is Walmart a bad place to buy a laptop?

[STC]

Been looking at Macs but found a dell at Walmart for half the price and better specs, i5, 6gb ram, HD 3000 Intel card.

Overall it looks good to me, but I heard someone say Walmart isn't a good place to.buy computers. What would you say?

Thanks

[truenorth]

The variables that could affect any credible answer to your question are almost infinite. What i would be concerned with more is during the warranty period do you have direct access to the manufacturer for any issues that may arise? Customer satisfaction is much more a factor of who is 1st in line to provide it than where the  product was purchased (unless they are the same). As i have proffered many times before re these type of purchases it is to your advantage to have and use a credit card that has free product warranty extension for the purchase (even if you pay off the purchase immediately after having made it). Just make sure that you retain your purchase receipts showing the credit card purchase event until the extended warranty period is over. In the case of a one year warranty it usually doubles and covers more things than either the original warranty and even store purchased extended warranties. Such as loss or theft.truenorth

[evilfantasy]

You can buy a "bad" computer from any retailer. It comes down to brand name and specs. If they are both what you want/need then go for it. Agreeing with truenorth, IMHO, the only things you ALWAYS want to buy an extended or in-store warranty on are automobiles and electronics (given the price is reasonable).

Wal-Mart can sell the exact same computer as other retailers at a lower cost because when it comes to retailers Wal-Mart is an absolute GIANT. They buy more quantity therefore they get a better discount which leads to lower prices to the consumer.

I bought a Black Friday HP Laptop with similar specs as you described a few years ago at Wal-Mart. It works today just like it did when I took it out of the box.

[DaveLembke]

I am in agreement with everyone else. It depends on the computer brand, model, specs vs the merchants name.

I never bought a laptop from Wal-mart, just a lower end cheap Desktop HP with Celeron 700Mhz processor 13 years ago to replace my $50 in mixed guts aged Pentium 75Mhz. I got 2 solid years of daily gaming out of the HP minitower from Walmart with no problems, then sold it to my brother inlaw for 50% of what I paid for it new and he is still using it oday with Windows Me. And then I upgraded to a Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz that I bought at Staples ( as an $799 open box unit that was returned that was for sale for $569 to move it out) in which I wasnt happy with that HP Pavilion full height tower because its motherboard was lacking an AGP slot, and thats probably why the orginal owner returned it as well because it couldnt run any good games without a video card upgrade and a video card upgrade using a PCI slot wasnt going to cut it. So I had to sell that within 6 months of owning it to a guy at work for about 75% of the price it cost me and buy a Compaq Presario with AMD Athlon XP 2800+ at Radio Shack for $549, in which I got permission from the Radio Shack clerk to open the side pannel on the floor model and look inside before buying one sealed in a box.

My laptops that I have bought new have been through Best Buy, Tiger Direct, and Newegg. When going in to buy a laptop at Best Buy when attacked by the geek squad patrol, I told them that I wasnt interested in the Acer that they were promoting, and was only going to buy Toshiba. Then the kid brought out the most expensive Toshiba they had that likely had the largest markup and I said I will tell you which one I want I dont need suggestions. I then selected a Toshiba Satellite AMD Dual-core for $429 with 17" display around black friday of 2009 and that has been a good reliable and fast laptop. It also can run World of Warcraft with the integrated Radeon GPU in which the GPU/CPU combination was what i was looking for. I needed for it to be able to run games, and so when I saw that model, I was like COOL, it will run WoW under normal settings and its price isnt bad.

So I have bought computers from Wal-Mart, Staples, Best Buy, Radio Shack, Tiger Direct, and Newegg and as far as junk computers go... you just have to know what you want and not be manipulated into buying something based on a sales clerks suggestions. My worst experience has to be buying the HP Pavilion Full Height Tower from Staples as an open box under clearance terms so I wasnt able to return it like the prior customer did. I had to take a $150 loss and sell it to a coworker who wasn't a gamer and didnt have money to afford a brand new computer, so to him he got it for like 50% off back then and it replaced his 486 SX 25 Mhz running Windows 3.11 on 4MB Ram, 120MB Hard Drive, and 14.4k modem, and he was so excited to connect to AOL at 56k vs 14.4k.

[soybean]

Agreeing with truenorth, IMHO, the only things you ALWAYS want to buy an extended or in-store warranty on are automobiles and electronics (given the price is reasonable).

I believe you misunderstood what truenorth said.  He suggested using a credit card that offers to double the warranty period for free for simply using that credit card, a feature some credit cards offer.  truenorth did not recommend paying for an in-store extended warranty. I nearly always avoid them.  If something is going to go bad with the product within the first 2 or 3 years of ownership, it's most likely to happen during the 1st year and will be covered under the manufacturer's warranty. 

[evilfantasy]

I believe you misunderstood what truenorth said.

No I understood what he said.

In-store warranties can be much better than any other especially those from the manufacturer. Return policies on electronics can be pretty pathetic (sometimes only 15 or 30 days for in-store) unless you get the in-store extended warranty offer.

If you have a computer, television or something you use daily and you have to send it out for repair you could be without that item for up to ? months. In-store warranties usually allow you to simply replace the item and you are back up and running immediately. Big difference and depending on the value of the item the extra money can be well worth it when you consider you may be paying out of pocket to ship out the item for repair.

It's also important to note that in-store warranties that go unclaimed are 100% profit for the retailer. That's why the sales people/cashiers are trained, usually monthly or weekly/daily depending on the season, to always always always offer them. Are they good? Yes. Are they worth it? Some people just seem to get faulty merchandise and some don't so that is up the each individual consumer.

[truenorth]

soybean, Yes you correctly state that which i was recommending.I had thought to correct EF's interpretation but had decided to let it pass.But yes i too frown upon "extended " warranties. I recently saw a media report on the advisability of purchasing them and the point of view expressed from their analysis was that they were a ripoff. I have never bought one but when i deem it to be an advantage i always make the purchase via the warranty extension credit card and in the instances of exercising the terms of it have never had anything but positive results. It is to be remembered that the credit card warranty only kicks in when the store/manufacturer's terminates. Then the warranty is provided by whomsoever the company is that is associated with the credit card. I suppose (never having had to exercise that portion) that the theft and/or loss provisions of the card warranty might be in place from day one as those provisions do not exist with the store/mfg. warranty.truenorth

[gord99]

Hey I work at Walmart and we build them computers real good!  No really they just get em from the manufacturer like anyother place. 

[patio]

Hey I work at Walmart and we build them computers real good!  No really they just get em from the manufacturer like anyother place. 

You "build laptops" at WalMart ? ?

See where dis=placed Humor can go sometimes ? ?

[DaveLembke]

Walmart does NOT build or custom build computers for customers. I know this because I use to work in a walmart for 6 months in the electronics department while my wife was out on maternity leave with our daughter and bills had to be paid. So I worked my hi-tech job for $21/hr days using my brain then had to be a clerk telling people why its not a good idea to mount their satellite dish on a tree, and then they bring it back as defective when on windy days their dish tv acts up.... "gee I wonder if trees sway!" at $8.25/hr nights and deal with the lesser IQ of the population...LOL

[BC_Programmer]

and deal with the lesser IQ of the population

Typical IT attitude.

[DaveLembke]

The majority of the population is good, but there were some that clearly were like deer in headlights and they are runner ups for the Darwin Awards, such as the one guy who had a clogged spray paint can and decided to try to poke a small pin hole in the side of the can in an attempt to then use that pin hole to spray from and he ended up getting sprayed in the face, and luckily he wore glasses so paint didnt get in his eyes. But he came to service desk all upset and wanted a refund for the $2.57 defective spray paint can. He didnt get all the paint off himself so the service desk clerk put 2 and 2 together red paint all over him speckled and dry on his face with no paint around his eyes due to glasses. The can was completely depressurized and covered in dry red paint with hole in side of can from a nail and hammer. She asked him why he did that vs just bring the can back in exchange for another, and he told her that he attempted to make a new hole to spray from since the nozzle clogged and didnt expect to get covered in paint doing so.