[ale] stupid pricing games

[Robert L. Harris]

  A bit of insight from someone who until recently was buying both for 
work.  The quality of hardware,
it's ability to just survive day to day abuse,  the Mac will outlive the 
dell.  I've returned more Dells than
I can count but I've only had 1 Mac issue and that was a bad WD drive.

   On a more important note, I had to call both vendors for support not 
too long ago.  On the Dell, when
I booted it, it reported the license as 'pirated' even though it was 
legit, little sticker on the back and
everything.  Microsoft refused to do anything and told me I had to go 
buy a new OS.   Doesn't matter
if it was brute-forced, mis-detected or whatever, they did not even 
care, I was SOL, no discussion.

   My apple airport extreme, little white box, went offline.  I called 
apple and they informed me the
support on the device was 80+ days gone.  The next line spoken was from 
the tech on the other side:
"Do you have another apple product?"  I told them I had a macbook pro 
here.  They checked the serial
and it was still in support.  They listed my call and the airport under 
the macbook.  While diagnosing I
accidently hung up on the tech.  He called me back before I could hit 
the redial button.  We spent two
hours figuring out the firmware had lost it's config (first time I've 
seen this) and resetting it.

   When you,  your wife, child, boss needs something fixed NOW!,  which 
response do you want?

Robert


On 7/1/09 8:30 AM, Geoffrey wrote:
> Pat Regan wrote:
>    
>> Geoffrey wrote:
>>      
>>> Well, the dell I'm comparing my Mac with is a top of the line high end
>>> laptop, so I would have expected it to have a 'top of the line high end'
>>> display.  The damn thing is like a freaking mirror.
>>>
>>>        
>> When I last bought a "high end" laptop the business class Latitude I was
>> considering buying was significantly cheaper than the closest comparable
>> Macbook that I could find.  From what I've seen of Apple's current
>> pricing, this is likely still the case.
>>      
>
> I would disagree.  I can compare the purchase of a Mac for my daughter
> and a Dell for my daughter's boyfriend.  Virtually the same hardware,
> except the Mac has a larger hard drive.
>
> Dell: $1800
> Mac:  $2100
>
> Grant it, there is a $300 difference, but I consider that well worth the
> difference (in my perceived) hardware quality.
>
> Both were purchased on a student discount offering from the two vendors,
> thus I would expect I'm making a fair comparison.
>
> Not to mention that I got a free iTouch with the Mac purchase (another
> $199 value), which was subsquently given to a very happy nephew for
> graduation. ;)
>
>    

-- 

:wq!
====================================================================
Robert L. Harris                     | GPG Key ID: E344DA3B
                                          @ x-hkp://pgp.mit.edu
DISCLAIMER:
       These are MY OPINIONS             With Dreams To Be A King,
        ALONE.  I speak for              First One Should Be A Man
        no-one else.                       - Manowar