It's been close to a week now since I was set up with a fully functional PC. The whole story is long and not that interesting, but I did learn a few things about buying PCs and software. Like so many customer experience situations, what seems perfectly reasonable or even good from the standpoint of the company, can be incredibly frustrating to the consumer.
Here's the nine things I learned along the way
Lesson 1 -- Retail computer stores are largely set up for individuals, not businesses.
After
my beloved T30 Thinkpad went into meltdown, I determined that I needed
a new functioning PC immediately. I did not want to wait even a few
days for shipping. Big mistake.
Most of the notebooks had
pre-installed XP Home Edition, as well as Microsoft Works. If I had
bought online, I could have eliminated all this dreck. A number of
sales people told me I didn't really need XP Pro. They told me I
didn't need more than 512 MB of RAM.
Lesson 2 -- Very little of the customer communication and advertising actually speaks to many meaningful issues.
For example,
now that I have the new Compaq Presario on my desk, I can see that the
solid construction of the Thinkpad is actually a benefit I took for
granted. So is the on-board help function, which is not nearly as
good in the Compaq.
I was able to find a lot of great comparison
charts online showing me that this model had Centrino and this model
had Pentium M, but very little telling me why I should care.
Figuring
out what one of these puppies weigh is a challenge -- it's like trying
to figure out what charges are actually being applied to a mutual
fund. In fact, trying to evaluate the looks of a PC is what takes a
lot of people to retail. I met people on my quest who planned to order
online, but were in a retail store to figure out which brand and model
they wanted.
Lesson 3 -- Dell has a really wonderful online ordering interface
Other companies should stop trying to reinvent this, and shamelessly copy it and then start improving it.
I
didn't really want to buy a Dell, but came awfully close, because their
customization interface was so easy to use. In the end, I figured out
my ideal specs using the Dell web site, and then marched around town
comparing.
One thing I had trouble finding on Dell, IBM and Vaio
sites (and did not really look for elsewhere) was how long it would
take to ship me the PC, and if I could pay for rush shipping. I
finally called IBM to ask that very question, and they told me a) it
depends on model b) it depends on where you live and c) probably three
days in major urban areas for a model in stock.
Lesson 4 - Manufacturers need to pay attention to what salespeople are saying about them
One
of the reasons I did not buy the lightweight Sony Vaio that had called
out to me was sales staff in two different stores told me that delivery
of parts for Sony's, when needed, can take as long as 8 weeks. (Gasp)
I think the retailers really want you to use their repair services,
so they won't tell you anything substantive about the repair service
offered by the manufacturer.
Lesson 5 -- Retail sales staff do judge a book by its cover -- and miss opportunities as a result
In
one Best Buy, I met a delightful couple (60's-70's) who were looking
at notebooks. Turned out the woman is doing a lot of things with
music, and the man is doing a lot of photo and video editing. They
wanted a notebook to be able to take places, and work in various parts
of the house. They were worried about storage. I told them about
freestanding hard drives, which they were very interested in. I'm sure
I could have sold them a home wireless set-up. But when the store rep
finally came over, he started telling instead of listening, and you
could see he was going to miss several opportunities because of his
whole approach. And his whole approach was predicated on their age.
Lesson 6 -- Retailers are losing in the offline shopping, online buying sequence.
The
couple in Lesson 5 were only in Best Buy to look; they were planning to
order online with the help of their small business tech support
person. If I hadn't been in a stupid hurry, I would have gone
looking at physical, and then bought online, where I could customize
much more effectively. Retailers need to figure out some ways to
capture a slice of revenue from these lost sales. Perhaps by giving me
a time-limited coupon for free shipping if I order online through
them. Or something similar.
Lesson 7 -- Microsoft is still at it -- making it so difficult to not do what they want you to do, you finally surrender
The
new PC comes pre-installed with a trial version of Office 2003. I
looked at the new features and the cost, and decided my old fully
licensed Office XP would be satisfactory. So I installed that software
in the new Compaq. But all the programs keep trying to load and
install the un-paid for, unlicense 2003 trial version -- I can't seem
to adjust this at all. If I try to use Word as my e-mail editor, for
example, Outlook tries to install Word 2003, and will not give the nod
to the XP version even if it is already open. I tried to uninstall
2003 to avoid this problem, but there are so many shared files, after I
did that, nothing would work. Thank goodness for System Restore.
Okay Microsoft, you win. I've already lost days just getting the new
system up and running, I surrender. I'll buy your bloatware, but I
won't be happy about it. And I have always been one of your fans.
Lesson 8 -- Activation is Active, and it isn't Customer Friendly
The
whole software industry seems to have moved to the activation model,
which will only let you install something you purchased on one
machine. I didn't want XP Home Edition, so I had a choice of paying
$300+ for the upgrade CD, or paying additional hundred for the full
shrink-wrap package of XP Pro. After recovering from the sticker
shock, I went for the full enchilada. After setting up the Compaq, I
thought I would try to rescue the T30 using the new disk. Guess what
-- I had to call Microsoft for permission even to put this on my own
second PC. Which by the way already had XP Pro SP2 installed in it
(albeit corrupted).
If you go online to find out what the rules are about Activation, you get a lot of corporate-speak about piracy prevention. But they don't tell you the actual rules you will be living by (ie. expect to call and beg if you need to install on another PC at any future time. Not fun, and I don't look forward to the next time.
Lesson 9 -- The kitchen renovation rule applies
The
kitchen reno rule is this: take your worst case scenario for cost and
time and double it. This is pretty much the situation with PC
buying, unless your needs are very simple. Ironically, the amount of
sheer choice available has contributed to this difficulty. There are
still huge opportunities for PC makers to simplify the process and help
their customers. The work continues.
