Shopping for a PC, as we've noted in previous instalments of this ongoing series of Buyer's Guide tours, can be a complex task, fraught with uncertainty and the potential for missteps. Sooner or later, you're bound to purchase an item that you either paid too much for, or doesn't meet your expectations. In this article, we'll look at some of the pitfalls and strategies related to product exchanges, refunds and rebates.
Exchanges. The most common reason for exchanging a product is when there's some manufacturing defect in the particular item you were sold, and you are willing to give the company another chance. As failure rates among computers and their peripherals sometimes exceed 20 percent, this is a common issue. Nevertheless, you should be careful to determine the exchange and refund policies of a store before buying. A number of computer retailers have an "all sales are final" policy, especially in the case of software products. In general, we'd recommend not purchasing hardware products subject to this condition.
Refunds are less common, and again, usually subject to some fine print. Micro Concept, on Broadway in Vancouver, for example, charges a whopping 20 percent restocking fee -- and that's only if it's been "approved" for refund eligibility in the first place. A spokesperson for the company claimed that this 20% fee was a "Manufacturer's restocking fee" -- although there's no reason the manufacturer would necessarily even be involved. The company told us it would waive the restocking fee on a K6-2 if we purchased a more expensive processor than the one we were returning -- but the store's price on a Celeron 400 was 36 percent higher than at Generic Computer, a store directly across the street! A Micro Concept spokesperson tried to explain the difference between its OEM processors and those across the street by emphasizing that it sold genuine Intel chips. (Generic's made-in-Malaysia Celerons are, we can verify, quite genuine, too -- and most sources agree that Malay-made Celerons are the best for overclocking. Generic allowed us to exchange a K6-2 and fan purchased there for a 400 MHz Celeron with no restocking fee or additional cost.)
Rebates are a common ploy in today's computer retail market. Distributors and retailers love rebates because they allow the vendor to advertise a price that is far lower than the price actually paid at the till. And manufacturers love them because studies have shown that more than 50 percent of customers never even send in for their rebates.
Customers, unfortunately, aren't always the winners in this game. Craig Thompson, president of Paradon Computers in Victoria BC, says he's zero-for-twelve in his efforts at receiving cheques for rebates from smaller manufacturers. Says Thompson, "I'm starting to think some these guys have no intention of paying the rebate monies they promise. It looks like a scam."
Indeed, if we look to the south for a glimpse at the likely future of consumer regard for rebates, Fry's Electronics, a major computer product retailer in the Silicon Valley area, provides a clue in its latest brochures. The flyers trumpet on their covers "no rebate hassles!" -- a sure sign that not everyone is as easily fooled as some retailers seem to think. Several major manufacturers and retailers in the U.S. sell computers at prices quoted at $400 less than their market value. This means, for example, that Apple can advertise an iMac at $599 instead of US$999. But the inevitable asterisk next to the price, when followed down to the bank of fine print elsewhere on the page reveals the truth: you have to sign up for 3 years of internet service -- at a cost of more than 400 dollars. Sure, it's not a bad deal if you are going to sign up for internet access anyway, but it's no free lunch.
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