I'm a Cheap Bastard
I promised you the story on my new laptop, so here goes...
I can't find my business laptop. I know, I know. "B, how could you not find something like a laptop?" Honestly, I only use it about five months out of the year, when traveling. The rest of the time I either use my desktop at work or my PC at home. So the last time I ever really booted it up was November of last year. And now I can't find it.
As far as I can figure, one of four things happened to it:
- It got stolen (for real)
- Someone from the office took it away to get it fixed... six months ago.
- The NSA (or RIAA) acquired it to assist them in future litigation.
- I misplaced it, most likely somewhere in my pad.
Anyway, I knew I'd be doing these long trips and did NOT want to be stuck without being connected.. After all, I know y'all hang on my every word and could not stand to be without my posts for more than a few days.
Trust me on that. I strongly recommend you don't try it. Your nipples will fall off and a moist substance will shoot out of your navel.
Besides, I needed SOME way to watch por...err, movies while I'm alone in my room.
Therefore, I decided to purchase a laptop, rather than tell my IT dept. And by "purchase" I mean "take home from a store and return it within the return period." Ok, so sometimes I'm THAT guy. Only problem was that every place I looked at had a restocking fee ranging from 10-15%. Kind of a steep rental fee, if you ask me (which I know you did).
Except WalMart. I know, that should have been the FIRST name on my mind when I think of "cutting-edge technology." I always had mixed feelings about Wally World. But I still go there occasionally because A) The prices are pretty good, and B) I always feel better about myself after seeing the people shopping there. It's like Jerry Springer: The Ride.
They had a 30-day return policy, and no restocking fee. DONE, as far as I was concerned. I walked to the tech area, which consisted of misstocked CDs, REALLY cheap TVs, and two white Gangsta wannabes that obviously go there to play Xbox games for free on the display. Or maybe they were employees. /shrug.
I located the laptop display, which had four available, including this one. The one with a 15.4" widescreen display, DVD burner, and 802.11g connectivity. For $498.00.
Let me say that again.
Four hundred and ninety-eight dollars.
New.
Yeah.
Click Here if you don't believe me.
I figured it was good enough for blogging and email, and I was right. Honestly, that's about all it's good for. Granted, it might be worth it if you max out the memory, and don't try to try anything too advanced. ChaCha suggested I try to load World of Warcraft on it. I chose not to, because I was afraid the PC would curl into a fetal position and start whimpering.
My question is, should I return it? Even though it's the cheapest new laptop I've ever seen, it's still $500-ish, which is money I really don't have. Of course, even if I don't, I'll probably give it to my nephew (he's turning 12 this year).
So what do y'all think? Bite the bullet and prove I'm the best uncle ever, or be sensible for once and try to not max out my credit cards?
5 comments:
i say dont do it.... youre in a sense wasting your money buying something that cheap. I hate to be "THAT GUY" and tell you about the great computers we have at office depot.... but we do have good prices on good computers, and hark... you could play world of warcraft on them if you so choose... just my thoughts on the matter. Too bad you are in austin and i am here, otherwise i could get you a 10% discount... oh well
It seems my problem may have solved itself. My CIO was at one of the places I went to, and he asked me if I was connected, as he needed to run some proc. I mentioned that "someone" had taken the LT out of my office at work (Shut it. That could have happened) when I first mentioned the battery issue. He immediately got on the phone and called our IT person. He told me that one of our temps was using a tablet PC left over from when someone left in another department. It should be ready by the time I get back on Monday.
The question still remains on whether I should give it to my nephew...
(FTR, I'm leaning towards returning it and buying him a Wii.)
Mr Incredible bought a Wii - I say this, because I wasn't around, nor did I want said Wii, for the kids - they LOVE it.
I don't know about buying and returning items, I try not to do it, unless I have to - because our wal-mart wants to much info just to return a freakin' pair of kids shoes, I can't imagine how they'll be about a computer.
ian brings up a good point.
he usually does.
FG- I'm not normally one for the Catch-and-release version of shopping either, but this PC kinda blows anyway. Even if I did actually purchase a laptop for keeps, I would've returned this one anyway.
CP- I know he does. He has good genes.
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