The Great Irish Rip-Off

Keeks

I've just been comparing proces between irish companies and enlish ones for basic PC componants like memory, hard drive etc and the proce difference is laughable.
Even withe the exchange rate the way its is, to buy from and english company, convert from punts to sterling, add the postage costs, it is still way cheaper. wtf.

Can someone explain the commerce behind this to me (besides being greedy ba$stards)

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Homer: Bart, a woman is like a beer. They look good, they smell good, and you'd step over your own mother just to get one! (chugs beer)

Fidelis

You're new aren't you

Paladin

What do you mean "besides being greedy b4stards" ??
Do they need another reason?

Skeptic1

Another annoying thing is the selling of cheap clones of equipment at normal prices. For example, "Genius" modems and other products.

I think all retailers are greedy no matter what country you're talking about. However, in this country you have a very small market for technical products and only a few retailers selling the stuff. This, combined with unsophisticated buyers (not the people on these boards!), means the retailers can get away with it.


[This message has been edited by Skeptic1 (edited 18-02-2001).]

Kali

id blame lack of competition and lack of demand for parts here, the market in the uk is so much bigger as far as advanced users goes e.g. those who go out and buy periphals rather than just order a new pc from gateway every three years a la ireland

Keeks

Come to think of it i actually blame lack of technical knowledge. ppl here are only just becoming used to computers and the IT world and and will basically will believe all the bs that a salesman tells them becuse they don't know any better.

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Homer: Bart, a woman is like a beer. They look good, they smell good, and you'd step over your own mother just to get one! (chugs beer)

THE SPERMINATOR

Well just to let you know i was looking for a decent cd rom that was clone compat best i could find in limerick was the delta brand hahaha funny thing was there are 2 shops about 10 seconds walk from each other 1 was selling said delta for £75 the other had it for £60 now these drives are prety naff and i reckon they pay about £15 tops for them so gives you some idea what kind of mark up there getting even with overheads its still way to high.If your curious i fianly got a Toshiba XM6702B fully compat wid cd clone very nice drive for £64 irish p+p and vat incl. SIR YOU CAN STICK YOUR DELTA FOR £60.


Stone

gandalf

Ok I'm in a lucky position as I work in the trade and have the opportunity to buy items at trade. Every now and then I go into one of the PC superstores to laugh at their prices and annoy the staff (You know ask the spotty gimp what chipset is on the mobo and see the panic in his/her face).

Anyway I went into PC world the other week in Blanchardstown, I was early for a customer meeting out that way. I noticed the same card I had got for my system, an ELSA Gladiac 32MB GeForce2 DDR, they had it priced at £339 !!!!! (all I'll say is that they were making a clear profit after tax of £100 on that card alone.), I then looked around further and saw a 20GB HDD priced at £210, it was a 7200RPM but again after tax they were making around 50-60 lids on that as well. The moral of the story, shop around, I believe some of the smaller specialist shops do sell components at more competative prices.

Gandalf.

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The world is a sick machine Breeding a mass of ****
- Greenday - Insomniac - Panic Song
[img]http://gandalf_irl.tripod.com/siggy.gif[/img] My DVD Collection

[This message has been edited by gandalf (edited 19-02-2001).]

Lex_Diamonds

Yeah, Compuwhore are the worst offenders in my book. They can all **** off as far as i'm concerned. I use the Net and its alot better for buying hardware.

That and knowing someone who can get VAT off stuff

Stephen

I went into compustore the other day and asked them the price of their low-end GeForce 2 cards... I could barely stop myself from laughing at the muppet working there when she told me...

32mb GeForce 2 MX ... £200 - RRP is about £99.

32mb GeForce 2 GTS ... £350 - Dabs.com have one (with DDR ram) for £210 irish - that's after delivery and tax and currency conversion. Comnpustore can go and fúcking sh|te.

THE SPERMINATOR

I'm seriously thinking about starting a little garage run business to sell pc kit.As like most of you I'm sick and tired of having to spend ages looking for and talking to people on phones who haven't the first idea about what there selling for prices I would wish on my worst enemy.Add this to having a good contact in the UK[an importer]its becoming apparent that Ireland has room for at least 1 decent suplier.In fairness there is a place called Marx computers in dub which I've found to be pretty good so if your looking check them out first.


Stone
ps no i don't work for them lol

Blitzkrieger

I'm in the market for a HD now so I'll probably find one on the Gateway site then buy it elsewhere. Sometimes even buying it from the US is cheaper. Especially if you know someone going on holiday or a work trip or something.

Gerry

I don't think people realise fully how bad the pc market is in Ireland. Of course there are the high street places with their stupidly high markups, and stupid staff. Theres also the more alarming fact that the big trade places, not only have terrible prices too, compared to online stores, but they have an unbelievable bad selection of products. Corners are cut everywhere it is humanly possible to do. You can forget about the latest, high quality branded motherboards, and pretty much every other sort of peripheral. Its all cheap generic ****e. They have no idea what makes a top notch pc, they can't be bothered stocking geforce2 graphics cards, and if they do have them the price is too high. If asked why they don't stock more up to date, and high quality stuff, they say theres no demand for it.

The reason for this is most of the people who buy off them don't give a ****e either, they just want a cheap pc that sounds good on paper. It makes things almost impossible for a custom pc builder like myself. Just about all the pc's I have built, involve me getting parts from as many as 6 different suppliers, for the one pc.

It works like this, I look at all the pricelists and catalogues, most of the trade places can manage to supply one decent line of parts, for a good price. The rest of their parts will often be crap, at high prices. So I would get ( as a rough example )
the motherboard, network card in one place, the case in another, graphics and sound card in another, cpu in another place, etc.

This worked ok for a while, in terms of pricing. Its an unbelieveable amount of hassle though. Since online stores have taken off, I can't really compete with prices on supplying parts, because I can't get discounts from online stores unless I buy in bulk, which is not practical for me. So its just as cheap for someone to get the parts themself.

I would MUCH prefer to get parts in Ireland. You can get an accurate indication of whether its in stock, you get it quickly, delivery is cheaper, and if somethings wrong you can send it back quickly and cheaply. Unfortunately Irish computer suppliers are so ****ed up, that I can't do this, I get most of the parts for pc's now from the states and england.

I am going to get some capital, and buy in bulk in future. Theres a certain critical mass, which I have to reach, otherwise I'm just not going to bother with it at all anymore, it has just become too much hassle. Sorry about the rant, but it was about time someone brought this up, I have been getting ****ed off with this for years now.

gandalf

Yep Gerry I hear where your coming from. As I said I work in the trade (high end Compaq Server & Storage reseller) and have access to all the major Irish Disties. Even with access to them I still had to buy my Case, Motherboard and CPU from Overclockers because none of the disties we deal with sell Athlon (well one did but the prices, ouch !!!). The only discription I could get on the cases was the standard "ATX Tower Case", no brand, no details even on no of bays etc. I ended up buying the memory from crucial.com because they worked out cheaper than the trade prices I could get.

The problem is that people in this country are too accepting, and if they're buying at those prices well Compu-Ripoff and PC- Overcharge are going to keep charging. I understand that retail outlets will always be more expensive than buying online because the overheads are higher, therefore I wouldn't mind them making around £20 more but when its nearly £100 more now thats taking the ****. God help the shops if Sterling and the Punt ever hit parity again

Gandalf.

Gerry

Thats a good point gandalf, something I forgot about. Irish trade companies give no details about the parts they sell. Brands are very rarely mentioned in pricelists, and if you ask them questions about their products, they assume you know nothing about computers, and either talk down to you, giving you useless information, or they say "well, if you don't know what you are doing, you shouldnt be buying from a trade supplier". Well, if they are just saying "pci sound card" I think I am entitled to ask questions about it. The question that foxes them everytime is, "what chipset does that board use?" They will just say "its a generic board" or some crap like that. They genuinely do not give a ****. Obviously most people they sell to, are not worried about features, or compatiblity, or performance. They don't stock good parts, they seem to be living in a little world of their own, where they can charge stupid prices for cheap generic crap, and then they wonder why their trade is going nowhere? I can't reccomend any Irish pc suppliers to anyone. As you say gandalf, they will be done for when the currencies get back to where they were. Gradually people are realising that you can get a much better deal importing stuff, even with all the extra hassle that brings. I am going to keep looking for a reliable place that ships to Ireland with reasonable delivery costs. Ocuk are good enough, but their prices can be beaten, and their delivery is slow and expensive. I fear how much they would charge if I wanted a large order from them.

THE SPERMINATOR

Well im glad to hear im not the only one thats a tab miffed at the rotten service and products pushed on joe soap in this country.Worse still is the fact that people think there getting a good deal from the likes of gatway and dell that is untill they learn alittle more about pc,s and think i know ill upgrade only to find locked bios inadquate slots even power buttons and leds using there own little conector,s the list go,s on in the end they either have to build from scratch or just buy a prepackaged pile of crap again from said companys.


Stone

Magwitch

Dell and Gateway do suck, that much is true. The components are 3rd rate at best and the are put together like Trabant cars. Everyone is getting ripped off here but the good news is PC sales are down sharply so the prices are set to tumble on decent makes.

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Bard

quote:

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Dell and Gateway do suck, that much is true. The components are 3rd rate at best and the are put together like Trabant cars. Everyone is getting ripped off here but the good news is PC sales are down sharply so the prices are set to tumble on decent makes.

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Very funny.

PiE

I love you guys for thinking this way.

But nothing's gonna happen to the prices here for a long time, even if the prices in the US tumble it'll still take longer to take effect here.

As usual Ireland is lagging behind when it comes to technology.

Magwitch

I am afraid I have to disagree. A PB computer I bought last year for £1300 has been upgraded (an extra 6GB on HD) by PB and now sells for £1060. Simular adjustments accross a number of ranges (Dixons). Dell and Gateway (who still suck by the way) will have to sort their game out on the pricing of the crap they pawn off on joe public.

PiE

Mmm I know prices have come down, but that's bound to happen every year, not because of struggling economies or what-not, just because of...well...they way these things go =]

I'm talking about a dramtic decrease in prices! (Please please please!)

btw, Marx-computers.com is very good, thanks for letting me know about it

Gerry

Jesus, you go away for a few days, and people start trolling. Magwitch, what are you talking about? Dixons/Curries/PC World are experts in selling outdated computers for hugely inflated prices. Dell and Gateway are pricey, however you are getting what you pay for, instead of being conned out of your money. Could you post the spec of what dixons are offering for £1060?

gandalf

Magwitch,

If you had any understanding of the PC market you would realise that a larger HDD means nothing. The difference in price between a 15Gb & 20GB HDD trade is £9. If the processor in the PB is the same as last year I'd expect the the price to be reduced by at least £300, infact considering PB systems use the entry level processors I'd expect that system to be end of life by now !!

I would also consider PB to be far further down the foodchain than Gateway or Dell.

Gandalf.

[This message has been edited by gandalf (edited 26-02-2001).]

Blitzkrieger

Most people consider Dell the dogs ****** for quality with Gateway far behind though not far down the list. I know I never had any problem at all with the basic computer I got from Dell which is saying a lot. I had to upgrade it over the years but never experienced any hassles with that either. There was plenty of extra slots inside the machine and plenty of cables for connecting and there still hasn't been a single hardware fault. I can't seem to get it to use my new gfx card instead of the old but that's cos I'm an idiot and can't find the right configuration window to do it. The only problem I've ever had (or ever heard of) with Dell is that their prices are at least 20% too high.

I haven't had my Gateway PC for as long but on the plus side it doesn't seem to have been affected by the dodgy (non-Gateway) HD crashing. It looks like (touch wood) it could be as good as the Dell.