OT Monitors

Can't fault mine in the slightest :-)

I guess go for the cheapest. Most of the companies you listed are basically 'box shifters' and in reality that's pretty much what they do. The warranty is offered by Iiyama directly, so if you cna find a good price, and they're in stock, the 'quality' of the service is going to be limited to 'can they deliver'.

Common pattern really. I had an issue with eBuyer in this respect.

Left (eventually) a fault ticket, chap phoned me back 20 minutes later. All sorted fairly easily (as was a couple of later claims for postage refund and also an RMA on a duff HDD).

Sadly, it's the price we pay for cheaper goods (if you'll s'cuse the pun). Telephone calls are slow and waste far, far too much time (and often demonstrate to the supplier that customers are too clueless to own a computer).

If you want to chat about it, go find a local computer shop, who pay staff to stand around on a counter, pay 'high street' rent and rates rent and consequently charge a higher price for their goods.

In news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Mother" > different, as it seems to me to be a really good all rounder and

My big problem at the moment with all the online shops is the horrendous shipping surcharge demanded to get it here. Paying an extra £15 on something that often is no more than that, not in this case maybe, tends to dull the shine somewhat!! To add insult to injury oftem 'free shipping' is often a claimed selling point. Guess what, the surcharge is extra!!!

Joskin muttered summat about:

Whats put me off the dell is the slow response time (20ms compared to 8ms) and the lower brightness (250cd/m compared to 300cd/m). Also it has a 75w power consumption compared to 40w. Althought it does have some nice features like a good contrast ratio, USB hub etc.

Mother" > different, as it seems to me to be a really good all rounder and

Pretty much thought that, however, what bothers me slightly is the difference in description. The E481S has been updated with faster response times and higer contrast ration. Some sights describe it as it was and some as it is now. Do I assume that those that describe it as it was just haven't updated their info or that they are selling old stock??

Check most of the sites, they don't have stock. It's a very popular monitor and the manufacturer can't build them quickly enough. I'd seriously doubt there's any 'old stock' kicking around.

Graham G muttered summat about:

On a similar topic. If I were to buy a new PC, what the best way/place to go? Have always gone to Dell, but wondered if there were alternatives that were as good. Bare in mind that I'm no techie...

On or around Wed, 26 Oct 2005 18:48:41 +0100, "Graham G" enlightened us thusly:

Dell seem to have a reasonable reputation actually. If you don't fancy buying the bits and screwing it together yerself that is.

Quite taken with the case on the current one here; 's called "Capricorn" and has a side panel that comes off without tools (you can, optionally, even leave the knurled screw off the back which holds it, for even easier access :-)

Austin Shackles muttered summat about:

Have always got on well with them. Trouble is, when I start pricing one up it always ends up around the £1500 mark!!

My old Dell had that, it was very handy. Used to have the side off and blow it all out occasionally. Did well, had it for 7 years having bought one in the first place that was easily upgradable. What killed it in the end was a bloomin virus, it was one of those that took out airports and banks etc. The only way to have got it to go again was to do a re-install and then I was told there would be no guarentee. Because I didn't feel up to doing it myself it worked out cheaper to replace it. Shame it did me well. Have a siemens one atm which I bought off a mate quick. Does the job, but its getting slower and slower with all the additional crap I'm asking it to run. Probably wants an fresh install too, trouble is I ahem inherited all the software including OS on it, so thats impossible.

We used to buy a lot of dells for work as they were cheap and never went wrong (I know of a couple of dud HD's and one PSU out of a couple of hundred PC's in schools). I only used to buy them when they were on special offer. Dell changed all their T&C's for educational customers in the summer (making me pay £50 per pc delivery and limiting me to 5 of anything on special offer) and I now buy Fujitsu Siemens PC's - which seem just as good and work out cheaper than the Dells.

I dont think you can go far wrong with anything that dell have on special offer.

I object to the way dell make their prices seem cheaper by making you pay £50 for delivery. It never costs that much - they are just trying to make back the money they are loosing by selling their PC's so cheaply. Even after we worked out that for the price they wanted to charge us for delivery we could buy 2 transit vans and drive over to ireland for a long weekend and pick them up they still wouldnt budge!

I used to buy (lots) of Viglens - never had a problem. When Viglen went, started with Dells, had no end of hassles - not necessarily with the machines, more the service. seemed to me they weren't too bothered whether I was buying one for home or 500 for the office.

When that particular department migrated to laptops their (I'd left by then) IT procurement manager asked me what I reckoned? They now have a fleet of very robust Toshiba laptops...

I've noticed that. Seems quite stupid - but if thats the way they want to play it then they can loose the business. Weve been buying the other PC's through 'box shifting' (for want of a better description) companies. It is much nicer having a proper sales rep to deal with. They really do want to give you better service and prices when you buy in bulk! :) And they speak english!

It seems much of a muchness between the major brands. Strangely Dell still give favourable pricing to the county council so i can get decently proced ones (without the rip-off delivery) through the council purchasing stuff (but only a couple of set products).

"Been there" trying to sell FSC kit. We gave up - first deal is usually OK, but the margins are near zero, cashflow risk is sky high and customer satisfaction seems to be virtually impossible to achieve.

On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 22:14:36 +0100, Mother scribbled the following nonsense:

I could be shown something in 16million colours or 16 gazillion colours, and I still wouldn't see the difference. When you're red/green/purple colour blind you still struggle to tell what colour is what!!!!

It wasn't a lot better when you could contact them by phone I had issues with them that took months to sort out and then only by using a devious method of contacting them the Customer Circus line was just that. Derek