Due To Unforeseen Circumstances
Your order is further delayed and we need your permission to… This was the email that greated me when I check my email when I got home on Friday. When your son is leaving for college in less than two weeks discovering that the vendor still can’t ship his laptop after waiting for a month is not a pleasant surprise. California Girl and I will have to scramble and try to find one locally. Now we’ll end up spending more money, getting him a system that is not as good or both.
I tried to call themFIVE times about the order andthe firstfour times I called I got mysteriously disconnected when I was being transferred to a “supervisor”. I finally reached someone’s voicemail on the fifth try. I doubt that they will ever call me back. They’ve had plenty of time to call me back so far and have yet to return my call. Sometimes, I wonder how companies with such disregard for their customer stay in business. The only thing that was “good” was that they didn’t even try to pretend that they were American. Instead of Saying their name was “John” through a heavy accent; they gave obviously foreign names.
If anyone has any suggestions for retail locations to purchase a good laptop for a college student please let us know. The college will be providing all of the software he needs; so the laptop itself is the only thing that is important for us.
August 10th, 2008 at 10:01 am
I got a wonderful cheap fast laptop from Dell ($500) from the refurbished section of their website. My husband is in the IT business (EDS) and the refurbished Dells come with warrantees and we have not had any issues with this laptop. We will buy our daughter a laptop next year from the same place when she goes off to college. The laptop delivered in less than a week. Go BUCS and Bengals! I always enjoy seeing the Columbus skyline on your website - we are Ohioians trapeed in Illinois.
August 10th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I had a friend who also got a laptop from dell and it is working fine. He has been very satisfied. I have bought computers from Best Buy with no problems also.
August 10th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
We’ve just purchased from “Best Buy” too. Fair price, off the shelf and out the door. Piece of cake.
Upton
August 10th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
A local computing center here in Charlotte is very professional AND reasonable. have bought many new and refurbished units from them. They shipped all over the country and we only had one shipping snafu. http://www.atd-inc.com/ If you see anything interesting I will check on the corporare rate for you . Carolina Jim and Wife
August 10th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
If you’re looking for a PC then definitely look at Dell refurbished ones. Also a place that is overlooked many times yet can yield some interesting gold nuggets of discount is Staples. Friend of mine picked up an HP with medium features, nothing uber-fancy but more than adequate for school. With the manufacturers rebate and Staples rebate it was $599 down from $799 and 6 mos same as cash too. So check out Staples or Office Max too.
August 10th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Have you checked the college bookstore, maybe online? I am taking classes at the local community college and they have specials for students. I bought the $699 Photoshop program for less then 1/2 price with my student ID.
August 10th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
I don’t know if you have one close to you, but I go to my local Mac store. the customer service is excellent and I’m sure they have student discounts. They have a really smart guy who works there who’s nice and can fix anything.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:14 am
Tina: Dell is the “villain” in this case. I know it’s their business model and that they won’t ship partial shipments from China and batch everything until they’ve got a full lot; but I don’t like waiting so far beyond the promised date. I really liked the laptop too. I don’t think we’ll be able to find a similar model at a local store.
OSU is #3. I look for them to vault into the top position after they beat USC.
Jerry: Dells are good computers when you can get them. Unfortunately, we can’t so it looks like BB is the best alternative.
Mr. Upton Ogood: We’ve been checking out their web site; but it’s hard to tell what systems are in the stores and what’s only online
Carolina Jim and Wife: Unfortunately, we have no such stores here. And, after the latest snafu, I’m not ordering anything online. If I can’t take it with me, I’m not buying it.
Dave: It’s Dell who has put us in this predicament. I like their computers. In fact, there are four of their computers in this house as I type this. But, from this time forward, Dell will never get any of my money.
Rosie: That’s actually not a bad idea. I should have checked the college bookstore when we visited over the summer. Of course then I didn’t see the need since I had a nice system on order that should have been here by now.
Kate: I only hear good things about Macs. Unfortunately, they can’t run all of the software that he needs. So, we’re stuck with Windows PCs.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
I just found your blog recently, but wanted to add that a MacBook can run both OSX and Windows in dual boot. They’ve been able to do that since Apple switched to Intel processors in 2006.
The versatility could be the reason that it’s the #1 selling laptop on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/pc/565108
Have a great day!
August 11th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
MCB:
Best Buy, Staples or OfficeMax. Try HP, Compaq or Toshiba brands. I have an Office Depot nearby too but their offerings are total CRAP. Wait until the weekend when the sale ads break on Sunday and be there when the doors open.
For mail order I’d use PC Connection.
August 12th, 2008 at 3:06 am
Nuve: Considering how much I’m going to have spent once I unload one of the laptops at a loss, I could have gotten a nicely equipped MacBook. They were out of my price range for the configuration I wanted to get him. Now I’m just screwed. (See the nest post.)
Steve: The local Bust buy doesn’t have much suitable for a college student that will still be useful four years from now. They’ve got some great computes on their web site but none of them are available in the store. Unfortunately, now I have a different problem. (See the nest post.)