Custom/Bespoke and Drops Downs

LightFlare

For what it’s worth - my personal view is that it is indeed custom due to the sheer amount of actual build possibilities.

Its PC Specialist and I used their “ custom” pc link as opposed to a tweaked pre- built system

Have had 5 systems from them in the past with no issues. From what I read and interpret, they have quite a good returns policy (when required)

My original post was just a thought I had whilst ordering and having read several threads on here around the subject 

Interest mid week debate

Ergates

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Ergates said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

eskbanker said:

A_Geordie said:

Anyway, another thing to bear in mind, is that once you've placed the order, you immediately lose your rights even if the components are yet to be sourced and/or being built. There is an EU case Möbel Kraft GmbH & Co. KG v ML that confirmed this position. 

Specifically which rights are lost at that stage?

I think the point made there is before acceptance you may withdraw your offer but once accepted and a contract formed the limit of application is inherent in the contract, i.e there is no right to cancel simply because they haven’t started to make something yet.

(Apologies in advance if I’m getting the wrong end of the stick there).

To add to the topic in general, the EU guidance talks of creating a unique item, in most cases a dropdown menu type of set up isn’t unique, whether it could be argued complex options is I don’t think it’s yet been decided through any case law. 

I don't think the method of selection can be the deciding factor.

For instance, with the football shirt example.  It would be entirely feasible (if a little unusual) that, rather than a free-text field with a 15 character limit, they presented 15 drop down boxes that allowed you to select from the available characters.

That the website decided to use drop downs doesn't mean it's not bespoke - you're still printing your own name on the shirt.

I'd argue then, there must be *some* point where the number of (viable) selectable options makes something bespoke.   The question is:  where is that point?

The argument from my point of view is that the drop down options with names would be those the trader expects to sell, thus they are not unique. 

They aren't going to have a drop down menu with 4000 names as it would deter custom. 

Same with the PC really, too much choice puts customers off, the trader is going to tailor the options whilst considering what is popular, what is obtainable and presumably what is profitable, none of those aspects are really the customer's choice unless they happen to be what they wanted. 

I do agree there is probably a line, I guess the main question is does the retailer want to be the one to test it? 

I meant a series of drop downs, one for each letter (with the options of A-Z plus a few symbols), rather than a list of complete names.  So you'd pick J - O - H - N  rather than type in "JOHN"

But my  main point was that we shouldn't get caught up in the interface mechanisms as those can't be the determining factor.   You could have an interface using drop downs for something that is clearly bespoke, and you could have a free-text field for something that clearly isn't. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Ergates said:

I meant a series of drop downs, one for each letter (with the options of A-Z plus a few symbols), rather than a list of complete names.  So you'd pick J - O - H - N  rather than type in "JOHN"

Apologies I see what you mean.

Ergates said:

But my  main point was that we shouldn't get caught up in the interface mechanisms as those can't be the determining factor.   You could have an interface using drop downs for something that is clearly bespoke, and you could have a free-text field for something that clearly isn't. 

(I think) I do understand the point here, if you pick John from a list or type John in a box you have the exact same product but I don't see that the fact the customer has entered a mundane choice as a completely free choice to affect the position, with that in mind I'm not sure how you could have a text box and say that was not an individual choice of or decision by the consumer or not goods that are made to the consumer's specifications or are clearly personalised.

In turn I don't see that picking from pre-set options is an individual choice as it's the choice of the retailer what the choices are, but do acknowledge in this instance the possibility for such a number of overall results may affect the position. 

Grumpy_chap

LightFlare said:

For context - the 1st 4 selections give a theoretical number of combinations of ~ 360,000

40 cases, 15 CPU, 20 RAM and 30 GPU - 

Can you really select (and would the supply complete) for all those options?

If there truly are several 100k or even millions of options, then I might waver from the normal stance that selecting from drop-downs does not make it bespoke.

Would the system actually permit an individual to select the least powerful CPU and then add the greatest amount of highest speed RAM, or would that return an error code (either automatically when the drop downs are selected or via manual intervention when someone does a check and passes to production, or not)?

A_Geordie

Whilst I can't verify the OP's comment on the number of combinations without doing some maths, you can create the PC any way you wish according to what is available on the market. Cheaper CPU with max RAM, high end CPU with mid range RAM and so on and so forth. 

Easiest way to understand is to have a look at the website itself. Link below is an example of how you can custom build your own gaming PC. Start by selecting the manufacturer CPU you want and then the next page is literally an almost endless list of options that you can configure as part of the build. 

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-z790-ddr5-pc/

MyRealNameToo

A_Geordie said:

Whilst I can't verify the OP's comment on the number of combinations without doing some maths, you can create the PC any way you wish according to what is available on the market. Cheaper CPU with max RAM, high end CPU with mid range RAM and so on and so forth. 

It depends if their tool allows you to pick "invalid" combinations. Up until recently most CPUs can use 128GB ram  whereas some specialist CPUs could use 256GB or more. So does it allow you to specify a 12th gen intel CPU with 512GB RAM? 

In principle it's possible but if there is a motherboard that could do it and if the machine would actually boot and only use 128gb or fail to boot I can't say.  Then opens up another argument on if the merchant has a duty to not sell something that would never run (properly)

LightFlare

MyRealNameToo said:

A_Geordie said:

Whilst I can't verify the OP's comment on the number of combinations without doing some maths, you can create the PC any way you wish according to what is available on the market. Cheaper CPU with max RAM, high end CPU with mid range RAM and so on and so forth. 

It depends if their tool allows you to pick "invalid" combinations. Up until recently most CPUs can use 128GB ram  whereas some specialist CPUs could use 256GB or more. So does it allow you to specify a 12th gen intel CPU with 512GB RAM? 

In principle it's possible but if there is a motherboard that could do it and if the machine would actually boot and only use 128gb or fail to boot I can't say.  Then opens up another argument on if the merchant has a duty to not sell something that would never run (properly)

It does give some warnings where things definitely wont work together - but what it wont do is tell you if you have picked sub-optimal combinations or "over" selected for your required use.

My view is that building a PC purely from a set of drop downs does assume you know what you are doing (to some extent)
Otherwise, they do offer a selection of pre-built systems - as do most PC sites