My laptop died

I would *never* buy a PC/Laptop from Best Buy (worst customer service). I bought a laptop from BB 2005 plus their Warranty. Worst IT mistake i've ever made. They didn't fulfill their agreement (3 separate problems, invoke "Lemon Clause" and new laptop) plus gave me a difficult time even honoring their Warranty for repairs. This was at a couple different BB's - so not representative of a singular location.

These are brands i look to 1st - Asus, Acer (used be great, dunno about now....), Fujitsu, Lenovo, IBM Think Pad and Sony Vaio (used to great, dunno about now....).

My wife's on a MacBook Pro and really likes it, but it's had a few problems already (Time Machine failed and lost all Contacts in her Outlook) - it's absolutely not for me.

Avoid Toshiba, HP, Dell - they used to be great - anymore they are so big that Quality Control is out the window.
 
Oh yeah, i *will* shamelessly plug Newegg. I've bought a *ton* of gear from them - nearly all my IT/data needs - and they really take care of things (and usually have the best price or very close to it).

I was putting together a PC i spec'd and put a graphics hard in my "Shopping Cart", but i didn't "checkout" immediately (was adding the remainder of my components). However, when i *did* check out, a message popped up saying that card was no longer available!!!! Since i was sending the components to a friend who was going to assemble/test and then ship to me, i needed it then. Newegg refunded the difference btw the upgraded card i bought PLUS gave me a $50 shopping certificate for whatever/whenever i wanted to redeem it. *Thats* Customer Service!!! They won a permanent customer with that act of professionalism.
 
Newegg is definitely great customer service and great component prices. I've built four different computers from newegg and even when they send a dead motherboard (component only not in an assembled computer) returns and exchanges were easy.

But don't forget newegg, staples, and bestbuy are not the ones building the laptop. (Believe me I have some horror stories from Best buy.) Blanket statments against certain manufacturers and stores can be misleading. Here is what the guys over at laptop magazine rated laptop BRANDS for this year.

http://www.laptopmag.com/mobile-life/best-brands-overall-verdict-2011.aspx

Should you take this as gold? NO!!! You should still look at individual reviews for laptops. I'll explain why.

Take for example HP. I've used some nice HPs, and some that arent even worth their weight in scrap metal. If you look online, there are tons of HP horror stories. If you look at that link above HP ranked third for this year. Why is that? Because of the specific new models that came out that were reviewed and ranked. I know from my experiences from work computers dell has been a pain and them being on the lower half of that list reflects that. Yet the models i've purchased for family members have had 0 problems (directly built from dell). Each model is going to be different that is why I stress research so much.

Some reference material that may help you reach a decision. Don't take any of these as the end all truth, just use them as what they are, educated opinions sprinkled with technical specifications and experiences.

http://www.notebookreview.com/
http://computers.toptenreviews.com/laptops/
http://reviews.cnet.com/best-laptops/
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369981,00.asp
http://www.pcworld.com/article/142959/the_best_laptops_under_1000.html


A quick reference link for manufacturer warranties
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3066
Also keep in mind for warranties you can look into getting a squaretrade extended warranty for your laptop.


I mentioned a few sites before for helping find good deals on laptops
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/laptop/
http://slickdeals.net/?tagid=34&tag=laptop
http://gottadeal.com/ (under product category select laptops then click display)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top