What do you expect on a $550 laptop?

[sld72382]

Got this call last week. Older man, wasn't sucky until this part....

Basically, his situation was like a person buying a base Corvette, then complaining it's not at fast as a Z06 and then pitching a fit when the dealer suggests adding a supercharger to make it faster.

Enter this man. He was complaining about the sound quality of his laptop. Initially he was complaining about the volume level on Youtube, but then I had him play an offline music file and I could hear it loud and clear through my phone.

Cue suck...

SC: My god, it's horrible! It's tinny and there is no bass whatsoever!

Me: Sir, what you have is a technical limitation. The speakers on an entry level laptop like this are made for basic listening. It you want fuller, richer sound it's best you get a good set of external speakers with a subwoofer.

SC: I'm not buying that! My last laptop was 8 years old and it had much better sound than this!

Me: I'm sorry sir but this isn't really a "problem." If you want better sound from this laptop, you will need to buy external speakers.

SC: Once again, this is horseshit! My last laptop had much better sound than this!

Me: If you don't want to buy external speakers then there are laptops that you can exchange this one for that feature better speakers and even a subwoofer in some cases, but they're more expensive.

SC: You know what? I'll just take this piece of junk back!

Me: If want to do that sir, I'm sorry but what you want can only be done with external speakers with a sub.

SC: And I'm telling you I'm not buying it. Have a nice day!

*Click.*

Watch, knowing my luck I'll get coached for calling the laptop "entry level" and not "at least trying one step of troubleshooting like refreshing the sound driver" (which would be a waste of my time and the customer's).

[Exaspera]

Champagne taste and a Beer pocketbook.

[Aethian]

Honestly I've noticed lastely that youtube doesn't sound all that great on my laptop but then sound wonderful on hulu. So...maybe it's starting to be youtube?

[Darkforge]

youtube, due to its compression (and other people's bad microphones on their camcorders) has really bad sound quality as standard.

I can't get how some of my friends can listen to youtube playlists for the music, it just grates on my ears.

anyway, back to the suck, how can he not realise that base speakers suck, if he wants good quality sound cheaply, he needs to get some headphones. Good quality of sound, don't need to bother with arranging the speakers well, or with the acoustics of the room, and you don't annoy your neighbours (something my neighbours should really start doing)

[dalesys]

What do you expect on a $550 laptop?

A pair of Klipschorns the size of VW Beetles!

[sld72382]

I had another customer call in because his laptop was outputting tinny, crappy sound. Recognized the model as the same one the previous SC had.

He got mad at me for calling the laptop "entry level" (the laptop was a special for $500 - that's entry level) and thanked me for my suggestion then shot it down.

Seriously, it's like buying an Accent and then complaining it doesn't ride or have the features of a Genesis.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I have been looking at laptops for the past year or so. I don't have one, and my wife has been suggesting I get one for trips. The cheap ones at Staples had been getting my attention, until I found out that theses store specials are specially made for them, and use lots of low qualtiy components. Should I finally decide to get a loptop, it won't be one of those store specials.

[Aethian]

I would get irked at having my item being called a entry level item too. But having it called a "basic" model would come over better.

[Hyndis]

For $500 you can get a fine laptop for basic things. Just web browsing or word processing, but good enough.

If you want any high quality audio or video from the machine you're going to need to invest more, be it better speakers, a better screen, or a discrete GPU instead of the onboard junk they usually come with.

[grokit]

I would get irked at having my item being called a entry level item too. But having it called a "basic" model would come over better.

If you buy cheap why would you be offended when someone calls it cheap????

[PepperElf]

personally i've always called my laptop "bottom of the line" cos that's what it was. granted it's still a mac but it was the cheapest they had


but really...
"these speakers sound cheap!"
"that's because they are cheap"
"omgz0rz!"

yeah i know we can't make people feel like that kid in Eddie Murphy's ice cream skit who can't afford ice cream ... but at the same time, the answer is still the same... get better speakers or a better computer.

[Magpie]

See, I don't mind "entry level", I don't mind "basic", etc. Cheap is a very loaded word though. I tend to buy things that are inexpensive, but avoid cheap. I know that the Sam Vimes economic theory has floated around here a few times. The lower priced boots that wear out are cheap. Medium priced boots that don't wear out are inexpensive, and basic. Fancy leather boots with lots of buckles and fur trim are neither.

[Captain Trips]

Actually, he doesn't need to buy speakers. I have a $400 laptop with the same thing -- internal speakers sound like old cheap AM radios. (Unlike SC, it's what I expected.) But I get excellent sound out of it without external speakers.
.
.
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I use headphones.
(Okay, so technically they are speakers....)