Where do you buy your computers and/or parts from? eBuyer ok?

Ibrahim5

I have used ebuyer successfully but have never tried to return anything which I think is where the problems arise. I do remember buying all the parts for a system which were supposed to be in stock. They came in different parcels over a period of time and I remember thinking that I had lost my return rights under the distance selling regs because they were so slow. I felt they may had done it on purpose. Amazon seem the best for returning stuff.

MattMattMattUK

QrizB said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Laptops mostly Dell, but that is work ...

I buy 3- or 4-year-old Dell business laptops from resellers on eBay. Businesses buy them new, keep them for long enough to write them off against tax and then replace them.

You can pick up a solidly-built, reliable laptop that some business will have paid £1k for, for about £150. It might need a new battery and have a few cosmetic marks but it'll perform (and last) better than a brand-new £400 consumer laptop.

I am part of a scheme where we donate the laptops to charities after three to four years. They are all still in great condition, fully functional, high spec when we bought them so still very usable a couple of years later. The charities get good kit, far better than they could ever afford and the few hundred I would get selling them on ebay is not worth the hassle when factoring in that they are going somewhere that is doing genuine good.

mgfvvc

Laptops Direct have been good when I've bought from them. I couldn't comment on the service when there are issues.

B0bbyEwing

brewerdave said:

I used ebuyer a lot in the past when I built several PCs for myself and family.
Haven't used them lately mainly because they seem to have got more expensive. Recently bought a new WIN 11 Laptop from an Amazon listed supplier (for same reasons as OP!) as ebuyer hadn't got any reasonably cheap machines.

Yeah you make a point. I've bought a few hard drives in recent years & found Amazon to be cheaper (slightly) for the exact same thing. I ended up buying from Amazon for the combined slightly cheaper & the fact I got free next day delivery.

QrizB said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Laptops mostly Dell, but that is work ...

I buy 3- or 4-year-old Dell business laptops from resellers on eBay. Businesses buy them new, keep them for long enough to write them off against tax and then replace them.

You can pick up a solidly-built, reliable laptop that some business will have paid £1k for, for about £150. It might need a new battery and have a few cosmetic marks but it'll perform (and last) better than a brand-new £400 consumer laptop.

How do you identify those laptops on Marketplace? A laptop is a laptop to me. Well, apart from an Apple one, I don't bother with those. 

Regardless of how you identify one ... would you say Mr. Nobody, clueless Joe Bloggs, should trust a laptop he buys off Marketplace? Maybe I'm too distrusting of others but I wonder if something has been installed on it to spy on my bank details & relay it back to the seller.

bob2302

B0bbyEwing said:

Yeah you make a point. I've bought a few hard drives in recent years & found Amazon to be cheaper (slightly) for the exact same thing. I ended up buying from Amazon for the combined slightly cheaper & the fact I got free next day delivery.

If you look on uk.pcpartpicker.com, Amazon often isn't the cheapest.

QrizB

QrizB said:

I buy 3- or 4-year-old Dell business laptops from resellers on eBay. Businesses buy them new, keep them for long enough to write them off against tax and then replace them.

You can pick up a solidly-built, reliable laptop that some business will have paid £1k for, for about £150. It might need a new battery and have a few cosmetic marks but it'll perform (and last) better than a brand-new £400 consumer laptop.

Following up on this thread, I've just ordered a 4-year-old Dell Latitude 7300 to replace the Dell Latitude E6230 that I've been using for the past eight years.

The E6230 cost me £79 in 2017. The E7300 was £84 and I'm hoping it'll serve me for another eight years.

B0bbyEwing said:

How do you identify those laptops on Marketplace? A laptop is a laptop to me. Well, apart from an Apple one, I don't bother with those. 
Regardless of how you identify one ... would you say Mr. Nobody, clueless Joe Bloggs, should trust a laptop he buys off Marketplace?

On eBay, I look for the second-user businesses that sell hundreds of laptops. They'll often have listings for half a dozen of the same model, differing only in their RAM/HDD/patina.

Shimrod

As this thread started with a question about Ebuyer, it's worth pointing out they went into administration a couple of weeks ago and were bought by Frasers Group. As a result, they no longer sell computer components.

B0bbyEwing

Shimrod said:

As this thread started with a question about Ebuyer, it's worth pointing out they went into administration a couple of weeks ago and were bought by Frasers Group. As a result, they no longer sell computer components.

Yeah I noticed that. Quite sad but hey ho such is life. 

Neil_Jones

B0bbyEwing said:

Shimrod said:

As this thread started with a question about Ebuyer, it's worth pointing out they went into administration a couple of weeks ago and were bought by Frasers Group. As a result, they no longer sell computer components.

Yeah I noticed that. Quite sad but hey ho such is life. 

eBuyer used to be dirt cheap for computer components.  And I mean cheap to the point of being almost wholesale based on some of the buying I used to do.  Wholesale purchasing was ex VAT (the company being VAT registered that was reclaimable) from a trade distributor, and eBuyer would occasionally flog exactly the same products I could see on the supplier websites for near enough the same amount inc. VAT.    The day to day stuff - hard drives, motherboards, memory - was usually discounted a bit further if you bought in bulk from trade, and wasn't an option on eBuyer as it wasn't intended for that purpose.

The caveat used to be if you spent enough with the main supplier you get free next day delivery, whereas with eBuyer you'd have to wait like 5-7 business days for the free carriage, but every once in a while they had something a customer wanted that I couldn't find for whatever reason from the trade supplier - usually because it was long term out of stock or discontinued and there it was having floated through the supply chain to eBuyer).

Bought a lot of stuff off eBuyer for myself where the prices were in sync between the two sources.

Frozen_up_north

Sports Direct have just bought eBuyer if that makes any difference to what they sell.

eBuyer have a huge warehouse near Howden. Not bought anything from them in a long time as they didn’t seem either competitive or to stock anything of note. I bought two monitors several years ago, but nothing else.