ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:

Assassinator Wrote:Didn't see the link. New, but I was discount though.

Anyway, 2GB celeron seems a bit weak to me, comparatively. Most 15inch laptops ship with core2 these days.

For the price, it's still better than most netbook deals IMO.  Around that price, you typically get 8.9in screen with Atom N270 1.6GHz + 1GB RAM.

Obviously, but you can't compare discount prices with normal prices.

Got an 80GB for $50; otherwise would've had to get the 160GB for $68.
Store I went to was rather interesting.  Go up to the shop front's door, and there's a sign on it requesting you use "the other door", so you go round the side and find another door.  Go inside and it looks like one of those under construction buildings, with various slabs around the place, unpainted walls etc.  At least they thought about putting up a sign which said that sales were upstairs.
Okay, go upstairs, there's a room with 4 staff sitting at tables, no-one else and some random computers sitting on a desk.  I asked them how to buy from there and the staff member I asked pointed me to another guy to show me what to do.  He basically said to go on the website and order from there and pointed me to a computer - except it was off, so he had to turn it on.  Then some Indian guy (presumably the manager) came through and started complaining to the staff that they weren't prepared enough for when a customer comes and that they'd only get around 2-3 a day (O_o).  Okay, they turn on the computer, wait for WinXP to load, then apparently they couldn't load up the website or something (eh, not my business to care) so the Indian guy said he'd do it and took me over to his desk and asked what I wanted and checked if it was in stock, all the while making random complaints to staff that he shouldn't be doing this.
Anyway, he confirmed it was in stock so he sent me back to the original guy to process the order.  Took the guy like 10 minutes or something of random clicking (have no idea what he was doing...) - was kinda weird just sitting there staring at the wall in silence for all that time (no-one talked, except for the Indian guy complaining) - then he went downstairs whilst the printer printed out the order and I paid.  A minute later he came back with the HDD and gave it to me, then the Indian guy asked to see it so I gave it to him, and he complained that the staff should always give the product to him to check off before giving it to the customer.  Anyway, after all that nonsense and him checking to see that it was the correct thing, he finally gave the thing over and I was able to leave.
By the way, apart from the staff, I was the only person there the whole time.

Interesting experience I must say.  Took 5 staff about 15 minutes to process one order, which consisted of a 2.5in HDD, which they did have in stock.  And I guess the Indian guy, who was so into giving a positive experience for customers (at least from what he said), didn't think that complaining all the time does somewhat give a negative impression on the customer, neither did he think of making any sort of apology (no-one did for that matter actually, which implies to one that 15 minutes for an order is normal? (personally don't care about apologies, but it is somewhat expected)).  But I guess it wasn't too bad - if I went to the other store, I'd be waiting for 20-30 minutes in a queue...

(This post was last modified: 10/03/2009 12:40 AM by ZiNgA BuRgA.)

Ok... why the hell is there lots of staff in the shop, if, as the Indian guy claimed there's only 2-3 customers a day... (Hell, why is there a shop at all? They'd be loosing money, and probably better off not running the shop)... On the other hand, MSY needs more staff.

Seriously, wtf man. That's ridiculous to the point of funny.

(This post was last modified: 10/03/2009 12:42 AM by Assassinator.)

It's probably a new shop - I don't recall it being there about 6 months ago.
UMart wasn't so popular when I bought my system back in Jan 2006, though there was some people.  Now it's almost always packed and you typically have to wait at least 20 minutes to get served.  And UMart is somewhat more efficient than MSY.  With MSY you go up to the counter and tell the guy what you want.  With UMart, you have to put your order in beforehand over the net.  When you go there, you enter your order ID and wait for them to serve you.

The MSY branch I've been to seems to be reasonable - typically only 1 or 2 people ahead of you at most.


2-3 people/day is probably over-exaggeration, but then, considering that the street was pretty empty when I came and left (this was around 10am) and I was in there for 15 minutes with no-one entering or leaving, I could imagine them having hardly any customers.  I guess the staff there work on other stuff ie website, dealing with suppliers etc so they probably don't have much "behind the scenes" staff.
Also, their prices aren't bad.  UMart sells the 80GB SATA drive for $52 and they're fairly cheap generally.  GoComp (store I went to) sold it for $50 so I can't imagine them getting much profit from this.
I actually just happened to find the store this morning when searching StaticIce.  What was interesting is that they apparently have a van which comes to my Uni every day at 11am-11:30am, though they were low on stock on the 80GB HDD so I went to the physical storefront.

(This post was last modified: 10/03/2009 03:50 AM by ZiNgA BuRgA.)

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:The MSY branch I've been to seems to be reasonable - typically only 1 or 2 people ahead of you at most.

The MSY over at Melbourne that I went to to buy parts to build my comp with, it's lined up so full that the line extends out of the door (and it's one of these curly lines, not a straight line, so longer). Takes about 20-40 minutes to line up for.

= really gay to line up for. Order on line instead, and you can use the express pickup lane or whatever it's called instead.

(This post was last modified: 18/05/2009 10:51 PM by Assassinator.)