A Must for Custom Builders

**Mayet** · April 6th, 2005, 11:09 PM

Ferrit pointed out this great link to me this morning in regard to custom building and competing against Dell and comcrap.

For any tech trying to sell custom systems it is a must read full of good common sense ideas.

Don't Lose Your Business To Dell

**TechZ** · April 7th, 2005, 06:59 AM

Nice read Mayet, most pc's I build and sell, I give them a free AV, Firewall (if they can understand it), Spybot/Adaware, and a few demo games of their choice. Warranty has become an issue over the last few years, as most branded pc's here are willing to offer 3 years free, and the place I buy parts from wont cover me for more than 1 year. But I can always rely on the inflated branded pc's price, even Dells

**meatwad** · April 7th, 2005, 09:34 AM

The big keys for us are that we offer a one hour sit down demo or free onsite delivery, local service and warranty so you get another American (substitute Aussie, Bahraini whatever

) to talk to (which is ALWAYS popular), and we don't load ridiculous crapware that the client will never use and just slows down the machine. Plus, if you refer to your customers as 'clients', they seem to feel more empowered and important, which they are to your business.

**Ya_know** · April 7th, 2005, 10:54 AM

All smoke and mirrors...I worked in teh system builders world, and I have bought from them now being in the corporate world, trying to give an edge up to the local boys...and also buy from compaq and other 3rd party vendors that offer hp's and Dells...hands down, I would buy from a larger company then anything white box, and I would recommend that the same to individuals. Just about a year ago I got a batch of 10, then 3 PC’s from a local builder, very well known, did tons of business, dealt as a wholesaler, but would sell to end buyers…they saved me almost $50 a PC, so after 13 that’s a chunk of change. Anyway, 6 months into the first batches warrantee, the company went belly up…warranties were usless, except for individual parts with manufacturer. Reality was, I lost one MoBo in the mix, that did get replaced in the first month, and one floppy, so the $650 I saved on 13 was fortunately a return of investment…however, everyone else around town doing White box is in retail, and can’t give me that savings, hell they cost more then Compaq/HP (Dell is still a rip off).

Anyway, it’s not possible for system builders to beat the competition with price, you can’t sell it that cheap and make money like the old days…so I say why try? Stick with service only, become a HP reseller, and take a small percentage off the top for PC’s, make the money off of service. Look for small businesses to support, and cater to the corporate budget, not the home user.

That’s my rant.

**meatwad** · April 7th, 2005, 01:31 PM

PC sales are in addition to our primary work as a repair shop. Our machines are better than HP so why sell HP?

**Ya_know** · April 7th, 2005, 02:28 PM

Originally Posted by meatwad

PC sales are in addition to our primary work as a repair shop. Our machines are better than HP so why sell HP?

How have you determined that they are better? I have several Compaq's from their Presario consumer line, and several from the HP business PC line...extra memory is from Crucial typically...and there is nothing wrong with any of them...I lost one CDROM out of 50+ of these, and the replacement was in my hands the next morning...took 15 minutes on the phone...can you do that? And if so, why would you want to go on a call you can't make money on? If you sell them HP PC's, and you're an authorized seller/servicer, you can charge HP back for your labor to install it if it's an onsite warrantee. They were going to send me a tech the next morning; I declined, and installed it myself. But think of it, you won't make your typical hourly rate, but at least if something goes wrong, you don't have to RMA the drive, HP will take care of that, and you get paid something for your troubles. Can't do that with white box, no matter how you try to justify it...

**Ya_know** · April 7th, 2005, 02:32 PM

Oh, and the video Cards in these PC's are all third party 256MB cards, so don't think I'm relying on onboard video with these machines...

**iceman** · April 7th, 2005, 02:51 PM

All smoke and mirrors--

Ya_k I'm starting to feel sorry for you...

Your client is being lulled into a false sense of comfort with terms like '24/7 customer support' and 'extended warranty.'<----Smokin' Mirrors

**techs** · April 7th, 2005, 02:59 PM

I encourage my customers to buy Dell. I discourage hp and compaq.
I have learned that there is little money in new computers. I don't even want to sell them.
I just do software and hardware support. More money, less aggravation.
My hats off to the cheap computer makers. Make them as cheaply as possible. The cheaper you sell them the more I make!

**meatwad** · April 7th, 2005, 03:32 PM

Originally Posted by Ya_know

How have you determined that they are better? I have several Compaq's from their Presario consumer line, and several from the HP business PC line...extra memory is from Crucial typically...and there is nothing wrong with any of them...I lost one CDROM out of 50+ of these, and the replacement was in my hands the next morning...took 15 minutes on the phone...can you do that? And if so, why would you want to go on a call you can't make money on? If you sell them HP PC's, and you're an authorized seller/servicer, you can charge HP back for your labor to install it if it's an onsite warrantee. They were going to send me a tech the next morning; I declined, and installed it myself. But think of it, you won't make your typical hourly rate, but at least if something goes wrong, you don't have to RMA the drive, HP will take care of that, and you get paid something for your troubles. Can't do that with white box, no matter how you try to justify it...

We don't use cheap Piece of chit power supplies that are underwatted, which I've seen on plenty of HP/Compaqs. Our cases actually have room for you to add more than 2 PCI cards which a lot of the home marketed PCs don't. We don't front mount hard drives so that it is a royal pain in the a** to add a fourth IDE device to the computer. Since quantum is out of business I can't bitch about the crappy hard drives as much any more. I've had more problems with HP CD-RW drive failing than any other optical drive in the 5+ years I've worked in this shop.

**Mayet** · April 7th, 2005, 04:34 PM

I agree with you meatwad..in the last week I have had so many company computers, hp and compaq come in with dead power supplies some of which have taken out the mobo.

All 250 watt trying to run p4's or higher end athlons....most rebooting after the splash screen. Two of the power supplies rusted out, a few with lovely borwn bits that fell off.

Others have some in with certain parts of the mobo dead, the sound or vid... scary sis chipsets all onboard crappola.

**Budd** · April 7th, 2005, 06:33 PM

we gave up trying to compete with Dell and HP a long time ago, and very rarely do we build new computer anymore. we aim more towards service and repair anymore. but there are a few guys that we still build machines for, mostly hardcore gamers and small business that we've dealt with for years.

**NooNoo** · April 8th, 2005, 02:09 AM

I can't compete against Dell when they have a sale. My sister just bought a kickass dell p4 intel pci xpress video with 19" tft. Whichever way I looked at it, they just gave away the 19" monitor.

However, what she did do was not take the support bundle and will call me for her support. I can live with that because I know more than likely the stuff that she will need me for won't be warranty stuff.

**Ya_know** · April 8th, 2005, 07:30 AM

Originally Posted by meatwad

We don't use cheap Piece of chit power supplies that are underwatted, which I've seen on plenty of HP/Compaqs. Our cases actually have room for you to add more than 2 PCI cards which a lot of the home marketed PCs don't. We don't front mount hard drives so that it is a royal pain in the a** to add a fourth IDE device to the computer. Since quantum is out of business I can't bitch about the crappy hard drives as much any more. I've had more problems with HP CD-RW drive failing than any other optical drive in the 5+ years I've worked in this shop.

But in the article it said "know your customer". I bet most of your customers don't need kick a$$ parts, extra PCI slots, and gamer quality design. In the case where someone is looking for the best of the best, clone is typically better, cheaper, and more versatile. But overall, you can't compete with the big boys when it comes to just a basic decent PC...and the reality is, it’s in your customers best intrest to go with the big boys. That’s where the smoke and mirrors comes in, and you have to show them you are better…in some cases you are, but reality is that the percentage of small time system builders that last the long haul are few and far between. I can count on one hand the companies in my area that are still around…and can recall as many as 20+ that I know went out of business for various reasons, some only lasted a few years. You promise a warrantee, but if your company bows out, your promise is empty. Now before you take that as a flame, I’m not saying your company will tank, I’m just saying the statistics are there, and it’s an unfortunate fact that if you make it longer than 10 years you are one of the few, and that’s great.

Hey Ice, give up the drama...unless you have something worthwhile to contribute...

**Ferrit** · April 8th, 2005, 07:49 AM

Originally Posted by Ya_know

All smoke and mirrors...I worked in teh system builders world, and I have bought from them now being in the corporate world, trying to give an edge up to the local boys...and also buy from compaq and other 3rd party vendors that offer hp's and Dells...hands down, I would buy from a larger company then anything white box, and I would recommend that the same to individuals. Just about a year ago I got a batch of 10, then 3 PC’s from a local builder, very well known, did tons of business, dealt as a wholesaler, but would sell to end buyers…they saved me almost $50 a PC, so after 13 that’s a chunk of change. Anyway, 6 months into the first batches warrantee, the company went belly up…warranties were usless, except for individual parts with manufacturer. Reality was, I lost one MoBo in the mix, that did get replaced in the first month, and one floppy, so the $650 I saved on 13 was fortunately a return of investment…however, everyone else around town doing White box is in retail, and can’t give me that savings, hell they cost more then Compaq/HP (Dell is still a rip off).

Anyway, it’s not possible for system builders to beat the competition with price, you can’t sell it that cheap and make money like the old days…so I say why try? Stick with service only, become a HP reseller, and take a small percentage off the top for PC’s, make the money off of service. Look for small businesses to support, and cater to the corporate budget, not the home user.

That’s my rant.

Not if I was dying and starving would I resell any piece of **** compaq or emachine or hp.
And i cant believe you said that.
I have been told time and time again that my prices are comparable to those found in staples and costco when you match apples with apples
Not rotten prunes with apples
Ya_know Ya_scare me
And just so you_know
Yer dead wrong, you can compete with them for a decent basic pc cause frankly they dont make a decent pc.
Sorry Ya_Know yer wrong and my buisness thrives on the fact that you are wrong. I beat them day in and day out, whether my customers want a basic PC or a high end pc.
Its a compaq,hp,emachine graveyard out behind my house. I trash everyone I can and I will continue to haul those garbage pc's to the dump in a trailer to be crushed

Just my Rant