Where To Buy A Laptop

[bkkmei]

Hallo

hope you can give some advice.

We are based in Bangkok and thinking of buying a laptop and at the same time, we do need to do a visa run soon.

We're not particularly keen on doing the visa run to Singapore but have heard that electronics (laptops?) are much cheaper than in Thailand - does anybody have any experience of this?

If we were to buy one there, do you think it would be harder to get the support in Thailand? (I guess not under an international warranty?)

For those who have bought laptops in Bangkok, have you had any laptop problems, and if so, was it easy to get them sorted out here?

thanks for any help!

[Abandon]

I have heard this too. A Malaysian friend of mine sometimes brings stuff back from Malaysia.

But I would imagine that there is not much difference in price with a laptop as they are generally Brand name machines and have been imported.

Also, laptops are not the most reliable machines .. better to get one from somewhere local so at least the guarentee is valid (since you can take it back)

Edited January 28, 2006 by Abandon

[astral]

If you buy in Thailand you should be assured of repairs under guarantee.

Major brands like HP, Compaq will have international guarantees.

Check the prices in Thailand and make a list, then check out Singapore

while you are there, before you make the decision.

I have a feeling you will be pleasantly surprised by the Thailand prices.

[justwilliam]

Another possible advantage of buying in Thailand is that your notebook will have the Thai character keyboard and the operating system will be correctly configured for the Thai language (which may be of value to you in the future).

[The Coder]

After endless shoppoing, bargaining, VAT refund, and so forth I ended up paying just 9000 baht extra to buy a Acer laptop in Thailand versus the USA. The deciding factor is I received a 3 year warranty for repairs inside Thailand instead of just one year and I wanted the Thai keyboard. That latter part is important because keyboard stickers wear off quickly and look bad. I think it was on ok decision but you really have to compare how wide the price gap is on a case by case basis.

[Abandon]

I hope the OP sees the thread ... I found it unanswered from a couple of weeks ago.

[bkkmei]

thanks for answering everyone - and thanks for resurrecting, Abandon.

As it happened, we bought one here - so that if there were probs, we could get it fixed ok here.

[1Lucky]

Check out IT Mall in Fortune Tower - the prices aren't bad at all. No doubt a lot less hassle than going all the way to Singapore or Hong Kong.

Lucky

[stumonster]

After endless shoppoing, bargaining, VAT refund, and so forth I ended up paying just 9000 baht extra to buy a Acer laptop in Thailand

what spec was the machine you bought and where abouts did you buy it - were you able to haggle?

[The Coder]

After endless shoppoing, bargaining, VAT refund, and so forth I ended up paying just 9000 baht extra to buy a Acer laptop in Thailand

what spec was the machine you bought and where abouts did you buy it - were you able to haggle?

It was an Acer Ferrari that was pretty top of the line in its day (64-bit mobile AMD cpu, ATI 9700 graphics, gigabit ethernet, blue tooth, memory card reader, super combi slot loading dvd writer, 80GB hard drive, half gig or RAM). Unlike in America, it came as a bundle with numerous carry bags (a backpack, a briefcase, and I believe 3 others), a thumb drive, and other stuff none of which I wanted at all and thought it was just silly additions. Somehow they deduced an expensive laptop should come with a lot of frills but all I could think of was who is paying for the junk. I was able to cut some of that out and drive the price down, though only a bit. I also had to haggle over using a credit card not to get surcharged. I bought at Fortune Tower as several places there had slight flexibility where Pantip places held firm on the price which was equal everywhere. Each place had a weekly flyer from Acer showing how much to charge. VAT refund went smoothly at the airport.

I like the machine, though the hard drive is showing signs of problems so I might get to test how good a thing their 3 year warranty is. I noticed Acer has service booths inside the sky train which looks really convenient too.