Laptops - Red ones blow up apparently

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T.C.
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Laptops - Red ones blow up apparently

#1 Post by T.C. » Thu Feb 06, 2014 1:21 pm

The Mrs laptop gave up the ghost a couple of days ago, and so we made the decision to get her a new one.

So yesterday we headed off down to the local Currys/PC World store and had a good look at what was on offer before selecting the one that best suited her indoors.

There were a range of colours, and so she decided on a red one as opposed to the conventional black of silver.

Anyway, got approached by the salesperson, told him what we wanted, and he said I would not recommend buying a coloured one as they overheat and blow up within a couple of months :dunno: So dumfounded, we asked, does this apply to the conventional black or silver laptops of the same make and spec? Oh no he said, just the coloured ones.

We then asked, if they are a brand name but the coloured ones are so unreliable or have a reputation of in affect "Blowing Up" after only a few months, why were they still selling them? The sales person had no answer other than he was only advising on personal experience and recommendation and then directed us to a cheaper lower spec machine.

Suffice to say, we were not impressed, and so we said we would return with our son in law who was far more computer savvy then we are and get him to go through it (Bottom line was we thought the salesman was a :huh:) and had no confidence buying from this guy.

Went to another bigger branch just down the road, mentioned what had been said only a short while earlier and the salesperson fell about laughing as this was the first he had ever heard of laptop reliability being dependent on its colour.

Anyway, found a machine which was a little bit more expensive than we had been looking at and the other store got our business.

Annoying though that with windows 8, you either have to wait up to 8 hours for the computer to be backed up by the store at a cost of £50 :angry: because they no longer provide a back up or recovery disc, and so the price advertised is actually incorrect. What a con and what a way for these stores to make more money, because not only do they charge you for backing up (I don't have the knowledge or ability to do it myself) you also have to buy new anti virus because current anti virus does not work on windows 8.

And I appreciate that someone will probably say that this is incorrect, but as a lay person, like people rely on good or sound advice from other professionals, we were none the wiser.

Suffice to say, the Wife mentioned this on her facebook page and the number of people who have come back to her and say they cannot believe what we are told. Even PC World have made a comment that the information we were given about the coloured laptops is incorrect. Says a lot for the competence and knowledge of their sales staff.

But the issue about a red laptop made us chuckle.

Anyone else ever come across this sales pitch before?
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Re: Laptops - Red ones blow up apparently

#2 Post by Firestarter » Thu Feb 06, 2014 1:34 pm

T.C. wrote:Annoying though that with windows 8, you either have to wait up to 8 hours for the computer to be backed up by the store at a cost of £50 :angry: because they no longer provide a back up or recovery disc
It's not just the stores, it's much the same all over. I bought a Dell laptop about 12 months ago, same issue, I bought a pen drive (cos the software to burn to DVD kept falling over) and did it myself.

£50 seems a bit steep though, for something they could click a few buttons, and check back every 10 minutes to swap the discs. hardly and hour's intensive labour to do it.
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#3 Post by randomsquid » Thu Feb 06, 2014 5:49 pm

PC world staff are variable. They range from poor to utterly, astonishingly, amazingly, overwhelmingly, unbelievably crap. Last time I went in I wanted a UPS because mine had just karked it. It took me 15 minutes to find a staff member who knew what I was talking about. They didn't sell them...
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#4 Post by Aladinsaneuk » Thu Feb 06, 2014 6:14 pm

Anti virus does not work with windows 8?

Tbh I would rather cover myself in wool, call myself Flossie and gambol at tarquin's feet than pay for anti virus software

Norton is a poultice

Macafee is better but....

AVG Free is fine for most

Personally for the pc's I tolerate in the apple house for the kids have ms security essentials .... And that is free !

I would go and ask for my money back

Oh - iirc ms will send you a suitable windows 8 install disk for 20 quid I think...


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#5 Post by Firestarter » Thu Feb 06, 2014 8:17 pm

randomsquid wrote:PC world staff are variable. They range from poor to utterly, astonishingly, amazingly, overwhelmingly, unbelievably crap. Last time I went in I wanted a UPS because mine had just karked it. It took me 15 minutes to find a staff member who knew what I was talking about. They didn't sell them...
Sorry, but I disagree. I used to work in the Sheffield store (over 12 years ago mind you), there are some very good people both in the sales staff and the technical staff who really knew their stuff, but also some very clueless wonders who will sell anything to anyone (wound up picking up the pieces from bad sales on a few occasions). Unfair to tar them all with the same brush
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#6 Post by BikerGran » Thu Feb 06, 2014 8:46 pm

I always go to a small local computer shop - it's just one bloke, always busy, always willing to put himself out for you, and if he says 'this'll work' I know it will.

Of course you have to find one of those - there is another in our town that I won't go to again.
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#7 Post by Aladinsaneuk » Thu Feb 06, 2014 10:05 pm

tbh firestarter

i recently popped into pc robbers - I needed a usb printer lead and marlins were out of stock

I was just looking over the windows tablets out of curiosity when i was asked if i needed help

not really I replied - just curious about these but i use an iPad

oh they are exactly the same, but better as they are windows....

they run every thing that an iPad does as well as ms office - thats the only difference....


I left about then.....


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#8 Post by D-Rider » Thu Feb 06, 2014 10:30 pm

Sounds reasonable

The guy clearly clocked he was speaking with an Apple user and needed to dumb things down accordingly.

He obviously got the main message across that whatever tablet he was talking about it would certainly be better than over-priced Apple shite.


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#9 Post by Willopotomas » Thu Feb 06, 2014 11:20 pm

D-Rider wrote:Sounds reasonable

The guy clearly clocked he was speaking with an Apple user and needed to dumb things down accordingly.

He obviously got the main message across that whatever tablet he was talking about it would certainly be better than over-priced Apple shite.


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#10 Post by Aladinsaneuk » Fri Feb 07, 2014 6:03 pm

Over priced....

But look at what we save on anti virus, anti malware etc

And our os upgrades ....

And our PIM software

Cloud integration

Office suite

Photo editing and management

Kind of glad I spent the extra....


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#11 Post by randomsquid » Fri Feb 07, 2014 8:56 pm

Firestarter wrote:
Sorry, but I disagree. I used to work in the Sheffield store (over 12 years ago mind you), there are some very good people both in the sales staff and the technical staff who really knew their stuff, but also some very clueless wonders who will sell anything to anyone (wound up picking up the pieces from bad sales on a few occasions). Unfair to tar them all with the same brush
We'll have to agree to disagree then :smt002
The ones in my local branch truly are awful.
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#12 Post by mangocrazy » Fri Feb 07, 2014 9:51 pm

Aladinsaneuk wrote:Over priced....
Yes, Apple stuff is.
Aladinsaneuk wrote:But look at what we save on anti virus, anti malware etc
Available for free on PC, and Apple is not immune to malware etc.
Aladinsaneuk wrote:And our os upgrades ....
Available for a trifling sum off Ebay, or a mate on PC
Aladinsaneuk wrote:And our PIM software
WTF? Why would I need something I don't even know the acronym for?
Aladinsaneuk wrote:Cloud integration
Why would anyone of sound mind be interested in cloud? Biggest white elephant/Emperor's new clothes known to mankind.
Aladinsaneuk wrote:Office suite
Ubiquitous, and available for a trifling sum off Ebay, or a mate on PC
Aladinsaneuk wrote:Photo editing and management
Adobe Lightroom. Free if you know how. Picasa (also free) if you don't.
Aladinsaneuk wrote:Kind of glad I spent the extra....
Well, somebody has to, I guess...

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#13 Post by Aladinsaneuk » Sat Feb 08, 2014 10:19 am

Lol

True we Are not immune - but at least apple do not have gaping security holes that they cannot close... And when a vulnerability is found - they close it

And yes - you can hack anything - I used too ...... The amount of hacked stuff with nasty stuff in it means I won't touch it

PIM - personal information manager like outlook (a very good program IMHO)

Cloud - over rated - nope - those who use apple will tell you it is very easy to have multiple devices sharing info and data....


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#14 Post by D-Rider » Sat Feb 08, 2014 11:25 am

Aladinsaneuk wrote: Cloud - over rated - nope - those who use Android (or Google on their PCs .... or even some MS stuff too) will tell you it is very easy to have multiple devices sharing info and data....
There, just corrected that for you.

TBH one needs to have a balanced approach to the cloud. Good and Bad. Advantages and Disadvantages.
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#15 Post by Aladinsaneuk » Sat Feb 08, 2014 12:54 pm

badger-pube San wrote:

Cloud - over rated - nope - those who use Android (or Google on their PCs .... or even some MS stuff too) will tell you it is very easy to have multiple devices sharing info and data.... So long as they do not use itunes and like home sharing....
And amended again

Agreed it can work on other os' but it is certainly not seamless or an integrated part of the system if the owner desires

To be fair, if I were to not use apple, I would use android - some nice kit


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