I would like to mention a couple of things to check on before you buy a new computer Christmas present.  And I realize some of you haven’t yet.

First, people email, and ask me, “What brand of computer should I purchase?”  Well there are many brands to choose from.  In the past I mentioned that it is a good idea to buy from a local computer shop; however, today they are few and far between.  That is a good way to go especially if you run into a problem later, you can go directly to the designer – builder of your system and get them to work on the repair.  But like I said there are not that many of them around any longer.  My suspicion would be that to build a nice computer it may now cost more than ordering online or from an electronics or department store.  The local shops just can’t compete with mass marketing.

Next, ask a friend where they got theirs.  They will be happy to tell you; good news or bad.  Word-of-mouth advertising is still very useful.

Many people want to buy a brand name and/or to order on the internet.  Both ways are fine.  Just make sure that you buy from a reputable dealer.  Dell (my choice last year), HP and Acer come to mind, and these are not the only ones, but they are the ones you hear about the most through advertising.  All of these make good units and most provide “on-site” warranted repairs.

Now here is a suggestion.  Call the toll-free technical support line of the company you are going to buy from (not their sales office, sales people answer swiftly), before you buy their computer.  Find out how quick you get a human response.  Also make sure that you can understand them easily.  See how they treat you when you can’t find your customer number, how many times they transfer you, etc.  Most likely they will ask for a customer id or service tag of some sort which you won’t have so you may not get any further.  However, you will get to see how they respond to consumers and how swift they are to answer your call.  If you are the creative type, make up a problem and see how they help.  Shoot pull out all the stops and just tell them you were checking to see how they handle tech calls and say bye-bye.

I have called several companies and had to wait on hold for up to an hour before I got to talk to the first “real” person.  That is a really great use for a speaker phone but in my opinion an hour is not acceptable.  Find out all you can before you buy.  It is your hard earned money we are talking about so spend it wisely.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 at 5:11 am and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.