong when you take it back the salespeople
will know what they are talking about instead of giving you the
old bullsit.

Thanks in advance


My tuppence; the mileage of others may vary.

Given that you've built and maintained your machines, you're probably
going to know more about what might go wrong -- at least in software
terms -- than any sales person you'll deal with. Personally, I'd treat
laptops like buying any branded goods which will have been sealed at
the factory: assume they're pretty reliable, but that if it goes wrong
no shop is going to do much more than take it in and send it back to
the manufacturer for repair/assessment.

I'm usually an advocate of buying from local geek shops, but it seems
to me that the smaller places have less advantage over the large
outlets when it comes to laptops: unlike desktops, they won't have
assembled the machine themselves, and they won't know a great deal more
about them than you do.


I buy any equipment from the one place I know that gives me an honest
answer to any question, always replaces stuff that has failed under
warranty without question, and only stocks stuff that they know won't
give them grief.

They are never the cheapest, but not the most expensive either,.

www.woc.co.uk


Having been burned on cheap laptops once, I won't buy from anywhere I
don't feel confident in after sales service.

Three laptops, each faulty, each returned three times, and returned with
faults unfixed, that were finally scrapped un used is an expensive mistake.