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
Printable View
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
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 ;)
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 :D) 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.
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.
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...Quote:
Originally Posted by meatwad
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...
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
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!
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ya_know
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.
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.
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by meatwad
Hey Ice, give up the drama...unless you have something worthwhile to contribute...
Not if I was dying and starving would I resell any piece of **** compaq or emachine or hp.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ya_know
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
And you're speculating, and casting aspersions that mean nothing. You derived half of what you said by claiming hearsay, not bold-faced fact; because someone “told” you that you were cheaper doesn’t mean squat, and if you haven’t researched the parts or tested them, you’re making empty claims that these parts are less durable. I am basing all of my points on several living breathing benchmarks here in my office from several sides of the fence; plus countless hours of research in both equipment quality and price comparison that the end buyer may not be aware of, yet my recommendations will save money, and provide a kick *** PC.
Have you ever actually priced out a comparable PC from Compaq...
http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/.../desktops.html
Just for an example, go to the Presario page, and price out the SR1010Z. For video I usually go to Newegg, and to Crucial for Memory, never upgrade at Compaq prices. Same thing with extra CDR's and DVD drives, If I need anything in addition, I don't mess around with their over priced "upgrades", so what ever your video and memory choice should wash, cause you’d use it in both yours and the Compaq comparison.
Also, free shipping, typically a $50 rebate, and no tax offered by Compaq online. Grant it, my business pays taxes on these type of purchases at the end of the year, but and end homebuyer doesn’t have that requirement.
Then compare prices for what you would be able to build and tell me that you can build it cheaper, and make at least 15%...you can't do it! I guarantee it!!!
And don't forget the time consideration. When I have 30 dell/compaq/hp/emachines waiting for service and I tell the customer he has to wait 4 days to a week to get his computer back, but I get to tell the guy who bought my computer that he can most likely pick it up at the end of the day, who's the happier customer then? :D
For large corporations, you're 100% right. Gotta go with the big manufacturers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ya_know
The PC's I consider crap at my home surpass the PC's we have here from Dell, Compaq and HP that have double the listed specs. For business aps alone, the big companies are fine,but for a lot of other stuff I'm blown away how a 5 year old machine I have still performs as well as what we give to our people to work on here that's coming out of the box brand new.
Of course our brand new is the crappies Dell you can get.....