Online s-hopping

[kingandy]

Despite coming to accept that Dell are actually a viable option for the part-time computer user these days, and my occasional eyeing-up of their deals of the hour, my recent purchase of a PC Format magazine (in particular, the article on how to build yourself a games-geared box for less than £300) has spurred me once more with the belief that self-builds are the way forward. If nothing else, it means I can buy some of those bits and bobs that I've been delaying on the basis that I'd probably get some with the new box.

I mention this purely because, as a result, I have been browsing some online electronics stores and have thus formed opinions of their relative merit. I disapprove strongly of CCL - largely because of their price display policy. They are doing everything they can to mislead the user: once you're past the front page the ex-VAT price is displayed more brightly and more prominently than the price including tax, and the VAT-included prices themselves are of the 'pennies lower' variety - the old trick of pricing something a few pennies lower (for example, 9.99) so that the brain is tricked into thinking it is a significant amount cheaper.

Conversely, though Dabs Direct also follow the 'pennies lower' path, not only does their display price including VAT, but their mini-basket sidebar shows you all your items and includes shipping - so the amount listed is what you actually end up paying. To further confuse the issue, CCL's basket is lurking at the top of the page, doesn't list your items (only a total quantity) but does, confusingly, include VAT. So you look at the bright pink number at the top of the page (say, £173.22), click through to the basket, and in the "totals" box you have a bright pink including-shipping-but-without-VAT (£153.37) and a meek grey actual-total-with-shipping-and-vat (£180.21), neither of which are the number you just clicked on.

This irritated me immensely. It's not so much that I was tricked - I was, by the promise of a £150 CPU-mobo-memory bundle, but only briefly before I spotted the £200 price tag - it's the attempt that offends. So despite the appeal of the aforementioned bundle (it was pretty much what I wanted, except for the low memory) I shall not be enjoying their fine products.

It probably does not help that I was beginning to feel confused and decrepit as a result of scrolling through pages and pages of DDR24200 S775 SATA eSATA PCI type stuff and becoming thoroughly lost.

Comments

[kermix.livejournal.com]

I can see the value of a Dell or another package deal, because it's what I recommended for my parents when they needed their first computer, but I've always built my own (for better or worse). It used to just be less expensive to buy my own parts, but now it's about choosing the parts I actually want.

It's still a little intimidating and frustrating at times, but I know enough to know what won't work with what, and most of the frustration is usually due to the fact that I'm replacing something that's died and I have to live without it until I get it replaced.

[stsquad.livejournal.com]

I got bored of the effort that BYO entailed. These days the pricing for getting someone else to build it for you is pretty competitive. The last one I got from CCL worked a charm and they even cleaned up the cabling with nice ties which I would have never bothered with.

Of course component selection is still important, but more from a Linux driver support point of view than getting the last 5% of performance out of a system. PC's long ago where fast enough for pretty much everything I do.