Computer Store Ripoff?

[koheesti]

I think naming and shaming may not be allowed so I won't mention the name of this computer store named after a fruit on the ring road close to Tesco. That said, I went there with a friend to get a new desktop computer. They have a wide selection all with this helpful little cards showing what you get (processor, RAM, video card, etc) and the price. My friend goes over everything item by item (incl keyboard, mouse, etc) and prices. Shortly after all is agreed upon, the salesguy says "oh, this motherboard isn't compatible with the computer you want. Try this other one instead". This was odd because why would they advertise them together if they weren't compatible? We thought this might be a classic case of bait-and-switch so we said we would think about it and come back the next day. We did, and brought along a friend who knows much more about computers than we do thinking that will protect from getting cheated. Anyway, after everything is chosen and a final price is agreed upon, making sure everything is OK this time - they pull the same "sorry, not compatible" line of bullschit. <deleted>?

We ended up going down the road to another place and getting a computer there. The only negative thing I have to say about them is that they have signs and adverts saying "computer set" along with a photo of a computer, keyboad and monitor. But when we asked, they said that the monitor and keyboard weren't included. When we pointed to the photo the sales person said, "that is ony advertising".Again, <deleted>?

[H2oDunc]

I can't comment on the Chawang shop but their shop in Lamai Tesco mall has been fine with everything I have got from there.The manager speaks good English and the one problem / niggle I had was sorted without any fuss. I think the trouble they have is getting sales staff that actually know what they are talking about where computer and components are concerned.

[smokie36]

Sounds like they're bent. Who would have thought it?

[joe84330]

i've never had any problems with that shop but that is obvious douchebaggery

[starcandle]

Second time in recent weeks I have heard the same story about the same shop.

I actually need a new P C but will be going to the I T shop over from Makro.

[Samui Coconut]

Apart from this pretty girl in there, nothing is great. I personally and my company will not buy there any more either, and this is an order from my boss.

[steelerian]

That shop even charged my (Thai) girlfriend 100 baht to download Skype onto her laptop for her whilst I was away in the UK. I was furious. Bunch of croooks IMO.

[devdrinker]

That shop even charged my (Thai) girlfriend 100 baht to download Skype onto her laptop for her whilst I was away in the UK. I was furious. Bunch of croooks IMO.

Sounds reasonable to me? 10min-15min IT help for 2 quid?

[robsamui]

Sounds like they're bent. Who would have thought it?

Not only that but cowards too?

R

[robsamui]

I really don't know why people bother at all with the "yellow fruit" shop.

Three or four months ago I was forced to buy a new desktop computer. After shopping in all of the Samui outlets I ended up building one myself from bits and I used exclusively the one opposite Makro (no names . . .)

The reason being that, at the "yellow fruit" shop:

1) Absolutely none of the staff is the least interested: they cluster together behind the counter and try to ignore customers as much as they can.

2) On three different occasions with different staff, asking to look at something that involved them reaching/stretching/moving in some way resulted in loud sighs, TUTS and pulled faces.

3) Technical enquiries were met either with blank faces or a response that was utter rubbish.

All three points above are entirely the opposite at the 'opposite Makro' shop - the staff know what they're doing, group round to offer advice and are knowledgable enthusiasts rather than uneducated bored shop assistants.

4) The prices are considerably higher than the 'opposite Makro' shop.

5) The range of items in stock is far less.

6) The 'opposite Makro' shop has an online catalogue with full product illustrations and descriptions. Anything not available in-store will be ordered and arrive in 3 days.

7) Having chosen your components the shop will then mount and assemble everything together in the case and test it for you at no extra charge - pick-up in 24 hours.

Yellow fruit versus Makro - no contest!

Rob

[robsamui]

That shop even charged my (Thai) girlfriend 100 baht to download Skype onto her laptop for her whilst I was away in the UK. I was furious. Bunch of croooks IMO.

Sounds reasonable to me? 10min-15min IT help for 2 quid?

Not if you then consider that the 'Oposite Makro' shop will take your motherboard, mount the cpu that you've selected and set the correct motherboard jumper settings and the cooler fan, ditto with the RAM chips, the hard drive and the graphics card, fit them all into the case you've chosen and install whatever software you want - AT NO CHARGE . . .

R

[H2oDunc]

That shop even charged my (Thai) girlfriend 100 baht to download Skype onto her laptop for her whilst I was away in the UK. I was furious. Bunch of croooks IMO.

I'm sorry but if your GF is incapable of down loading and installing Skype and they do it for her for 100 baht then just where is the problem ?

You expect them to do this for nothing ? They are a business not a charity nless you hadn't noticed

[robsamui]

That shop even charged my (Thai) girlfriend 100 baht to download Skype onto her laptop for her whilst I was away in the UK. I was furious. Bunch of croooks IMO.

I'm sorry but if your GF is incapable of down loading and installing Skype and they do it for her for 100 baht then just where is the problem ?

You expect them to do this for nothing ? They are a business not a charity nless you hadn't noticed

erm, yessss, point taken. The example of all the other things that were included for free at the 'Makro' shop was after I'd spent 16,000B on bits . .

R

[Naam]

That shop even charged my (Thai) girlfriend 100 baht to download Skype onto her laptop for her whilst I was away in the UK. I was furious. Bunch of croooks IMO.

I'm sorry but if your GF is incapable of down loading and installing Skype and they do it for her for 100 baht then just where is the problem ?

You expect them to do this for nothing ? They are a business not a charity nless you hadn't noticed

the princely sum of ONE HUNDRED BAHT? could the reason have been racist discriminating double pricing because a Farang boyfriend exists?

[itishothere]

[Not if you then consider that the 'Oposite Makro' shop will take your motherboard, mount the cpu that you've selected and set the correct motherboard jumper settings and the cooler fan, ditto with the RAM chips, the hard drive and the graphics card, fit them all into the case you've chosen and install whatever software you want - AT NO CHARGE . . .

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about in this post, but I am grateful for your summary of the 'Opposite Makro' shop all the same.

[smokie36]

One can only guess which shop we're talking about. We'll have to keep our eyes peeled lest we slip up.

[koheesti]

My friend ended up getting his computer at the shop across from Macro and so far is happy with it. I think it came out quite a nit cheaper as well.

While at the yellow fruit place I bought a 8gb flash drive (Kingston). The same was at the shop across from Macro for about 80 baht cheaper (something like 270 vs 350).

[robsamui]

That shop even charged my (Thai) girlfriend 100 baht to download Skype onto her laptop for her whilst I was away in the UK. I was furious. Bunch of croooks IMO.

I'm sorry but if your GF is incapable of down loading and installing Skype and they do it for her for 100 baht then just where is the problem ?

You expect them to do this for nothing ? They are a business not a charity nless you hadn't noticed

the princely sum of ONE HUNDRED BAHT? could the reason have been racist discriminating double pricing because a Farang boyfriend exists?

Can this be a record? 14,000 ungrammatical posts with multiple smilies in only 4.5 years?

R

[sbk]

drop the flames and nastiness and enough of the cute attempts guys. Posts deleted.

[steelerian]

That shop even charged my (Thai) girlfriend 100 baht to download Skype onto her laptop for her whilst I was away in the UK. I was furious. Bunch of croooks IMO.

Sounds reasonable to me? 10min-15min IT help for 2 quid?

Try more like 1 minute of help, for something that is free, for half of her daily wage. How does that now sound?

[devdrinker]

How does that now sound?

A bit silly to be honest

Try more like 1 minute of help,

You work fast..

1) Explain the problem

2) Connect the laptop up the power if necessary

3) Boot the laptop and log in

4) Run an ethernet wired or enter WEP code

5) Visit the skype site

6) Start the download

7) Wait for download

8) Install it, reboot (?)

9) Setup an account, or explain the account setup procedure

10) Calibrate the speakers and microphone (and/or headset)

11) Explain how to use it and add friends

12) Shutdown, package away

Something that is free

Labour and expertise is free now, what about other costs wifi, shop fittings, insurance, marketing expenses? I dont tell people in the service industry their salary has been scrapped

or half of her daily wage

I doubt he/she pocketed the 100b. They are running a business with various costs, in Thailand labour is probably one of smaller costs of running a business. Take for example a bar, Tiger costs 30baht. Markup 40baht at a reasonable price bar. Total 70baht. I don't curse I just paid 40baht for nothing, a 1/8th of the waitress daily wage for 30 seconds service! I never got away with offering 32.3baht. You cant break it down like that.

[smokie36]

Simply explaining to her that its easy. Tell her to type in install skype into the search engine and run the install program. Yep one minute.

[devdrinker]

Simply explaining to her that its easy. Tell her to type in install skype into the search engine and run the install program. Yep one minute.

You make assumptions about her confidence with computers. I doubt that was all that involved, after all if that was the case she would have figured it out her self. Its like asking for expertise, watching it be done, and then saying ah bullocks I could of done that myself after all so I dont like paying. A lot of interactions you take for granted with your computer are probably alien to many (including many expats), it would take a good few minutes introduction alone to using Skype just to explain the basics for most. I really doubt it was sale of the century for said fruit shop given I say 10-15m from boot to gone on the task whilst could be selling a laptop or something..

I had a watch repaired a few week ago I was in and out in under 2 minutes. It was 10 baht for the pin and 90 baht for labour. Looked in microscope and picked up a hammer and voila done. I no issues paying 100 for that and that probably a fraction of time involved here. You charge for whats it worth to customer to do the business, not the absolute minimum you can divide your wage/time, optimstically presuming all day this girl was doing 60 Skype installations a day.

[maccaroni man]

Simply explaining to her that its easy. Tell her to type in install skype into the search engine and run the install program. Yep one minute.

You make assumptions about her confidence with computers. I doubt that was all that involved, after all if that was the case she would have figured it out her self. Its like asking for expertise, watching it be done, and then saying ah bullocks I could of done that myself after all so I dont like paying. A lot of interactions you take for granted with your computer are probably alien to many (including many expats), it would take a good few minutes introduction alone to using Skype just to explain the basics for most. I really doubt it was sale of the century for said fruit shop given I say 10-15m from boot to gone on the task whilst could be selling a laptop or something..

I had a watch repaired a few week ago I was in and out in under 2 minutes. It was 10 baht for the pin and 90 baht for labour. Looked in microscope and picked up a hammer and voila done. I no issues paying 100 for that and that probably a fraction of time involved here. You charge for whats it worth to customer to do the business, not the absolute minimum you can divide your wage/time, optimstically presuming all day this girl was doing 60 Skype installations a day.

from what i have noticed at the fruit shop i would say the assumtion is in thinking they will do any more than the bare minimum. sad really becuase as a chain store i have had very good dealings with the hua hin shop, great service, stock and prices.

[smokie36]

Simply explaining to her that its easy. Tell her to type in install skype into the search engine and run the install program. Yep one minute.

You make assumptions about her confidence with computers. I doubt that was all that involved, after all if that was the case she would have figured it out her self. Its like asking for expertise, watching it be done, and then saying ah bullocks I could of done that myself after all so I dont like paying. A lot of interactions you take for granted with your computer are probably alien to many (including many expats), it would take a good few minutes introduction alone to using Skype just to explain the basics for most. I really doubt it was sale of the century for said fruit shop given I say 10-15m from boot to gone on the task whilst could be selling a laptop or something..

I had a watch repaired a few week ago I was in and out in under 2 minutes. It was 10 baht for the pin and 90 baht for labour. Looked in microscope and picked up a hammer and voila done. I no issues paying 100 for that and that probably a fraction of time involved here. You charge for whats it worth to customer to do the business, not the absolute minimum you can divide your wage/time, optimstically presuming all day this girl was doing 60 Skype installations a day.

Well we don't know and I can accept your point of view. It does seem a bit odd taking your laptop in for that kind of thing.

First thought would surely be to ask your friends for help etc.

[joe84330]

100 baht is an insult to both parties involved. either do it free and recover the time through good will and possible future sales or print up a sign that says you charge for these types of things, and in that case charge more than 100 baht <deleted>.

[devdrinker]

100 baht is an insult to both parties involved. either do it free and recover the time through good will and possible future sales

An insult is a strong word.

Cant see that working. You'll have everybody in there every time they get a virus or malware or things start running a little slow, you'll have a small team by the end of goodwill gestures doing shit like installing Skype, removing Porno.W32.Malware, fixing Windows XP SP5 Thai Edition WGA super crack etc... I mean even in US/UK you don't take your computer to PCWorld and BestBuy and get a free service (unless you purchased from there and this was part of the deal), Apple granted is a little difference as they know THEY have already sold you the system and they own the whole channel so goodwill gestures are easy and almost guaranteed to be recovered. To me it would be an insult to walk into my independent shop, take 10 minutes of my staff's time on non sales related issues and then expect it for free. If I decided to write it off then this would be solely at my discretion based on aspects such as if we've done business with the customer before etc..

Print up a sign that says you charge for these types of things

Implied? Or is it just me who expects to pay for service???

The OP hasnt clarified if it was just him that was fuming or was his girlfriend actually bothered.

As someone pointed out if she wanted free then she could of tried to turned to thai friends or any expat friends to try to fix the problem rather than a business where the bottom line is computers

[Spoonman]

No mention of the "compatible" motherboard being more expensive so what exactly was the rip off ?

[koheesti]

Last year I bought an old girlfriend a mini laptop. She is clueless about computers and we live on different continents. It was about $250, not a lot but I don't want her screwing it up so I installed LogMeIn remote acces software on it and now if she is having problems - and we have an Internet connection - I can help her with it.

[perkie173]

You would also think that a certain computer shop named after a fruit would sell computer accessories - after all in the UK this is where they make their bonuses. I went in there for a new laptop charger - got my laptop out and the broken charger and the staff would not even look at it, all they said was "cannot". I'm still sat here with a rather large book on top of the charger just to keep it in a certain position to make the laptop charge... its pretty ridiculous