Buying from PC Specialist
skippy upwood
Posts: 150
Forum Member
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As some of you know, I've been having problems with my PC. While I'm still speaking to repair people in the hope of getting it fixed (including finding someone to test the PSU with a multimeter) it's likely that I'll have to buy a new PC.
I'm obviously not going to use Scan (whom I bought my last PC from) but I've heard good things about PC Specialist. How good are they, and is it worth spending the extra money for an extended warranty?
I'm obviously not going to use Scan (whom I bought my last PC from) but I've heard good things about PC Specialist. How good are they, and is it worth spending the extra money for an extended warranty?
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As for Scan, I've had 4 computers from them and had problems with one of them. It happens. They can be a bit rough and ready when it comes to support but they're certainly my current supplier of choice.
ETA: are Scan at fault? You seem to have either done, or in some cases not done, enough with your current machine to have borked it yourself, I'm afraid. Dusty room and didn't clean it, power surges, random repair folk doing random things and that started within a year of you having the unit when you could easily have contacted Scan in the first instance - I bought my first machine from them when I was in Surrey and their turnaround on a faulty unit, after almost a year (think the psu died...) was within a working week...
The PC is top notch and well built as well.
You're probably correct that somewhere down the line I did something wrong, but I'm not going to take the risk.
The fact is many people are very happy with Scan and they do fix stuff in warranty. Buying a much more expensive unit to replace a computer just over 12 months old is not necessarily going to solve an underlying issue, just delay it possibly happening again in another unit. It's an expensive 'papering over the cracks' exercise.
I only skimmed your other threads but have you actually tried talking to Scan? Hopefully you didn't mention the three random repair blokes and registry cleaning etc...
They sent me a few suggestions, which I'm obviously going to try out, but I'm starting to price systems as part of a backup plan. My other half is also dead set against using them again, so I have to take her views into account.
That is not what I want. I have never had a PC's hardware go wrong before except for cables. Buy from somewhere that repairs them and where you can take it in and they do it while you wait.
A superb PC made from junk? :eek:
Maybe it was one of those fabulous looking shiny cases with flashing blue LEDs and everything... but a crap PC?
Never heard of them until this thread. Check out Novatech, they consistently get good write ups on here and elsewhere and they also have a forum to check out. You coyld also buy a bare bones unit to save some cash and reuse still working bits from your existing unit...
Sadly, I don't know which bits are working properly - and which are not (if I did, I might not have to buy another PC!).
As I said (in post 3), I got my PC from them. They were very good during the whole process and have a good support system. You get lifetime tech support via phone (UK based at their offices) and they have a lively forum service that you can use for non urgent enquiries or just general chatting.
I've only had this PC for about 4 months but it's not had any problems.......(touch wood..:D)
http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/
I followed the link in post 3, ta... Just don't remember seeing them mentioned here but I've probably just been missing it. Read about them and their claims are certainly impressive.
CyberPower are an American company that is well known over there. They came here a few years ago and set up the same systems as they had in the US, but, based it all here......
See here
I'd not heard of them before I looked around to buy a new PC. I didn't find any company that didn't have it's share of negative reports, I guess it's par for the course. In the end, it was a toss up between CyberPower and Novatech and
I only recommend CyberPower based on the experience of buying my PC from them..........I cannot comment on reliability as 4 months is not long enough to establish that as a recommendation.....But, so far, I'd use them again....
They advertise a lot in the likes of Computeractive and PC Pro. My dad buys those mags and I often borrow them to keep in the loop on tech news from the "other side".
I remember those companies as well. I also remember Time and Tiny but they were crap! Complaints about them used to fill the pages of Computeractive :eek:
My first PC was from Time and was indeed a hunk of junk.
Two names from the past. a mate of mine first Pc was a Tiny, a 133 desktop, it worked ok to be honest, my nephew had a Time machine, 300Mhz I think, done the job as well. My nephew sold it to said mate above, it kept going for another few years, in fact it is only about two years ago that it was retired due to a power supply problem. it was over clocked as well.
Yes, the amount of people that used to complain about Time and tiny was astronomical, emachines was another and Mesh while some of their machines was fine their customer service was awful
I remember Time used to have a "store within a store" in the back of Powerhouse (remember them?). I'm not surprised Time and Tiny went bust. Maybe people didn't think big enough about their PC Emachines is appalling. They've earned a place on the tech scrapheap. PC World's own el cheapo brands like Advent and Patriot in the late 90s are/were just as bad, if not worse, than emachines.
How did he find the Time computer?