Re: Computer life-span...

["Donald E. Simanek" <dsimanek@eagle.lhup.edu>]

On Sat, 22 Feb 1997, Dwight K. Souder wrote:

> 	My family are preparing to purchase a home computer for school
> and work.  We've read over a bunch of reports, Consumer Reports, and word
> of mouth, and we've basically decided to go along with Gateway computers.
>  We've contacted the company several times to ask questions and the other
> day we were asking about the warranty and seeing if there was a way to
> extend the warranty longer than what is offered.  The guy mentioned that
> it wasn't possible to do that, plus we would have had received our
> money's worth after 3 years.  

It's generally accepted in business that the life of a computer is about 3
years, after which time it has very little resale value, since newer and
'better' computers are preferred by buyers, and any three-year old
computer is considered 'obsolete'.

You mention Gateway. I am surprised that they didn't offer you the
extra-cost support package. Our secretary purchased a computer for home
use from Gateway last Christmas, and spent the extra bucks for that
package. Everyone told her it was a waste of money, because you seldom
have problems with computers. Many people I know have purchased from
Gateway, had no problems, and no chance to test their support. Others had
all sorts of problems and were not satisfied with the support. 

Well, this lady asked me to install it for her. I did, and we had
problems. I was on the phone three hours with Gateway support, talking
with four different people there, who were patient, and tried to be
helpful, but were baffled by the symptoms. They'd have me try this, check
that, and when they found out I knew DOS operating systems, we did some
DOS level debugging (most users these days couldn't do that). Bottom line
was that they thought something was wrong with the CD drive, and it wasn't
reading files properly from the system CD disk. So they offered to send a
new drive, and send someone to the house to install the drive. (She paid
extra for this kind of service, you see.) The guy came a week later
(they'd promised it sooner, but it was between Christmas and New Years
Day). He was a local computer service guy from a small town about 20 miles
away, one of many who do work for Gateway. He not only put in the drive,
but checked the installation, and found that the problems were even worse
than previously imagined. So Gateway promised to replace the entire
computer. That took another two weeks, but finally she got a computer that
worked. 

One thing came through in talking with support people. These Gateway
computers are sourced from various manufacturers in various countries. If
you buy a model xxx and your neighbor buys a model xxx, they could be
computers from different factories in different countries with different
hardware quirks. The support people have to do some debugging even to
determine *which* computer you have before they can diagnose subtle
problems like ours. The model number on the invoice doesn't tell the whole
story.

My advice to her, before and after the purchase, was "Buy locally from an
independent dealer who guarantees support and has their own service
tecnicians." Such a reputable dealer will choose no-name, but quality
components. The mail-order vendors will often choose no-name components
from the lowest bidder and slap their own name on the box. Even if you may
have to pay more than those mail order prices, you have someone you can go
to, bang on the desk, and say "Fix it!  Now!"  And when
upgrade/replacement time comes, they know exactly what you need. That's
what I do when I buy computers, and I've had no regrets. I buy from a guy
who does his own service, but says the key to success is to use components
which *don't need* service, so when he guarantees three years of service
support he seldom has to do anything. But he's been there for me when
troubles do arise, usually as the result of my being a sucker for some
low-priced mail-order add-on which I decide to add to my system.

You get what you pay for--or less.

	-- Donald

......................................................................
Dr. Donald E. Simanek                            Office: 717-893-2079
Prof. of Physics                    Internet: dsimanek@eagle.lhup.edu
Lock Haven University, Lock Haven, PA. 17745          CIS: 73147,2166 
Home page: http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek            FAX: 717-893-2047
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