Actually it is all about price point. On a daily basis I hear how my stuff is too expensive because I can get “blah blah blah” for $299.
Intel is not the only person putting out integrated chipsets, and maybe your ire should be directed at the motherboard manufacturers of which intel is one of many and not a particularly popular one in home PC circles.
Sadly I see people robbed by their ignorance all the time. 1GB ram and for just $50 more upgrade to 2GB. A stick of ram that wholesales for about $10. Amazingly enough by the time they get done being upsold my machine ends up about the same price. Or even better $79 to upgrade a 250GB hard drive to a 500GB. Even though the price of the drives are about $20 difference purchased off the shelf.
I remember my first computer, a Celeron 533A based system. I was new and naive to computers. We wanted something future proof we told the guy. The graphics hardware was an Intel i810 integrated chip. Well about a year later I saved up all money for like a month or three to invest in an ATI all in wonder 7200 IIRC with 32 megabytes of video ram.
I get all excited get home, and nervously open the case for the first time to install it.
Right where the AGP slot should be was that bastard i810 chip. Like it was just as good or something. Apparently that dude’s idea of the future didn’t include graphics.
The problem I had when I was an Assistant Manager at an electronics store was that if I knew what I was talking about, the customers complained I was using “Jargon”, and If I tried to explain it to them simply, then I was “patronising them”. :smack:
The problem is that there’s no middle ground, IMHO- either you know something about computers and understand some/most/all of the “Jargon” (and sorry, folks, but honestly, but by this stage in human civilisation I don’t think terms like “RAM” and “Mega/Gigabytes” really qualify as “jargon” anymore), or you’re a Luddite who is only getting a computer because you’re being forced into it by your Grandkids or for work reasons and don’t want to understand any of it.
So I’d get people complaining because I was “patronising them” by trying to explain Technical Computer Stuff™ in terms they’d understand (because they’d referred to the keyboard as “the typewriter” and the monitor as “the Television part”, which is a pretty big giveaway that they’re new to the whole “Computer” thing), or I’d have someone about my age (who had a Blackberry on their belt) complain that I was “Using too many technical terms” (telling them that the computer had a 320Gb Hard Disk and a 64Mb 3D Graphics Card). You can’t win.
“It has a lot of storage space for your software, music, photos, games, and work stuff” followed by “It can play most older games but not the brand new ones”, I believe. Which isn’t that far removed from your suggestion, to be fair.
Martini Enfield I’d have to say your better off insulting the Luddite by being over technical, than not knowing enough and selling the other people the wrong equipment. Some people don’t want to know anything so just pick them out a pretty computer that boots to an OS without crashing. They’ll be as happy as they can be.
I’m out of the electronics retail field now, but I discovered fairly early in my time there that most of our customers were angry noobs who didn’t want to listen to anything I said.
In fact, I remember one guy who came in with a photocopied “Ideal specifications” page from a “Computers for Dummies”-type book he’d gotten from the Library. Which is all well and good, except that the book was from about 1994 and the specifications called for a 486 DX2/66 processor with 16mb of RAM and a 250Mb HDD, running Windows 3.11 :smack:
Did he believe me when I tried explaining this to him? Oh no. He accused me of “Trying to sell him more expensive stuff than he wanted” and got really, really mad at me and the Store Manager when we politely explained his book was well and truly out of date and technology had moved forward since then. Oh, so it was our fault he was using outdated reference material?
I had another one who showed me an ad for a Dell laptop and asked what I had that was equivalent to it. I explained that we didn’t have an equivalent model and that the model he was showing me was the subject of a recall because of a problem with something fairly important (the battery or the motherboard, IIRC). And do you know what he said? It wasn’t “Wow, thank you for letting me know that! I would have hated to have purchased an expensive laptop and had it turn out to be dangerously faulty!”
No, it was “HOW DARE YOU BAD-MOUTH A COMPETITOR’S PRODUCT! What kind of salesman are you??? If you don’t have what I want then say so, but don’t you DARE bad-mouth your competitors to make up for your own shortcomings as a salesman!” :eek:
Even the store manager told him to fuck off (in more diplomatic terms), but I had to deal with so many customers like those two (ie, everything was my fault because they didn’t understand computers) that in the end it became easier just to assume everyone was a noob and inadvertently piss off one or two people who did know a bit about computers.
So yeah, I’m glad I’m not in the industry anymore.
Not just one six-pin connector: two six-pin connectors on that card. If your computer came with a decent power supply that shouldn’t be a problem, and for that matter you can use the included adapter for one of those connectors. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to double-check the specs on your power supply.
“Of course you can use the expansion slots. However, to avoid voiding your warranty, the upgrades must be installed by an authorized repair agent”.
It’s not -that- unreasonable, considering the damage that unqualified people wreak on their computers when they try to do upgrades themselves. I see the things people bring back, and I know what they try to get away with.
Six months ago I’d have said “What?! That’s crazy!!”. Now… well, I can see the sense in it. There’s a guy in our computer department who is incredibly intelligent, knows computers inside, outside, upside down and is absolutely solid on his product knowledge. He scares customers. They sneak back in the store when he’s on his break and ask if they can talk to someone else. It’s not that he’s a jerk or an overbearing ass - he’s a really nice guy - it’s just that he talks at a level so far above your average person’s understanding that they are left feeling awkward and stupid. Telling him to dumb it down doesn’t really help because he doesn’t realize how much further down he needs to go.
The geeks and tech-heads are happy when they come in and chat to him because they feel like they’re getting good assistance from someone who knows his stuff, and he’s handy to have around to sort out technical problems without being forced to escalate to repair or replace. However, 9 out of 10 customers in our computer department will start out saying “I don’t know much about computers, but…” and he just can’t talk to them. Many times either the other girl in the computer department or I have stepped in to translate for him because we can see the look of rising panic in the customer’s faces.
But yeah, I work at a major (Australian) chain in the computer department, and our training leaves a lot to be desired. I struggle now because I’m only in the department one shift (5 hours) a week, so my product knowledge is lousy, I’m uncertain about stock levels most of the time and no one ever thinks to bring me up-to-date on new product lines (until I stumble across them during the course of my shift). It’s pretty painful.
Hm. You know, that policy was ruled illegal in regards to automobile manufacturers in the 70s. Anyone remember the case? I want to say it was a Supreme Court case, but I’m not sure. People have a right to modify things they own.
We just got a memo telling us to watch what we say on the net about the company, and that they will be monitoring commentary on them, so I’m not going to say whether that’s right or wrong, and I’ll hope you’ll understand.
JB Hi Fi, The Good Guys, RetraVision, Powerhouse, Myer, and David Jones stores also have Computer Departments, you know.
I used to work for Hardly Normal in their Software/Gaming section many years ago, FWIW, back when they were pretty much the only game in town (with the exception of the Major Department Stores). We were given absolutely zero training and basically expected to keep up with software releases and the like on our own.
On the other hand, they had a spectacular staff discount scheme (everything was available at cost!), which was very helpful when my family was buying fridges and washing machines and dryers and TVs and so on to replace the stuff we’d left behind in NZ.
But yeah, I’m not surprised HN is in trouble at the moment- the marketplace has changed and they haven’t changed with it, IMHO.
That is, the auto manufacturers can not void the warranty on a car just because something was added to it. The fault has to be directly traceable to the modification to void the warranty.
Found it! Magnuson-Moss Warranty - Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act of 1975, not a Supreme Court case.
(Of course, valid in the US only. But there may be equivalents.)
All I have to say is that I have that exact video card and you’ll be a happy camper with it running Oblivion–I’m playing at 1920x1080 on Ultra High settings.
As for the power, it shouldn’t be a big deal–there should be a spare power cord or two with a 2x3 grid of connectors inside the case. If there’s not, a proper power supply shouldn’t be too expensive–assuming that’s a standard case (and the service manual makes it look like it’ll slot a standard power supply) this is a hell of a deal.
If everything is the same as here, then it’s probably not a store warranty unless it’s an extended warranty; it’s the manufacturer’s warranty. Complaining to the store manager is not going to achieve anything because he has no influence on manufacturer’s warranties. He doesn’t even have any influence on the store’s extended warranty terms but he may be able to pass feedback along to upper management.
I don’t know what implications the decision regarding modifications to vehicles has in relation to computers, but I imagine that Acer, HP/Compaq, Dell, etc. each have some sort of legal department they consult before they set the terms of their warranties and would be very surprised to learn they do not comply with local laws. Stranger things have happened, never say never, YMMV, etc.
I know, and I was going to list some of them. Dick Smith assistants are also a bit naff, even at a Powerhouse store. But of all the experiences I’ve had, I went with Harvey Norman as my best guess. The one in the Melbourne CBD is in the most ridiculously convoluted location I have ever encountered, and consequently I think the staff are a little dizzy having to deal with that factor.
Very few things had a “Store Warranty” (What we used to call a “write-off”; ie, we’d just chuck the defective item in the bin and give the customer a new one); it was mainly stuff like sub-$100 MP3 players, cheap DVD players and CD players, cables, transistor radios, etc.
If someone’s TV or Laptop or iPod broke, it was off to Service whether they liked it or not (and usually they didn’t). If I had a dollar for every time someone threatened to call Fair Trading on us over our repair policy, I’d be dictating this post to my secretary aboard my private Lear Jet en route to my private Caribbean Island resort.
Anyway, I asked our Area Manager what the deal was, and apparently as long as the manufacturer was prepared to fix the item at no cost to the customer (assuming there was a manufacturing fault, of course), then legally we were fine as far as Fair Trading were concerned.
We often had to explain to people that just because they thought the product was faulty doesn’t mean it actually was.
We had a stupidly generous returns policy that frequently led to us getting fucked over by our customers on Big Ticket Items- they’d buy a TV or a Laptop from us for a price that meant we were making nothing on it, refuse any add-ons because “Their brother was really good with computers and had copies of all the software we’d need” (quite probable these days, in all fairness, especially with things like OpenOffice and AVG being made available for free), so we’d basically end up selling them a laptop at Cost+GST+$50 & a free mouse (or some other similar price/deal equally not worth the time and hassle the sale would take).
And a week later they’d bring it back because JB Hi-Fi or someone was doing a sale on a similar model (same specs, different brand) for less money.
We’d politely explain that yes, we did have a generous Change of Mind policy, but it only applied to items that were unopened or in resaleable condition (ie, everything in good condition, all manuals and packaging present). And Laptops that had been opened, software installed, and used for a week didn’t qualify, especially when we knew the person only wanted the refund so they could go and get the other laptop from JB Hi-Fi (or wherever).
Someone trying this at another store interstate got told the same thing we told everyone else- “Sorry, no” and complained to one of those Current Affairs shows that all retail workers despise (because they encourage the general public to be shrill, angry, entitled assholes to retail staff to get things they’re not entitled to), and the next thing we know we’ve got instructions from Head Office that anything coming back during the Change of Mind period is to be refunded to keep the customers happy.
So we end up with returned laptops that had to be sold below cost to get anyone to take them, returned printer cartridges that had to be written off and thrown out because people bought the wrong ones and wondered why they wouldn’t fit in their printer (having not bothered to check with us first as to which cartridges their printer needed), repaired printers we couldn’t sell because they weren’t that much cheaper than a new one, and so on.
And then- I’m sure other retail workers will appreciate this- Head Office demanded to know why our sales figures had dropped so much! :smack:
