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Most Common Lies That Computer Salesmen Do

lies that computer salemen usually do

Every Time I am in a big box electronics retailer store, I really hate listening to the conversation between prospective computer buyers and their “professionally trained to lie” sales associate. It bothers me because I believe that they are “ripping” the customer off by making them believe that they are better off buying more expensive products than the equally capable low cost variant.

I remember once that a friend of mine bought a laptop computer and ended up paying $1200 for a $600 product. How did it happen? He told me that he paid for optimization, installation of this and that, virus protection and extended warranty. I was flabbergasted by the idea that a poor, hardworking, average guy shelled out half of his monthly dough for useless things like that.

Do you really need “optimization”? I don’t even know what that means. You are buying a new computer, I am pretty sure that it is still “optimized”. Do you really need somebody to buy and set up antivirus? NO! Microsoft Essentials is a free antivirus that any caveman can install. So why buy something that you can get for free with equally similar benefits than a paid one. Do you really need extended warranty? I would still say No!

An extended warranty looks appetizing, right? But, my experience with that deal proves otherwise. 5 years ago, I paid $200 dollars for an extended warranty coverage for a $500 computer (The warranty costs almost 50 percent of the said product). I used it for 1 and half years and it started breaking every now and then. I went to the retailer to claim for warranty. They had it for a month and then told me that its beyond “fixable” and I need to pay $400 to get a replacement because the model that I have was already phased out and they will give me an updated version. So I checked how much that “updated replacement” costs. To my dismay, it costs $500. Really?

Since then, every time they ask me if I need an extended warranty, I always tell them, “of course, NO!”

According to eBay, computer depreciates to around 50 percent per year of use. Therefore, In 2 years, your computer value will be down to almost zero. So why bother with those “extended rip offs”.

Next time you are looking for your next computer, check out for these common lies that computer salesmen love to tell their customers:

  1. Quad- Core is better than Dual-Core -not all applications are designed to work on quad core processors. In most cases, the regular applications you are using will perform just as well in dual core than in quad core environments. Unless you are deep in gaming and graphic intensive applications, you do not need that much power. If you intend to use your computer for just regular stuff like browsing the internet, Facebook and word processing, dual core will be sufficiently providing you the power that you need.
  2. More GHZ is better– For the same reason that I mentioned above. Most applications does not need that power to do what you want them to. In fact, a dual-core Core i5 processor will do perfectly fine, unless you’re planning on doing CPU-intensive activities like movie encoding or 3D rendering. Even gaming no longer relies solely on CPU power anymore. It is now more reliant on the power of the graphics card than the CPU.
  3. This is better because it comes with THX, DOLBY, Clearvoice and ASS- Is it really true that those obscure acronyms/decals slapped on the computer’s body makes a whole lot of difference? In my experience no. Mostly, those are pure marketing ploys to catch your eyes and empty your pocket. So stay away from it.
  4. An expensive graphics card will load your websites faster- Graphic cards will benefit you immensely if you are into gaming or graphic heavy applications like Photoshop, Maya 3d etc. Web page loading will not be affected by this fancy graphic cards as most of its functions relies on the CPU, internet connection and storage.

The next time you are shopping for a new machine, just remember what I told you. This will definitely save you a lot of money and Advil.