I shall start from personal experience, with 2 laptops i have bought in the last 18 months. These are the MSI GX700 and the Dell XPS M1530, both of which came to £999. The MSI was purchased in October 2007, and the Dell in October 2008; so comparing spec would be a worthless task. But I can compare the reliability and customer service I received from the two companies.

A fight for customer service dominance

MSI vs Dell
The MSI GX700 was purchased from an online retailer in September 2007, it took 2 weeks for me to receive the machine and only 2 months to be sick of it. For you see during these 2 months the power supply on the machine had failed, and the graphics card was overheating beyond what should be expected. The machine was returned to MSI for repair, and I got it back within 10 days. Now this all sounds well and good, but the start of this took forever. Contacting the retailer I was alerted that I need to contact the support department for the laptop directly. Now this is a normal measure, but much more difficult when the retailer gives you the wrong number, and you then get passed through 4 different phone connections to then find out that you have to phone the retailer again.

After all this, I got the machine back and a couple of months later put a disc into the drive (I rarely use discs, as transfer most data online or with USB memory sticks) and as the drive spins up to speed it makes a horrible buzzing noise. I send the machine back to MSI to be repaired, and it returns with the bottom of the machine not being secured properly, in fact the bottom falls off when I move it on my lap. One return to manufacturer later, and the piece of metal enclosure that covers the processor has been put on badly, and there is a good couple of millimetres gap between the cover and bottom of the machine.

After 11 months with the machine, I was able to wrangle a refund out of the retailer, due to the product and the repairs being useless. And with this refund I purchased an XPS M1530 directly from Dell.

I ordered the Dell machine on Friday, and it arrived on Wednesday. Everything was good, all questions I had at any time were answered, but a problem soon arose. My Hard Drive was making strange noises, and failing to boot sometimes. I phoned Dell Support, and as an XPS customer got launched to the front of the queue, and the technician was happy to talk me through the steps to update my bios, drivers, and check the drive for failures (all at 11PM at the weekend). When it was deemed that the Hard Drive was in fact failing, they sent a technician the next working day with a replacement hard drive and touch control panel (the original had been scratched when it arrived). The laptop was fixed and ready to work again within 2 hours of the technician arriving.

This difference in customer care shows you the added value you can get from buying a certain system over its competitors. Although the modern MSI had a higher spec, the Dell customer and technical support was much more comprehensive and useful.

But this value for money can extend to other areas, for example the ever present Mac vs PC argument.

Who helps you out more?

Mac vs PC
It is well known that if you equivalently spec an Apple Mac and a Windows based PC, that the Mac will more often than not be more expensive. But there are reasons for this, such as the Unix underpinnings that makes Mac OSX more reliable; the fact that the computer and OS are made by the same people, making them more reliable; the inclusion of iLife software giving you easy to use Photo, Music, Web and Video editing out of the box; Apple’s customer service.

Working as an IT technician at a school, you see all sorts of computers come in and out of the site; and end up fixing most of them. This normally involves reinstalling windows and setting the school provided machine back to how we gave it to them in the first place; or replacing a piece of hardware. Now, when it came to fixing a Mac Pro, which we had never done before, we were slightly intimidated; so decided to contact Apple Technical Support. The technician on the other end of the line was more than happy to help us through the installation and fixing of software, as well as have a laugh with us when we were searching for the serial number. Customer service much higher than what we get from our network solution provider, that we pay loads for, and get “Look at this article online” answers from.

Moo.com
But this sort of thing is not just something you should think of when buying your new MP3 player or Computer, it can affect you in more standard medias, such as business cards; something we had to purchase recently.

From recommendations on the internet, mainly Twitter, we decided to use www.moo.com to print our business cards; and we are very pleased that we did. We were unsure if the images we had were the correct size, etc for the cards but one of their customer service agents answered our questions very quickly. He was happy to look at the images we had and make sure they were right, he even checked the cards once they had printed to make sure they looked as good as they did on screen. And we were kept informed at every step. Now is where you get to have a laugh at me.

For you see, I accidentally uploaded and had the wrong image printed onto the cards. This image had the wrong phone number on it, which rendered them useless, something I felt silly over. Shortly after receiving the cards, I had an email land in my inbox from Moo, asking what i thought of the cards. My reply said that the printing quality was awesome, and I jokingly mentioned that I had accidentally put on the wrong number. Twenty-four hours later, I received an email with a voucher code for a free set of business cards.

This has to be some of the best customer service I have ever received, as the number error was entirely my fault. Therefore, I am going to have to go at a tangent here, and say that bitcolumns very much recommend moo.com.

Buying Tips
These tips should help you make sure you get the most from your money, no matter what you are buying.
Do your research. Read about the product and the company online; ask friends if they have ever bought anything from the same company. Check to see what their warranty and technical support cover.
Shop Around. The best prices can be found by looking everywhere you can. Price comparison websites, online retailers, the manufacturer’s website, etc. Never rule out high street stores though, as more and more are putting out offers to attract customers back through their doors.
Check their customer services.If they have an “Ask Us” feature, use it. Get a sneak preview of what their customer service is like. This link is there to entice you into buying their products, but can give an insight to their support. If they are quick and helpful then this is a good sign.
Try the product. If you are able to go to a shop or a mate’s and try out the product before you buy it, do it. This will let you make sure it is the product you want, and ensure it is right for your needs. No point buying something because it is cheaper, or got good customer service, to find that it is useless.