cornered at pc corner

As someone who has serious financial difficulties when it comes to adhering to upgrading or changing your desktop every three years, my best bet to get the most out of my rig is to upgrade.

From its simple beginnings in September 2004 as a bargain PC package from Villman with 256MB of RAM, one 80 GB hard disk drive, CD ROM, a 300-watt PSU, and a CRT monitor, I had it upgraded upon purchase with 512MB of memory, a CDRW drive, a 128MB graphics card, an additional 80GB of storage and a LAN card for internet purposes.

Circa 2008, it’s now about 4.5 years old but has retained many of its original components including its motherboard, two hdds, LAN and video cards and casing and CRT monitor. Upgradingly though, it now sports 1.79GB of memory along with a 550-watt PSU (after the original decided to retire a couple of years back), a new spanking DVD-RW, and three new fans to augment the original single, side-panel fan.

Of course, for the budget-conscious, every purchase component has serious financial considerations. And in my case, I’ve been viewing the different websites regularly to ensure I know the latest prices before I went out to buy the needed components. Day in, day out before I actually bought the item, I was checking PC Express, PC Corner, and Rising Sun … comparing their prices against the more costlier ones like Villman.

Now let me relate a rather disappointing experience last December.

An ongoing project for a travel-related company had my PC crawling at snail-like speed because of the graphics needed. And since I had a bit of leeway in terms of cash and credit, I decided to purchase additional memory to help my PC chug along.

After checking the prices online, I had concluded that the best place to shop for the RAM was PC Corner as they had their memory pegged at Php 1,100 (for a 512MB DDR) and around Php 2,200 for their 1GB DDR. PC Express had the 512MB and 1GB at Php 1,400 and Php 2500 respectively.

After work, I went to PC Corner’s Park Square 1 branch armed with my credit card and promptly announced my intent to purchase. What came out of the mouth of the saleslady was a shocker – 512MB was priced at Php 3,000 and the heftier 1GB fetched Php 5,000! (Even CDR King’s pricing for their PQI DDR 400s were lower!).

Ridiculous!

I asked why the far-out-wide disparity between their online price and the on-site price and the answer I got was even more disheartening – “Bagong deliver po kasi kaya mas mahal.” (These are new deliveries. That’s why they’re more expensive).

I pressed my case that their online prices were far far lower and even new deliveries shouldn’t cost that much but I guess I struck her as someone relatively well-off that she didn’t back down from the original price she had dictated. I tried to bargain but to no avail. I guess I should’ve worn shabby clothes … that might have helped.

Disgusted, dejected and disappointed, I went home with a heavy heart and an anticipatory dread of working on my project with my slow-motion machine.

A week after my disappointing trip to PC Corner, I visited PC Express’ Pasong Tamo branch. There, with much relief and actual joy, I went out bearing two 512s worth Php 1,100 each (discounted versus their online price) and the staff at PC Express was much more accommodating.

This is not discourage people from buying at PC Corner but a message to operators of the computer shop to make sure people get their value for money when they buy stuff from you.

And please, no baloneys from salesladies when money is concerned. True prices please!