Small Office, Home Office Information |
| Support Your Local Small Businesses They can always do the job better Toni and I have been online since 1996 and we have been using computers for business purposes since 1998. And in those 7 years we have owned quite a few computers. That may sound as though we have been rather extravagant but we have upgraded every time the nature of our business has outstripped our computers’ ability to handle the workload. Now in that time we have bought brand-name computers such as Compaq, HP, IBM, Toshiba and others. We have also bought or obtained several locally built machines so in those seven years we have had some interesting experiences with the machines that we have bought. We have also come across some very interesting little bits of information about some of the brand-name machines. For example, the IBM machine we purchased was a pest right from the start. When the processor was under load it would suddenly dump all the work that had been done and begin to display a most unusual hounds tooth across the screen. That machine must have gone back to the retailer at least 4 times and IBM once and the problem was never rectified. In the end the retailer had his tech build a replacement machine from scratch but before that happened I took the time to read the warranty document that came with the IBM machine. I was surprised to find that IBM did not guarantee that a new computer would contain new parts. In fact it quite clearly stated that the computer we had may have been built with refurbished parts … and yet it was sold as a new machine. That was just one of the sagas we’ve had with our computers and it has pushed us to the point where we are unlikely to ever purchase a brand name PC ever again. Our most reliable machines have all been purpose built by the owner of a local computer shop. Not only do we have a genuine guarantee that new parts will be used but if there is a problem the man to fix it is just down the road and not two states away. Not only that but the guy down the road owns the business so he has a vested interest in keeping us happy because he knows that if we are happy we will come back to buy more. That is in stark contrast to the computer ‘technician’ at the local department store who really has no clue and no interest in keeping any machine running properly. Of course, the local guy is never going to be able to match people like Dell on price but he sure does beat them hands down on quality. So when you’re
in the market for a computer don’t be swayed by price. Be prepared
to pay a little more because it’s worth supporting your local small
business on so many levels. 29 Aug 2005 |
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