Take the P*ss – Round 3
Posted by Simon Salvin on 02. Aug 2008 on PC, Simple PCWhy is it that whenever anything happens, it always comes at the same time, July must be moron month! First there was Mr Kumar (Sorry Mr K you’re not going to get off that easily), then there was Mrs W, and now there’s Miss C.
She called me last week to say she had a problem with her laptop, so the following day I went to see her, on inspection the laptop was dead, completely dead, too expensive to repair. So I offered her a new laptop at a great price.
She had just moved into a new flat, so she said she would have to ask her mum rather nicely if she’d help out to buy the new laptop. I left her with the specification & price and asked her to call me to confirm, for the 5 minutes I’d spent I didn’t charge her.
Later that evening I received a call from the girls mum, she had been looking around on the internet and found the exact same laptop at Argos for £20 cheaper and asked if I would match the price?
At this point you have to think seriously how any independent business stays afloat when people want you to compete with a multi million pound business who’s buying power can drive down prices beyond the independents reach.
But once again if you’ve read my blog previously you’ll know I’m not one to be beaten even by the likes of Argos. So bearing in mind that Argos don’t take the laptop, update it, install internet security, configure it for optimum performance, deliver it and ensure it’s connected to the net and any other peripherals, it does leave me with a little bargaining power.
Off to the Argos website I went, confirmed the £299 price, found a special offer with half price Norton internet security, total £330. Went back to Miss C’s mum, £325 with Live Onecare Internet security 12 month subscription, installed. Of course how can you turn down an offer like that? Yes please, all booked in for Monday, laptop ordered, collected Saturday, all set.
Get home Saturday afternoon, message on the answer machine, "My friend’s sold me a laptop, sorry to mess you about". Mess me about? No don’t worry, I’ve just bust my balls (excuse the phase) to beat Argos price, make a tiny profit not really worth it, go that bit extra to keep a customer, it’s not messing me about? Really!
I can’t really say much more other than I should really have learnt my lesson by now, oh well, deposits on everything from now on, sorry folks! And anyone who wants a great laptop, it’s here waiting……
Specs:
Fujitsu Siemens
Intel Celeron Dual Core T1400 1.73Ghz
1GB DDR2 Memory
120GB Hard Disk Drive
DVD Rewriter
15.4" Widescreen
Windows Vista Home Basic
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