F&%*ING COMMISSION SALESMEN!
I just had a lady call me and ask what our price on Compaqs were. I informed her that, though we are Compaq Authorized, we tend to stay away from Compaqs because they're hard for us to get (it takes us over a month to get a Deskpro in from Compaq...they value their bulk customers over us). She told me that she wanted a "good" system (so I ask myself, Why Compaq, then?). She then went on to inform me that she just came back from Future Shop, and the one the salesman told her she needed had a "space saver" (LCD) monitor, and was about $4000!!!
YIKES!
I told her that LCD monitors were EXTREMELY expensive this day and age, and are bound to come down in price in the not-so-distant future. Until then, a 17" monitor would be fine for a home user...which would end up saving her $1300 right off the top.
She told me that she wanted a "good computer that won't go out of date."
I told her that there wasn't such a thing. She seemed taken aback. I explained that parts are always changing, and given time, even the highest end computer would be out of date. I suggested that she go with our PIII 800 system (with 128 RAM, 32 meg video, 30 gig hard drive, etc). But she still insisted that she wanted the absolute best.
I asked her what she NEEDED the computer for. She told me that she had two little girls, and she wanted to use it for e-mail, and using the internet. Possibly scanning in pictures to send over the internet.
I told her that she would be best with our $1700 computer, plus a $300 monitor. "But, will it handle highspeed internet?"
"Of course!"
"Will it handle a camera that slides on top?"
"Of course!"

So, I decided to do a little digging. This weiner was trying to sell this lady a Ferrari when she needed a mini-van! The system was a Compuke Per-sorry-o 7000CA. AMD Athlon 1.2GHz, 128MB RAM, 80GB Hard Drive (80 FREAKING GIGABYTES!), 32MB Video, 56K modem (likely Winmodem), 10/100 NIC, SoundMax, MS-Money, MS-Atlas, MS-Works, MS-WinME, Logitech Quickcam. The monitor he told her she NEEDED was an NEC 15" LCD.

Really, isn't this a bit overkill for the average homeuser? Sure some 15 year old kiddie wold LOVE a system like this. It'd run Quake III like a dream. I don't think that a mother of 2 pre-teen girls is likely going to be getting into Quake. And 80 FREAKING GIGS?! Isn't that a tad much for a "first time" computer? I mean, really, I've got a 30 gig at home, have about 100 CDs, have ALL of them installed at max installs...and I'm only 1/2 full! Mind you, I don't have a gaggle of MP3s, or JPGs on my system. My brother-in-law has a PIII733 with a 30 Gig hard drive, and he's into MP3s pretty heavy, and he's still got about 9 gigs free on his drive!
80 FREAKING GIGS?! Really, don't these weinies think? Or was he just getting off on the fact he was going to soak this innocent person for all that she had?

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***the Beast
- I only came for the platypus soup