Upsold into a Downsell

[Polenicus]

The thread about Dell laptops reminded me of an experience a friend had.

This friend has been looking at getting a new laptop for some time, and saving for it. He's recently accrued enough shinies to get one, and has been looking at machines. I've had quite a few pitfalls myself, so I've been trying to advise him, drawing heavily on the expertise of my roommate, who builds computers and does tech support for a living.

Eventually, he narrowed the choice down to an Alienware, or an Acer. I advised him quite strongly to go with the Alienware, noting that Acer has a history of problems. Granted, there was nothing bad yet about the new machine he was looking at, and it quite possibly could be fine, but honestly, given the choice between a Mercedes and a Ford, I'd go with the Mercedes.

He does a lot of 3D rendering and graphical editing, and a little bit of gaming, so I had him check the graphics card. Intel Graphics on the Acer, Nvidia on the Alienware. Now, I know Intel Graphics has gotten a lot better in recent years. Pintos also stopped exploding in their later models. Still doesn't mean I think they're a good idea. So that cinched it for the Alienware.

So the next day, he calls me, all excited. He had ordered his laptop. I congratulated him on the Alienware.

"Oh, I didn't get an Alienware. The guy at Dell told me I could get the SAME MACHINE for a much lower price if I got a Dell!"

Uh oh... I smells a rat I does.

I felt like garbage popping his elated bubble. But I had him pull up the specs for the two machines. And sure enough, while the Dell had a similar processor, everything else was crap. Intel Graphics, slower HD... lots of 'Lite' style components if you get my meaning. Specifically while this machine would be perfectly for for word processing or web browsing, it would CHUG on even the light graphics processing he would have it do.

Andd he had told the Dell representative what he was using it for, why he wanted the Alienware, and had asked specifically if this machine would be able to manage the graphics processing he wanted it to do. And the rep assured him that this machine was every bit as good as the Alienware.

So he called them back. Well, they had shipped out the machine THAT DAY, and wanted a restocking fee. Really?! Tracking had it almost at his house! My they were in a hurry to get it into his hands.

So I recommended he escalate it. Be non-sucky but firm, that he had been mislead and this machine was insufficient for his needs, and he wanted what he had originally called to order. It took him a week, but he finally got them to take the thing back and refund him the full amount.

I still feel bad about that. No one ever wants to be the one who rips the shiny covering off a new toy to reveal it to be a steaming pile underneath.

[surreal20]

I hear ya. But you did the right thing.

He could have got the item, and then used it and realized it was not what he wanted...and have an EVEN harder time getting it sent back and refunded. At least this way, they didn't have to even turn the thing on and be disappointed.

[bainsidhe]

Being that it was a computer, I'd hope it'd require a signature. In which case he could refuse it. Can't charge a restocking fee for something he never received.

[Geekus Rex]

Last laptop I bought (from Dell), they dropped it with the neighbor because the driver didn't want to come back the next day when I'd be home...

[chainedbarista]

wow, i just priced one of the alienware's out:

grand total: $4245.93 or $128/mo. that's right within my budget range, lol.

[Hyndis]

If you want a gaming machine its best to just go with a desktop. You can also build a desktop yourself for half the price of a prebuilt machine, if not less.

Laptops are great for portability, but no laptop is a serious gaming machine just due to the limitations of heat and power. In order to get the processing power you need to consume large amounts of electricity, which generates large amounts of heat. These two things are of major concern with laptops, which is why laptops are prone to overheating and have short battery life. They aren't an issue with a desktop machine, meaning a desktop computer can be vastly more powerful than a laptop.

[CaptainJaneway]

You do know that dell brought out Alienware a couple years ago? LOL I do have an Alienware, acutally two of them. The last one has a water cooling system. I had some major problems with both of them. My next computer i plan to build myself and for much cheaper too.

[Polenicus]

If you want a gaming machine its best to just go with a desktop. You can also build a desktop yourself for half the price of a prebuilt machine, if not less.

Laptops are great for portability, but no laptop is a serious gaming machine just due to the limitations of heat and power. In order to get the processing power you need to consume large amounts of electricity, which generates large amounts of heat. These two things are of major concern with laptops, which is why laptops are prone to overheating and have short battery life. They aren't an issue with a desktop machine, meaning a desktop computer can be vastly more powerful than a laptop.

Oh, we're both aware of this, and I advised him of this. But with how much he bounces around, and the fact he's really only interested in light gaming, a laptop is really what he was after.

Mostly, he wanted something he could pop open when he has a few minutes between classes or whatever, fire up photoshop, do a couple of tweaks, then move on. This laptop would have basically been a jack-of-all-trades machine, and wasn't expected to master any of them.

It's just the machine Dell sold him on was completely not up to the specs of the Alienware he was originally going to buy. Better processor, more memory and HD, but with too many tradeoffs that would have left no better than what he's currently using for what he wants to do.

[Moirae]

The phone person should be in trouble. If you don't know about computers, you shouldn't be working selling them. I'd say that the best laptops you can get are alienware. They really don't get better than that.

For desktops, its always better to build your own. If you know what you're doing.

[AccountingDrone]

The phone person should be in trouble. If you don't know about computers, you shouldn't be working selling them. I'd say that the best laptops you can get are alienware. They really don't get better than that.

For desktops, its always better to build your own. If you know what you're doing.

Really ... I buy off the rack HP laptops [but I know about the heat issue, use a cooler and rarely have issues with them] and would probably report that phone person to their supervisors. He/she needs a bit more training.

Though I admit, if I wanted a killer laptop, I have a friend who designs and builds hardened laptops for military, so I could have a killer lappy if I really wanted to exert myself.

[Andara Bledin]

For desktops, its always better to build your own. If you know what you're doing.

Not always, any more. My work was upgrading a few systems recently, and when I ran a spec by spec comparison to what they were getting versus what I could build, the pre-builts were actually slightly cheaper and were more than sufficient for what they were to be used for. But if you made a point to only buy sale items and build a system over the course of a few months, then you can likely do much better building your own.

As for laptops, I still haven't had the funds and reason to get my own laptop, yet, but I'm working on it.

Here's a March article from LaptopMag.com with a scorecard with the brands and ratings:
http://www.laptopmag.com/mobile-life...dict-2011.aspx
Not sure how close to reality it is, but it does seem a good place to start.

^-.-^

[Geek King]

Alienware used to be the top-of-the-line rigs, but since Dell bought the name, I see fewer people praising them. I'm not sure the same quality is going in. I'd look hard at reviews of their gear within the last six months compared with competitors.

[Moirae]

I'll take building my own any day. Then I can get exactly what I want. I'm working on buying parts for a new rig right now, actually.

[Naaman]

Not always, any more. My work was upgrading a few systems recently, and when I ran a spec by spec comparison to what they were getting versus what I could build, the pre-builts were actually slightly cheaper and were more than sufficient for what they were to be used for. But if you made a point to only buy sale items and build a system over the course of a few months, then you can likely do much better building your own.

Whilst, in theory, I agree with you I've found that I prefer knowing exactly what goes into my machine - whether for quality, branding or upgrading reasons.

Another reason, the manufacturer I used to work for had their own modified (inferior) versions of items to pare down costs, comparing the manual for the 'street' version against the item sitting on front of us was.... enlightening.

[Naaman]

Alienware used to be the top-of-the-line rigs, but since Dell bought the name, I see fewer people praising them. I'm not sure the same quality is going in. I'd look hard at reviews of their gear within the last six months compared with competitors.

I used to hear good things about Sager laptops when compared to Alienware, same specs just uglier and a lot cheaper.