Make sure that you know who you are dealing with. Otherwise you can have nasty surprises.

I bought my last desktop PC from a local computer store. When I got home, I connected all the wires and turn it on. Nothing. Tried again, still nothing. Checked all the wires, inside and out, and all seemed in order. But the damn PC won't start. That mean that they put all the pieces togheter and connected all the wires, but they didn't do a final test because they would have found that it wouldn't start.

I returned to the computer store to get it fixed and it took around 2 weeks to get it back (it turned out that the motherboard was defective and it was supposively back-order).

A couple of weeks later, the power supply died. Another visit to the computer store. Again it took several days to get it back. The technicians were very busy they told me.

After I finally got it back home, I found some extra software that I didn't install in it that had nothing to do with fixing a PC. Like games and porn cleanup software! They used my PC to play games and surf porn sites...

Now both my DVD readers don't work well, but I won't bring it back (the warranty is expired anyway).

I learned my lessons and I won't do affairs with small computer shops anymore. I may have fell on a bad apple, but my trust in small shops is broken and it will take a while before it's repaired, if it's repaired at all.

Your milleage may vary, but I needed to point out that you have to pay attention with whom you're dealing with.

>Andy and I always order our laptops from Dell. However, we always have our desk top machines custom built from a local computer store - not a chain like Best Buy. Personally, I think that is the way to go. Since they are local, whenever I have had a problems with one of the machines they built for us, I just call them, stick the machine in the car, drive down to their store and they have it fixed that same day, Not that we have had a lot of problems with their machines - last year my power supply dies and they replaced it for free that same day. And the machine that I bought 2 years ago was a great price:
>
>AMD Athlon 64 processor - 2.21 Ghz
>2 GB Ram
>250 GB hard disk
>2 19 inch flat panel LCD monitors
>
>and it cost less than $1500.
>
>Se if you can find someone local and establish a relationship with them.