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Staples and Commission

I

imported_LoKe

Lifer
I went out with my Grandfather the other day to help him buy a computer. Normally I would have suggested that a person build their own, for it's cheaper, but he's old and I'd rather not put him through any trouble.

We headed over to staples to pick up a nice system for a decent price :

Brand : HP
Specs :

AMD Athlon 3400+
512MB RAM
200GB Hard Drive
Onbarod Video/Sound (He's just using it for light user, anyways)

Comes with a keyboard, mouse, printer and even a 17" LCD.
Price was about $799 CAD after rebates, sounded pretty good to me.

We spoke to the sales rep guy and he's trying to push a warranty onto him.

"For $99.97 extra, we could replace any hardware that might die out within 2 years."

The warranty didn't cover the LCD, which I figured was the only thing he really had to worry about...

I told the guy not to worry about the warranty, because any single part that could possibly go wrong would be around $100 to replace anyways. Rather than spend the money now, just wait until later down the road in the case that it does screw up.

Then the guy proceeds to tell me you can't get a 200GB hard drive for $100, but I know from experience that's not the case.

He then tells me that he's not working with commission, so he's just trying to "do the right thing." I figured this was bullsh*t, so I passed on the warranty anyways.

So, did I make the right choice? Do you think he was getting commission?
 
i dont know about Staples, but I know BestBuy always tries to push different warranties, and none of them are on commission. At least I know the sales floor positions are not commisioned, most of them at least.

it could just be store policy. and I never get those warranties anyway, HP should have their own warranties you can deal with. You could always call HP and extend your stock warranty through them.
 
He then tells me that he's not working with commission, so he's just trying to "do the right thing." I figured this was bullsh*t, so I passed on the warranty anyways.
Click to expand...

They don't work on commission per sale, but they earn a dept. bonus if all their sales goals are met, which includes warranties as a set % of sales. 🙂
 
CompUSA: no bonus for selling stuff, bonus for selling warranty plans.

As a tech, I know people love the warranty because some are even smart enough to break a device in such a way so as to get a new one by the end of the warranty.
 
If that hard-drive fails, you need to get the EXACT same one for your restore disks to still work. 100 bucks for a warantee isn't that bad, especially since HP systems are designed to have SOMETHING break sometime after 1 year, just like cheaper compaq systems.
 
He'll be just using it for e-mail and stuff, odds are he won't need to restore anything. I could just swap with a new HD and re-install Windows and his other programs, and everything would be fine.
 
I think you did the right thing to pass out onthe warranty.
There is already some manufacture warranty and you can help him fix any problems.
 
Originally posted by: iluvtruenos
CompUSA: no bonus for selling stuff, bonus for selling warranty plans.

As a tech, I know people love the warranty because some are even smart enough to break a device in such a way so as to get a new one by the end of the warranty.
Click to expand...

Heh, only reason I'd ever get one of those warranties.

Originally posted by: Horus
If that hard-drive fails, you need to get the EXACT same one for your restore disks to still work. 100 bucks for a warantee isn't that bad, especially since HP systems are designed to have SOMETHING break sometime after 1 year, just like cheaper compaq systems.
Click to expand...
hp ditched restore discs in like 2002, the 60GB Asstor drive in one of my older hp comps started acting up, I made a Ghost backup of the recovery partition, loaded it onto the new drive (80GB WD, very different from a 60GB Maxtor if you ask me) and all was well.
 
Why does a lite user need 512 Mb of RAM and a 200 gig hard drive? 😕 I hate to see weird deals like that.

What you really should have done was built a computer for him. Save some money that way and not have to mess with the store
 
I would have, but I don't live near him and was just visiting. I know there's a lot of hassle with ordering parts, waiting for them to show up in good condition and what not, it'd take too long for him to get set-up. Oh, and you'd give a Windows user any less than 512MB of ram?
 
Originally posted by: sheik124
Originally posted by: iluvtruenos
CompUSA: no bonus for selling stuff, bonus for selling warranty plans.

As a tech, I know people love the warranty because some are even smart enough to break a device in such a way so as to get a new one by the end of the warranty.
Click to expand...

Heh, only reason I'd ever get one of those warranties.

Originally posted by: Horus
If that hard-drive fails, you need to get the EXACT same one for your restore disks to still work. 100 bucks for a warantee isn't that bad, especially since HP systems are designed to have SOMETHING break sometime after 1 year, just like cheaper compaq systems.
Click to expand...
hp ditched restore discs in like 2002, the 60GB Asstor drive in one of my older hp comps started acting up, I made a Ghost backup of the recovery partition, loaded it onto the new drive (80GB WD, very different from a 60GB Maxtor if you ask me) and all was well.
Click to expand...

*BUZZZ* not entirely....my laptop is an hp (got it this summer) and it doesnt have a recovery partition. IIRC, it came with restore disks.
 
What you really should have done is to have picked the best hot deal stacked coupon combo here or on that other forum and then configured your gramps new Dell to yours and his exact wants and needs. You can't build a 'puter these days for the best sale price of a Dell, duuuuuuuude.

Really.

You can't.

Dude.
 
Correct choice. The only computers I would get warrenties for are laptops, because they don't use highly user servicable parts.
 
Try replacing a HP motherboard for $100.....lol. 9 times out of ten it's a proprietary board that you can only get from HP. They design their cases to not be able to accept standard boards. Replacement HP mobo start at about $300 and I've seen them go as high as $600, just for the board.

As for hdd's, as someone mentioned above earlier they have hidden ghost partitions now, not restore disks. So if his drive dies you may be able to put in a new one and load windows, but there's a good chance you may not have all the other apps he uses/needs to reinstal (money, works, office, quicken, the usual crap that comes on the pc to start with).

My company acyually handles Staples warranty work. Nine times out of ten when a Staples HP PC gets to me I recommend that it be replaced unless it's something minor. so in that case your grandfather would have spent the extra $100 on the warranty wisely.

All that said, you should have just bought him a dell.

Easier to work on than hp, and not AS proprietary as HP.
 
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