Thinking about buying a cheap computer? Think again.
With companies selling refurbished computers at a fraction of the price of brand new ones and retailers making special offers on bulk buys, it’s tempting to go with the cheapest option. You may think you're saving money by buying from one-man bands locally or online. In the long term, however, one ill-advised decision to buy on the cheap may come back to bite you when software problems arise.
SCIP's Technical Support Co-ordinator Doly Garcia thinks that buying cheap computers is a false economy as, more than often, they come with bogus and incompatible software. And if you buy a refurbished or second-hand computer, the specifications will be lower than a new computer and you are likely to experience hardware failures. If the PC is bought from a private individual, there is also a chance that some of the software on it may not be legally licensed. And a strong word of caution; they almost never come with a guarantee.
Special offers on new computers are cheap for a reason. It may be missing components that are standard on normal PCs, and the software is usually a cheaper version of the software you expect on standard office PCs. Most special offers on new computers will have a home operating system installed, which will not work properly on an office network.
SCIP regularly help in cases where a client has bought a cheap PC and suffered as a consequence. Doly describes a typical situation:
“A client bought a cheap PC including an operating system described as Windows XP but unknown to the buyer, it was a version of Windows XP called Media Center. You cannot join Media Centre to the network system in most offices without needing long and drawn out technical changes on the system.
Shortly after the changes were made to the client’s computer, they noticed the PC made beeping noises and froze. This was identified to be a keyboard failure and a replacement was needed immediately. In short, the money saved from buying a cheap PC on the Internet was almost immediately spent on technical support and new parts to make it work properly.”
SCIP sells hardware and software to charities, community groups, individuals and businesses. We know that most people are working to tight budgets and we do our best to keep costs low whilst making sure they are investing in reliable equipment. We know we can't compete with large-scale retailers so we focus on adding value by making a good choice at the start and offeierng ongoing support to make sure it does what you need.
On the other hand, if you see a good price we're always happy to offer free advice on whether to go for it. We often have clients calling up saying they've just seen a particular model going cheap at PC World and we can suggest a few checks they can make to be sure they're getting the bargain they want.
For free advice on purchasing PCs contact SCIP technical support on 01273 234049 or email support@scip.org.uk.
