PC World

Daniel_109

I went into pc world today to price some extra ram for my computer and they priced me 50-100 euro for an extra 256mb which is rediculas, and the most redicuals thing is they charge you €35 to install it which is a joke!! All u do is take out a few screws at the back of the tower and slot the ram in and put the screws back in again!! And they charge €35 for about 5 mins work!!

Creamy Goodness

yes, they'll do that, at least you were smart enough to say no.

buy it online and install it yourself. they'll always catch the general pc public as they will be like " i shouldn't open my case i wouldn't have a clue"

weeder

not as bad as local comp shop down here computer world gorey a 40GB hdd is €100 when komplett gets me a 200Gb for that much

Cabaal

In fairness PC World does not cater for tech savy people, it provides a service to people that don't know anybetter.
Yes they ripp people off but they also have more overheads then a on-line store like OCuk, dabs or komplett so thats a factor too.

KdjaCL

PC world can be good sometimes, got a 120GB hd for 70 in there last week.

Just dont buy anything unless its in a brown box or in the specials int he corner.

kdjac

LFCFan

Not as bad as Dell charging €125 for PC 'installation'. i.e. Taking it out of the box, hooking it up and turning it on.

robo

LFCFan wrote:

Not as bad as Dell charging €125 for PC 'installation'. i.e. Taking it out of the box, hooking it up and turning it on.

Oh lord and there are probably loads of people out there who pay for this service...Bless :rolleyes:

SparkyLarks

robo wrote:

Oh lord and there are probably loads of people out there who pay for this service...Bless :rolleyes:

and there are a lot of people who can't do it. who don;t know how to hook up a computer

LFCFan

SparkyLarks wrote:

and there are a lot of people who can't do it. who don;t know how to hook up a computer

too true, but it doesn't excuse a cost of €125 for the service, especially after you've just spent a lot of money buy from them in the first place.

iggyman

and the customer service in there is stupid ibought a new computer in there about three weeks ago and it took me around an hour and a half from picking the computer out to paying for it it was stupid..they have a load of foreigners working there who dont have a clue about computers...the woman we were unlucky ta get didnt even know how to take wires out of the back of the comp..

kippy

35 Euro for an install is pricey but for someone who is not tech savy its worth it rather than risking the chance of blowing the board from static-will cost a lot more to fix in the long run.
The 125 yoyo that Dell charge is excessive but if you are willing to pay it I dont see the problem. Its not like its a necessity. In fairness if the person didnt want to pay the money they should shop around as there are many people out there who do the same service for a lot cheaper.
How much would you charge for both services if you were a business with overheads??
Guys, you gotta realise there are many people out there who dont know the first thing about PC's and as such are willing to pay a lot for (to us) are the most basic of tasks.
Hell there are still some people out there who think the standard PC's cost about three grand like they did years ago.
Its not just an issue with ireland-work like this can cost a lot relatively in many countries.

HelterSkelter

LFCFan wrote:

Not as bad as Dell charging €125 for PC 'installation'. i.e. Taking it out of the box, hooking it up and turning it on.

If you called a mechanic/tv repair man/plumber out to your house to do a similar simple task I bet it would cost as much if not more.

ambro25

SparkyLarks wrote:

and there are a lot of people who can't do it. who don;t know how to hook up a computer

[In the context of a DELL out-of-the-box system]

Are you meaning to tell us that average Joe can't -

(i) read a diagram with colour-coordinated pictures

and

(ii) match the colour-coordinated plugs of the keyb/mouse/printer/etc. and the colour-coordinated sockets of the base unit?

TBH, they don't deserve a computer, then :rolleyes:

HelterSkelter wrote:

If you called a mechanic/tv repair man/plumber out to your house to do a similar simple task I bet it would cost as much if not more.

But cars/TVs/plumbing don't come with a first-grade-level pictogram of what to fix where, do they?

kippy

Good point Helter Skelter.
Ambro-There aint many sticks of Ram that some with a colour co-ordinated diagram and even if they did you gotta have the confidence to follow them.
Granted unboxing and putting together components from Dell is a simple task when following the instructions-but the average Joe would not have the confidence to do it-you'd be surprised how many people get the keyboard and mice in the wrong ports and dont have a clue what they have done wrong hence ending up in more awkward position than they were in.
Again-you gotta put yourself in the heads of these people who are not tech savvy-there are a hell of a lot of them out there and if they aint happy with the price they are paying they should shop around.
Kippy

ambro25

kippy wrote:

Good point Helter Skelter.
Ambro-There aint many sticks of Ram that some with a colour co-ordinated diagram and even if they did you gotta have the confidence to follow them. etc.

No contesting that at all. In the context of the 'people' (= Joe Average in my post) generalisation used in posts before, I see upgrading RAM as infinitely more challenging than setting up a turn key system. Heck, I used Macs and PCs for donkeys' years before I felt confident enough to do that myself.

My remark was made in respect of the €125 allegedly charged by DELL to setup an out-the-box system, and arguments in-thread to the effect that people will pay that kind of money because "they don't know about computers".

I'm disagreeing with this, on the basis that my 14-months old daughter has absolutely no problem matching colour-coordinated shapes, so the notion of a lot of 20-, 30- or 40-somethings being challenged by a bunch of colour-coordinated plugs and sockets (most of which have matching respective shapes) just appears wrong to me

Then again, I do take your further point and concede that, having never worked in a support call-centre -type affair, I'm sure that there are horror stories (well, horrible to the tech-minded, just as the thought of a programmer with a soldering iron in hand ). But those I'd expect to be a very rare occurence.

I see plumbers/electricians/etc. as skilled people, and that warrants a commensurate price tag. I don't see fitting a keyboard plug in a USB or PS2 socket as requiring any skill, and disagree with the price tag - any clearer?

kippy

Fair enough,
People should be able to follow the diagram when unpacking the PC and sometimes it amazes me that they dont just have a go. Sadly theres no one there to educate them. After they see it done once I guarentee they wont pay that kinda money again once they see how easy it is.
Then if Dell can get 125 for it then fair enough I say-as I said there are people who will do this "strenuous" task for a hell of a lot cheaper!

HelterSkelter

Well what about when you buy flat pack furniture. Some people will pay extra for the shop to make it up for them, It's the same thing.

BrianD

LFCFan wrote:

too true, but it doesn't excuse a cost of €125 for the service, especially after you've just spent a lot of money buy from them in the first place.

Well it's relatively good value considering that it includes the "technician" travelling and a hours install.

Sam Vimes

i tried to get my dad to plug in our usb webcam last week. he actually pushed the plug into the serial port /sob.

the man doesn't know how to move text down on a page (i.e. put the cursor before it and press enter).

i've told him literally 15 times, and i mean 15, no exaggeration, that he shouldn't just move the margin on word over if the text doesn't fit because the reason its there is that represents the edge of an a4 page so it won't print properly. yet he did it again yesterday. i wonder though, does that show that he's not tech savvy or that he's a ****wit who doesn't listen to people?


some people would pay a grand for someone else to do it rather than risk damaging it. pc world realise this and take advantage accordingly. doesm't make it right tho

Gillo

iggyman wrote:

they have a load of foreigners working there who dont have a clue about computers

Sorry, but I don't see what this has to do with foreigners, nationality does not define whether or not someone has a good technological knowledge.

KdjaCL

gillo wrote:

Sorry, but I don't see what this has to do with foreigners, nationality does not define whether or not someone has a good technological knowledge.

No but it does dictate a lower wage as they are foreign , if they were irish or had some grasp of the english language they would be paid more and at the very least be vaguely understandable.

"have you any 40GB hds, theres none on the shelf"
"Durka durka durka"
"wtf"


kdjac

heggie

eh anyway...

35 for installing ram isnt that much, think about it *i know the guys workin there would not get paid that much for doing it but...* to have to open a pc up, goto a press, take out a stick of ram, pop it into the pc, test it boots ok, close the pc up etc i'd want 35 euro for that tbh, time is money, most people on boards could do that no prob, but if u cant then u pay for it

and kdjac, u really sound like a child. How does being foreign dictate a lower wage? if you need an example take a look at our medical consultants.
"idiot idiot idiot"
"wtf"

Chris P Duck

In my previous job, I worked in a computer store, and one day an old woman came in with a problem with her printer. The printer was worth about €80 or €90. After looking at it I noticed there was nothing wrong. It just needed its ink cartridge replaced. So we sold her an ink cartridge. She then asked me to install it into her printer for her, so I did. When she went to pay for the ink cartridge, she was charged €70 for the ink cartridge and labour by my boss. After seeing that I began looking for a new job and got out of there as fast as I could.

Saruman

Hang on a second i have to come to the defence of a lot of these allegations of supposed "Rip-Offs"

Firstly forget you know anything about computers for a second. To most people opening up any electronic device is just something you cant do and should never do so they are quite happy to pay someone else to do it.

I mean the ink cartridge one is obvious. most of the cost is the cartridge which is HP, Epson etc setting the price and PC world with their markup.. nothing wrong at all and very little went in installing it. Also the labour for the guy testing the printer in the first place.

As for Dell charging so much money for a set up.. again so what? How many engineers or whatever would they be able to manage if they only charged say €25 and almost everyone used it? Thats a LOT of man power needed so having the price that high reflects that. It keeps it for people with the money to do it and are too laxy to figure it out themselves.

Most places might charge a standard look at fee. My place charges €45 (ex-parts) regardless of what is done. unless of course it cant be fixed or something like that. If someone pays to have their PC looked at and its fixed and then they decide they want us to put in more ram, we only charge them for the ram and not any extra for the install.

Besides not ALL Pc's take a minute to install ram, some you have to take out the PSU and everything just to get at it.

I did not read every single example in this thread but the ones i did as far as i am concerned are fine. Not a rip off, if people did not want to pay for these things they would not do so.

ionapaul

Chris P Duck wrote:

In my previous job, I worked in a computer store, and one day an old woman came in with a problem with her printer. The printer was worth about €80 or €90. After looking at it I noticed there was nothing wrong. It just needed its ink cartridge replaced. So we sold her an ink cartridge. She then asked me to install it into her printer for her, so I did. When she went to pay for the ink cartridge, she was charged €70 for the ink cartridge and labour by my boss. After seeing that I began looking for a new job and got out of there as fast as I could.

You think that's bad? I'm in a medium-sized IT services company with many government and financial services clients (i.e. their employees know that there is no end to the money and so whatever something costs, will pay it). Last month one of the higher-ups in a government body had a problem with his 3-year old laptop, which was determined by a hardware supplier / repair shop (we act as the government body's IT department and thus merely facilitated the repair of the laptop) to be down to the motherboard. The hardware repair place quoted us €600 incl. labour to fix, we argued / recommended to our client that this was simply too much to pay to repair a laptop worth less than €500. However, it being the government and a higher civil servant who doesn't care about something as base as value for money, we were over-ruled. The laptop goes off to be repaired for €700. One day after it was returned to the client, the hard drive goes. Another €350 parts and labour. One week later, the floppy drive went - the repair place had the decency to replace this free of charge, after taking €1,050 repairing a sub-€500 laptop! It has to be stressed that the client flatly refused to take our advice to simply buy a nice laptop, and demanded we facilitate the repair of the broken machine.

In the end of the day, all Irish taxpayers pay for this absolute nonsense.

zuma

ionapaul wrote:

You think that's bad? I'm in a medium-sized IT services company with many government and financial services clients (i.e. their employees know that there is no end to the money and so whatever something costs, will pay it). Last month one of the higher-ups in a government body had a problem with his 3-year old laptop, which was determined by a hardware supplier / repair shop (we act as the government body's IT department and thus merely facilitated the repair of the laptop) to be down to the motherboard. The hardware repair place quoted us €600 incl. labour to fix, we argued / recommended to our client that this was simply too much to pay to repair a laptop worth less than €500. However, it being the government and a higher civil servant who doesn't care about something as base as value for money, we were over-ruled. The laptop goes off to be repaired for €700. One day after it was returned to the client, the hard drive goes. Another €350 parts and labour. One week later, the floppy drive went - the repair place had the decency to replace this free of charge, after taking €1,050 repairing a sub-€500 laptop! It has to be stressed that the client flatly refused to take our advice to simply buy a nice laptop, and demanded we facilitate the repair of the broken machine.

In the end of the day, all Irish taxpayers pay for this absolute nonsense.

Ah bless them!!!
At least I know my taxes are well spent :mad: :eek: :mad:

Capt'n Midnight

iggyman wrote:

..they have a load of foreigners working there who dont have a clue about computers...

Some of their stores seem to have a lot of "British Asians" , so I'd doubt they'd be that much cheaper than more foreign "foreigners", actually the mix seems very similar to their UK stores that at one stage I thought they wern't hiring any Irish ! Then again I avoid the place if possible only buying stuff that has been mispriced
Oddly enough it was Irish salespersons in that place that that tried to sell someone I know cover on a camera on the basis you could drop it and get a new one in three years time wink , wink.

PS. don't forget that PC World / Dixons and Currys are all the same company and are no longer allowed to push extended warranty on customers the way they used to in the UK because the law changed there. /RANT

The odd thing is that everyone in Ireland knows someone who knows someone who knows about computers (or I would have thought so) so ask around first.

bonkey

35 euro, if it includes the cost of any undoing incidental damage which may occur along the way is not a steep price.

Ask yourself....How much would your mate have to pay you to upgrade his machine if you were doing it on the understanding that anything you broke you would correct...both in paying for the replacement parts, installing them, and making any software modificiations necessary should you have to change make/model on any part you blow.

If, however, they're charging 35 Euro to upgrade at the owner's risk.....well, that is a joke.

Freddie59

Daniel_109 wrote:

I went into pc world today to price some extra ram for my computer and they priced me 50-100 euro for an extra 256mb which is rediculas, and the most redicuals thing is they charge you €35 to install it which is a joke!! All u do is take out a few screws at the back of the tower and slot the ram in and put the screws back in again!! And they charge €35 for about 5 mins work!!

Go here. Delivered in 48 hours: http://www.crucial.com/uk/ In fairness the €35 charge is very little by today's prices. Try having a washing machine repaired. It's €70 JUST FOR THE CALL. Then they'll charge what they like for the parts. Fitting the RAM in a PC may seem easy (I've done it) - but if you discharge yourself onto the motherboard.......:eek: