Notebook Buying Confusion at Costco
I went to Costco in South San Francisco to pick up a couple of pairs of jeans (my gadget budget’s taken a big bite out of my casual clothing budget) and ended up helping a couple of people choose new notebooks. I found five HP Pavilion notebooks and one Sony VAIO notebook on display and some very confused customers.
Costco is a discount warehouse and doesn’t have trained sales people who can help customers choose a proper notebook. Instead, they zip-tie a spec sheet to each of the notebooks and call it a day.
When I walked up to the notebook display a woman was trying to buy a 17-inch dv96xx series notebook for just over $800. A Costco employee was nice enough to go to the storage cage to see if they had one in stock, but said he didn’t know anything about computers. He stopped another employee and told him to help the customer, but he was busy moving some boxes and wasn’t prepared to talk about computers either.
I volunteered to help the customer and she insisted that she had to have a computer with 805f Wireless (something that doesn’t exist) and a 250GB hard drive because her computer teacher said that’s what she needs. Apparently ‘805f Wireless’ is the fastest wireless available and anything smaller than a 250GB drive isn’t fast enough to run her games. That obviously didn’t sound right to me, so I asked her what games she plays and she rattled off a list of popular casual online flash games. After some reassurance that she didn’t need a ‘gaming computer’ and that all notebooks do indeed come with a wireless card she went ahead and bought the Pavilion dv96xx series notebook.
An older couple overheard our discussion and the husband asked me where he could find a notebook with 3GB of RAM. A Costco rep had told them the really needed 3GB of RAM for gaming since their grandkids played games. I explained to them that their grankids could play Dora the Explorer games just fine with 2GB of RAM. They ended up buying an HP Pavilion dv97xx series notebook for $1,249 that was nicely equipped and they could hook up to their HDTV via an included HDMI port to watch slideshows.
All of these customers would have benefited by doing more research before going to buy their computers, but I think the way notebooks are currently being marketed is too confusing for the average consumer. Having non-existent customer service only makes matters worse. I’m sure Sony, HP and other PC manufacturers lose dozens, if not hundreds of sales per day because of Costco doesn’t have anyone there to help.
The people I talked with today didn’t know a lot about computers and the complex spec sheets and stickers on the palm rests did nothing but confuse them. HP and Sony should really figure out a better way to present their computers at Costco that will help customers make informed decisions. The three customers I spoke to today were all fixated on particular specs, even though they have no clue what the specs actually mean.
PC manufacturers who want to sell at Costco should provide very basic placards that focus on what the notebooks can actually do, rather than specs. Sure, keep the detailed specs there for experienced users, but something really needs to be done for everyone else.
Despite Costco’s lack of trained sales staff, the big-box store has some fairly priced notebooks and an excellent return policy. Costco has a 90-day return policy on computers and they automatically double the manufacturers’ warranties to two years.
If you plan on going to Costco to buy your next notebook make sure you know exactly what you’re looking for or bring someone with you who’s knowledgeable.
