top spec Tiny Power P4 3.4 pc for £699

calibrax

toonarmy wrote:

Ring0, i'm with you on this one. Over the years i've had to undo many horror stories produced by Tiny (and Time for that matter) for family members and friends that were 'dazzled' by the 'amazing' offers from these companies. They bundle their PC's with crap extras such as digital cameras, printers, scanners and software. This appeals to unsuspecting buyers looking for a cheap deal, they exploit a lack of knowledge in some buyers and use this to their advantage. The bundled items they supply are normally very poor quality like a Jenoptik digial camera (Who?), Lexmark printers that will cost an arm and a leg to keep filled with ink, cheap scanners prone to breaking down.

Jenoptik who, eh? Well, Jenoptik are a major German manufacturer who are the electronics division of Carl Zeiss - perhaps you've heard of them, possibly the best lens manufacturer on the planet?

Yes, Lexmark printers are expensive to refill. Yet I have one (a rebanded Dell). Why? because it does what I need it to. I don't print a lot, and it was dirt cheap to buy. A set of cartridges will last me a year.

In any case, these are extras - even without counting these, their systems are still good value.

toonarmy wrote:

With regards to their PC's - over the last year i've had to sort out numerous problems with machines. These range from a PC supplied with no anti-virus or anti-spyware supplied that after a days internet use was so virus and spyware ridden that it had to be re-formated, supplying a PC with no anti-virus is like supplying a car with no brakes.

No. If you buy a machine without antivirus, you simply shouldn't be going on the internet. If the machine should have had antivirus but didn't, that's a different matter, and should have been addressed with Tiny.

toonarmy wrote:

I had another one that I was given to fix that was supposedly brand new but when I began looking at the hard-drive I found files (photos, word documents, cookies) from a previous owner, this was obvisoulsy a recycled machine sold as a new one!!!!

I've experienced this with a Compaq. It happens across the industry, not just at Tiny.

toonarmy wrote:

I accept they may produce the odd good machine but they haven't gained their reputation for being the worst manufacturer in the industry for no reason. They produce shoddy machines, built to breakdown after a couple of years, often sold with no decent anti-virus, sold with little or advice given to novice computer users who don't know any better.

So how do you build a PC to breakdown after a couple of years? And I'm sorry, but saying that the computer users ignorance should be blamed on the PC manufacturer is ridiculous. Any buyer should do some research into the item they are looking to purchase, so they at least know the basics, such as the fact that you need antivirus (and a firewall) before connecting to the 'net.

"Caveat emptor" is always a good philosophy to follow, no matter which company you are dealing with. Any good moneysaver will tell you that.

Steve