[plug][OT] Who's a Good Hardware Supplier in Perth?

[Craig Ringer]

On Tue, 2005-09-06 at 17:23 +0800, Leon Blackwell wrote:

> Oh, and I'll agree in with the Austin Computers theme -- often very
> cheap, but terrible service, bad attitude, and a nasty habit of not
> having stock for things advertised at cheap prices, even after phoning
> up to check first.  Somehow they always happen to have stock of a
> slightly more expensive alternative, though.

Personally, I used to get pretty good results from Austin. I've never
had problems with their warranty service, which tends to be easy and
no-questions-asked. I've found them to be happy to credit or swap a disk
based on a smartctl report (even if the mfgr disk tools lie and claim
they've "fixed" it ... here's looking at you, Western Digital).

Lately, however, I've found I have to be very specific to their sales
folks about what I need, or they'll do silly things like ship me a
motherboard with an incompatible PSU. They've also been getting really
bad about having parts ready for the courier on time - I've had couriers
have to wait when they arrive THREE HOURS after I'm told the parts have
been packed for the courier.

I also now find I have to wait on hold to talk to sales. That's just
absurd, as they are making me waste my time to give them money.

To be honest, I'm eyeing the OEMs these days (for work). I'm sure I'll
learn better once I've dealt with them, though.

I should note that I've never had problems with Austin being unable to
match the prices on the website, except occasionally where the stock
level has been reported to be very low. Even then, I've had them
discount another item to match the price, something that impresses me
considerably given the margins it looks like they operate on. That said,
I don't bargain hunt that much - I tend to decide based on what I need,
rather than what's cheapest.

I just wish I could find an outfit just like Austin - but with about 10%
more staff. I'd happily pay a small premium for reasonably quick
service, and that's all that's wrong with them, really. Sales guys are
often bunnies no matter where you go.

--
Craig Ringer