Help looking for cheap laptop(<£350ish)

wonderfullife_2

Lord_Chris wrote:

to be fair a 3 year extended warranty... what are you expecting... in an extra 3 years theres a good chance something will be wrong with the laptop... even something minor can cost a fair amount to rapair, and so that extra warranty is a risk for a manufacturer.(although yes, it is still a rip off)

Hi
Sorry disagree, extended warranties are a rip off, taken off a consumer advice website.

Extended warranties seem almost to be as normal a part of the product line of most electrical retailers as are the electrical products which intended to be their principal subject of business.
Extended warranties are intended to supplement or extend the existing one year warranty which is provided free of charge by all electrical suppliers.
Consumers are already protected in their purchases by the provisions of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended). S.14 particularly seeks to provide consumers with protection against product breakdown for a reasonable period of time. This statutory protection cannot be contracted out of by the supplier of the goods.
By and large it is possible to say that the cover provided by extended warranties and the protection provided by statute overlap and are extremely similar. The only discernible difference is that where a product breaks down because of misuse rather than because it is not of "satisfactory quality", then statutory protection will not afford any comfort for the consumer. This probably occurs only in a minority of cases.
The conclusion is that extended warranties have become a device by which consumers are persuaded to pay for cover which they already have under statute. By this means, manufacturers and suppliers have been able to shed their responsibilities under the Sale of Goods Act.
Extended warranties are now such an established part of electrical (and other) retailing that they have produced a culture which has replaced reliance upon statutory rights to the extent that consumers no longer understand that they have such rights at all. Indeed the extended warranty phenomenon is so insidious that even retail staff at all levels believe that a consumer who has not purchased an extended warranty has no right to make a claim for repair or replacement of expensive electrical equipment even only 1 day after the expiry of the standard one-year warranty. Even when selling extended warranty cover, staff do not explain statutory rights to the consumer and indeed are incapable of doing so. If asked about them, they are insistent that consumers are only covered by a standard one-year warranty: this is misinformation.
Summary
It seems quite unfair that in principle the public are being asked to pay quite large sums for breakdown cover which they already have under the Sale of Goods Act. Reciprocally it seems quite unfair that retailers and suppliers are able to escape their statutory responsibilities under cover of the extended warranty system.


The fact that extended warranties are so commonplace among electrical retailers has helped consumers to lose sight of their statutory rights. This is assisted by a lack of understanding and misinformation on the part of the retailers who in their turn seem to have lost sight of their statutory obligations - on the shop floor, at any rate..

So, I never have them.

Lord_Chris

John_Gray wrote:

Err... Why not? Is it necessary to buy what are close to commodities now from a specialist firm? [thinks - would Lord_Chris prefer to buy from PC World?!]

Tesco and Woolworths may well be selling a good product fairly cheaply. You have to assess whether your possible future need for direct customer support outweighs the price reduction. And, via other sources, you have to check whether the laptop does what you want. But since I've seen a couple of Acers in Tesco, I don't think I would have been put off getting them from Tesco rather than from Staples (for example).

John

if you think that, you go ahead and buy one

i used to work in a local pc repair shop, and every week we had computers and laptops in for repair from tescos and woolworths all the time.. and they bought it to use even though they were in warranty, because tescos and woolworths send them off to the company, and you dont see your new computer for weeks (desktops and laptops).

and for the record, i wouldnt buy a pc or laptop from dell or pc world, they just make good examples as they are specialists.

John_Gray

I think you've missed my point!

If you can get the same laptop in Tesco (my example was an Acer) as you can from Staples, and it was £30 cheaper in Tesco (say), then are you saying you wouldn't buy the laptop from Tesco?

John

Lord_Chris

John_Gray wrote:

I think you've missed my point!

If you can get the same laptop in Tesco (my example was an Acer) as you can from Staples, and it was £30 cheaper in Tesco (say), then are you saying you wouldn't buy the laptop from Tesco?

John

i wouldnt buy a laptop from Staples either :P

okay, the problem with Tesco and Woolworths isn't necessarily a matter of brands (although Tescos Iqon desktops were a favourite in for repairs) it seemed to be with their warranty procedures. Most of the customers who bought in their laptops and desktops had been told by the manufacturer to take it back to the place of purchase, and they would send it to the manufacturer. When the customers took it back, they were advised by the staff that if they wanted their new computer back anytime soon, they'd be better off taking it to a local repair shop and paying for it.

now, i don't know if this applies with Acer, but certainly this happened with Tescos Iqon desktops, Woolworths Medion laptops and some cheapo brand that Tescos were selling around mid February (i think )

Fact is, (and as i said i don't know about Acer), computers bought at Tescos and Woolworths had to be sent for repair via the respective store, which in some peoples cases took several weeks minimum.

In comparison my Sony Vaio was collected by DHL the day after phoning them which was x-mas eve, and it was returned fully repaired on December 27th.... the last thing you want with your new laptop in the event that it breaks, is crappy warranty service. I'm glad to say that Sony made me feel quite happy my laptop broke because i now know what a good service i will get if i need to send it off again

Darksun

Lord_Chris wrote:

only advice i ever give on these threads now:

you wouldn't buy bread and milk from Dell, so don't buy computers from Tescos or Woolworths.

I've never bought computers from Tescos or Woolworths, but I've had some excellent machines from Aldi

nej

I don't see how a 90-day RTB warranty from Dell is any better than a Tesco warranty....

Somebody in another thread posted that their Tesco machine developed a fault after 18 months (I think it was an Iqon one) and a guy came out and fixed it, no problem.

Lord_Chris

well i don't know about aldi.

nej wrote:

I don't see how a 90-day RTB warranty from Dell is any better than a Tesco warranty....

Somebody in another thread posted that their Tesco machine developed a fault after 18 months (I think it was an Iqon one) and a guy came out and fixed it, no problem.

dell do a collect and return thing. i'm just going by what customers said where i worked. But the more impotant thing, is that the Iqon desktops, often were only a few weeks old, and were being bought in for repairs. Now, one or two, yea thats understandable, but we had loads in every week.

nej

I think the problem there is "who the hell are Iqon", rather than "it's bought from Tescos so it's crap".

If Tesco started selling IBM's or whatever, would the same problem occur? No. It doesn't matter where you buy it from, it's more the actual make of the machine.

Same with any appliance (and lets face it, PC's basically are an appliance now). If I bought, say, a Hotpoint dishwasher from Tesco's, it's no different to buying it from Comet and I'd expect it not to break. If I bought a "ACME Turbo-Washer 2000" for £99 from them I'd not be suprised if it fell apart.

Kilty_2

Looking at your signature, Lord_Chris, I'd rather buy bread or milk from PC World than a PC!

clive_2

dell,dell,dell