(no subject)

[luciazephyr]

Okay, so because I'm an idiot and forgot about our appointment at the college, Persona 4 was not sent out today. It will be soon though.

At the moment, I'm trying to find a laptop for Mum. Toshiba's Satellite series with the Intel Core i3 are my favorites, but due to their lack of friendly payment plans, we can't get it. My anguish knows no bounds. I'm considering some of Dell's Inspiron 15s with the i5 processors, but... for one, it's Dell and I hate Dell, but they do have the nice payment system. It really fucking sucks that Mum and I can't touch our college money for another few months. So, for now, we're not getting anything. I'm gonna look into trading in my Inspiron 6000 for some credit towards another. Probably gonna come up dry, but eh.

-Lucy

Comments

[canis-takahari.livejournal.com]

Oh God, Luce, I'm kind of glad the payment plans for the Toshibas aren't good, because Toshiba are SO FUCKING SHIT. Their customer service is the worst I've ever encountered. They deliberately give you the run-around, and never get anything done unless you pester them. Also, their quality used to be top notch, so at least their actual machines were good, but it has been steadily declining in recent years.

My brother had fairly good luck with his Dell, but they're flimsy, too. They're a lot better with servicing their machines, though, and they provide actual SOFTWARE with their laptops. A Windows install DVD, for one thing.

AHEM. Sorry. I had a fucking TERRIBLE experience with Toshiba, and I don't want that to happen to anyone else.

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

I was a little in love with a Toshiba Satellite I made up for Mum, but okay.

If not them, then who? I mean, I'm coming up with nothing no matter where I look and its making me very sad. Both Mum and I need new systems as my laptop is an older gal and Mum's desktop is an ancient Dimension 2500, IIRC.

I actually found a Dell I liked for dirt cheap. Turned out you needed to be one of their Small Business customers to get it. :VERY SAD:

[canis-takahari.livejournal.com]

If not them, then who?

This was exactly my issue. :( I was in love with MY Toshiba, too, and I'm sure not EVERY laptop they make craps out within a month, but it was their customer service that pushed me over the edge. They were BEYOND unhelpful. All their call centres are outsourced, and not ONE of the people I spoke with until I called head office directly helped me. I don't want to be DOOM AND GLOOM RAH RAH but it was such a crappy two months of anxiety and worry over my hard-earned cash that it really affected me strongly.

My brother is a software engineer; his company exclusively uses Dells. Obviously, every major manufacturer has their flaws, and these days, every laptop is built with planned obsolesce. I ended up buying an HP. Basically, the buying process sucks, but just do your research. Before you buy anything, google for related customer complaints. Usually that tells you pretty quick if there's something up.

I'm sorry I can't be more helpful. I went through the exact same frustrating process when my desktop died.

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

I've gone through all the research. I just... wanna go to all of them and say "I want a Core i3 or higher with over 250GB of space for under $30 a month," and get something out of them that way.

This would be so much easier if we had room on one of our credit cards. But we won't until some of the financial aid comes through. :sighs: So maybe we just can't get one right now.

[canis-takahari.livejournal.com]

If you want a payment plan and direct purchase from the manufacturer isn't offering it, can you maybe go the retail route through...Best Buy, or something? They often have plans, especially for students, as well as better extended warranty plans.

Also, in case it helps, my HP is a G60, and it's a core 2 duo, and it has a 500 gb harddrive, and 4 gb RAM. It was a really reasonable buy. The graphics card could be better, but that's my only complaint.

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

But I don't think Best Buy and the like offer any customization features. Sadly, I'm having a hard time selling Mum on anything I don't build on the website myself, as she is stubborn. But I'm desperate, so I will look into it on BB's website.

I looked at some HPs and was very underwhelmed. They kinda pale in comparison to other companies' offerings. But I guess I'm past the point I can choose to be picky. I'll look up your model in particular.

[canis-takahari.livejournal.com]

That's true, you're right. If you buy retail, you're buying whatever they choose to put inside.

HP G60-657CA 15.6" Notebook

That's my laptop. You're right about HPs, they're not as powerful as Toshibas, etc., but it's just a suggestion! I'm happy with mine because I don't do anything particularly strenuous with it. If you also want to be able to play games, you'll need something with a better graphics card. That model just has an on-board ATI.