Purging old stuff is daunting but necessary. Whether it’s old business documents or ancient parts, cleaning house has to be done occasionally to make room for future accumulations. My goal this week was to clear the shelves of antiquated equipment we’ll never use in future repairs.
I started by sorting and scrapping most Windows XP generation parts and moved my way to Windows 7 stuff. Along with the older 7 components I made a hard decision to liberate some low end Windows 8 based computers. This marked the first time since I’ve been in business that I’ve tossed current parts.
While I was sorting the vast piles of newer low-end parts I noticed we had inventoried ten of the same but hadn’t used any. eBay lists the same parts for a few bucks each probably because there’s a huge surplus of them on the market. We ended up with tons of duplicates because nobody’s fixing the machine they originated from; a $200.00 superstore cheapo.
About two years ago consumers could purchase laptops starting at $200.00 that were perfectly capable of running current applications. The problem was those computers simply didn’t last very long either due to electronic failure or the plastic self destructing. We, the repair shops, end up with tons of those computers that simply cost more to fix than replace.
Thinking about the history of those cheap laptops a bit further I’ve concluded that manufacturers need to sell them in order to compete against other technologies like tablets. Some companies have gone as far as limiting their high end offerings in favor or broadening lower end offerings. From the manufacturer’s standpoint it makes sense to sell tons of low end machines at marginal profits.
Consumers, on the other hand, are left with the burden of owning a piece of equipment that is destined to premature failure. In order to produce a laptop for under $300.00 companies need to cut corners drastically on things like plastic cases and motherboards. Comparing old plastic parts to new is like comparing a Sherman tank to a Yugo; the plastic in today’s computers is ultrathin and much weaker.
I believe manufacturers are to blame for putting consumers in compromising positions in order to sell their wares. We, as consumers, are generally going to consider low cost options before we start examining how the higher priced products may be better. By limiting mid-range options in the consumer laptop marketplace, manufactures are almost guaranteeing a quick future sale of another cheap piece of garbage.
Years ago I wrote an article for another publication that talked about these machines and how they’re going to be the demise of the industry. Consumers are left making the ultimate decision about repurchasing another potentially bad laptop or moving to another platform altogether. Many in my industry are quick to blame cell phones, tablets and other competing technologies; but I believe it’s the computer industry that has stabbed its own back.
My company changed the way we handle repairs on low end equipment. Rather than simply diagnosing a customer’s immediate issue, we analyze the computer as a whole examining other known failures for each model. A year ago it used to take under an hour to diagnose a computer until I mandated that we spend more time on these inexpensive computers. A couple things these cheap computers have guaranteed is more blank stares from customers and a huge volume of parts I have to pay to recycle.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can read past articles at www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)