How convincing would you be?

I'm in a little bit of a dilemma here. As I'm looking for a laptop to go off to college with, I have to decide on which brand to buy. Of course, customer support is important but the problem is how to convince people who will be paying in part for my computer (parents) that Compal is just as good if not better than a better known company like Dell. So, if you would like to help me out here, especially the resellers that sell Compal notebooks, why should someone who has never heard of Compal but has heard of Dell trust a notebook by Compal.

 

Because Compal manufactures a lot of Dell's notebooks?
http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20050222A1001.html

 

You will get more personal support than Dell...unless you like talking to someone in India. LOL
Tim

 

As mentioned, Dell doesn't actually manufacture their own systems. They have ODM's like Compal do that for them. And large corporations like Dell cut corners when it comes to getting their units down to a certain price with profit in mind. Compal's name-branded units are more of a show of how Compal would "like to make notebooks", without a customer's budget being the deciding factor on whether or not to use quality part-a vs. budget part-b.

As mentioned, support from a good reseller will also be more personalized than that from a large corporations'.

 

Show them the stats. Compal's the world's second largest laptop maker, if they don't think a large chunk of the world's notebooks have quality in the gutters then they have no reason to think Compal's bad. Besides, look at it from Compal's perspective, wouldn't you want the notebooks sold under your name to be better than the notebooks you make for others?

 

besides, afaik, compal is only beginning as of not so late to sell notebooks branded as compal - hence it would want to get a part of the market, and not only by a good price, but by build and prduct quality too.

 

At the end of the day it seems your parent's would be concerned about the long term service you get + the build quality. I think everyone has made it clear about the quality, but the long term service is always what gets stuck in the murky waters. Have you folks give some of the resellers that are valued on the forum a call to see what they have to say on the topic. The most honest and complete answer should seal the deal.

Trusted Vendors on here that I know are also active participants:
Powernotebooks.com (Paladin44)
XoticPC.com (Justin)
MilestonePC.com (Don't remember, think there are two of them)

Find me how many of the corporate giant's have official rep's on here always helping out (for no extra/promised profit mind you). I don't know any Dell rep's on here, and the only time I know of one poking up was because someone gave an honest review of what Dell claimed was an over-clockable notebook that didn't live up to expectation.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=1408979#post1408979

Here's a link to a similar situation a while ago, asus not compal though...still an ODM...so the same arguments apply...hope it helps.

 

also...on a personal note...i would seriously recommend you give powernotebooks.com a call...amazing people, amazing service & warranty....i think IMO THEY deserve the "The Computer is Personal Again" slogan, not HP!
Bought from them a while ago (last summer) and all i can say is you get the same high quality service before, during and after your purchase....i'm sure there are other good resellers out there...but that was my personal experience and i'm just passing it along.

 

Thanks for all the info guys. I bought an HGL-30 from ISTNC. Here are the specs:

Core 2 Duo T7200 (2.00 Ghz)
Geforce Go 7600
1 GB PC-5300 DDR2
120 GB 5400RPM HD
DVD-RW

 

Congrats on your purchase

 

Congratulations on your purchse! And welcome to the club . We hope we'll be seeing you around here for a while.

 

Good job convincing your parents. It takes me forever to get them to see things my way.
Tim

 

Thanks. I'll be sticking around.

It helped my case that I offered to pay for 500 of the cost.

 

I'm sure your HGL30 will make you happy for quite some time...a good investment in my opinion .

 

Just came today and i'm typing out this message on it right now. Fantastic!

 

Sweet deal! Be sure to write up a mini review after you have had it a few days to let the "shiny vibes" wear off a little