Chuck52
Veteran Member
I wanted to get two of the grandkids computers for Christmas....well, actually, SWMBO wanted me to, and I figure it's a bit early at least for one of them. Anyway, the family dynamics meant I "wanted" to buy two computers. I refuse to do the Black Friday thing in person, and I didn't see anything all that exciting in the so called cyber Black Friday offerings, but I did find what looked like a decent deal on an Asus computer at BB. On line the model I wanted, X54H-BD1BH, was said to be available at my local store.
I went by there Tuesday, saw the computer and decided it was OK. I wasn't exactly swamped by sales clerks, and that was fine by me, so I asked for help and one of the geeks was dispatched to aid me. There were no boxes under the display unit, so he looked up their inventory, which he said indicated there were two units available, but that both were currently being "optimized". Now, I work at a university and can ask a friendly IT person for help with at least instructions for any kind of optimization I might want to do, so I wasn't interested in paying them for that. I didn't even ask what the extra charge would be....I figured maybe $25 or so....but the clerk offered to order them for me online. Good deal.
The next day I got an e-mail that the model I wanted was back-ordered and it would be 1-2 weeks before it might be shipped. That worried me, so I went back to BB to see how much extra they charged for their "optimization", in case I might decide to just pay the extra for the two they had. They want over $100 for their "full optimization", which includes a system back-up disk and lord knows what else. So, the price would have gone from $329 to about $429. Fortunately, the kid helping me this time also checked their inventory, and lo and behold he found they had five units! It took him about half an hour to find two un-optimized units, but I finally got them. Did they get more stock one day after my first visit? Could be. Or it could be that they really, really want that extra money for "optimizing" the computers.
So, now I will be "optimizing" the computers myself. I haven't fired them up yet, but there doesn't seem to be much software installed anyway. I can get an academic discount on most anything I might want to put on them, which makes Office really cheap. Or I might decide to load OpenOffice so the kids have a word processor. Our IT department recommends MicroSoft Security Essentials, too.
I think I'll buy myself a nice bottle of something with the $200 I save by doing the "optimization" myself.
Chuck
I went by there Tuesday, saw the computer and decided it was OK. I wasn't exactly swamped by sales clerks, and that was fine by me, so I asked for help and one of the geeks was dispatched to aid me. There were no boxes under the display unit, so he looked up their inventory, which he said indicated there were two units available, but that both were currently being "optimized". Now, I work at a university and can ask a friendly IT person for help with at least instructions for any kind of optimization I might want to do, so I wasn't interested in paying them for that. I didn't even ask what the extra charge would be....I figured maybe $25 or so....but the clerk offered to order them for me online. Good deal.
The next day I got an e-mail that the model I wanted was back-ordered and it would be 1-2 weeks before it might be shipped. That worried me, so I went back to BB to see how much extra they charged for their "optimization", in case I might decide to just pay the extra for the two they had. They want over $100 for their "full optimization", which includes a system back-up disk and lord knows what else. So, the price would have gone from $329 to about $429. Fortunately, the kid helping me this time also checked their inventory, and lo and behold he found they had five units! It took him about half an hour to find two un-optimized units, but I finally got them. Did they get more stock one day after my first visit? Could be. Or it could be that they really, really want that extra money for "optimizing" the computers.
So, now I will be "optimizing" the computers myself. I haven't fired them up yet, but there doesn't seem to be much software installed anyway. I can get an academic discount on most anything I might want to put on them, which makes Office really cheap. Or I might decide to load OpenOffice so the kids have a word processor. Our IT department recommends MicroSoft Security Essentials, too.
I think I'll buy myself a nice bottle of something with the $200 I save by doing the "optimization" myself.
Chuck
