Laptopsforteachers.co.uk - does this seem a bit shifty to you?

[AngryTechnician]

A colleague in another school passed me this last night:

From: "David Petty" <...@laptopsforteachers.co.uk>
To: ...
Subject: LFT
Date: 25-Jan-2012 09:53:12 +0000

Hi

This is just a quick email to let you know that we are still
offering to buy back your old laptops or projectors for cash
or part exchange. If you would like your school to be
included in this round of funding from us then just reply to
this email and let me know.

If you would like anymore information then please do not
hesitate to contact me, you can also receive more
information from our website http://www.laptopsforteachers.co.uk

Please can you pass this on to your head teacher or ICT
department.


Kind regards
David Petty

Laptops For Teachers

Email ...@laptopsforteachers.co.uk

The concern, which I share, is that this company seems to be strongly implying they are affiliated with the now-defunct Laptops For Teachers government scheme that many here will be familiar with. The use of language such as "If you would like your school to be included in this round of funding" makes it sound like a grant, while offering to "buy back" makes it sound like they were the ones selling them in the first place.

Their website does make it clear that they are a limited company, and they have a number of positive testimonials (anyone from here?). Still, the sales tactic in the above email seems pretty misleading.

What do you guys think?

[MattHarwood]

I've no experience with the company, but any organisation using tactics like that are automatically on my ban list.

If they had a good product/service, they wouldn't need to resort to gimmicks/tricks..

[X-13]

We will try to pay the best price possible for your laptops but please bear in mind, the price of second hand laptops can be difficult for us to price accurately. We will only give a price of what the laptop is worth to us as spare parts.

^ From their site.

Seems dodgy to me. Buy old laptops at "scrap" price, clean, resell at "new" price. Well, not dodgy... More like just-not-cricket.

If they had a good product/service, they wouldn't need to resort to gimmicks/tricks..

Sometimes, people automatically assume it's a scam, so they have to resort to gimmicks to get people to actually listen.

Or it's a trap.

[MattHarwood]

Sometimes, people automatically assume it's a scam, so they have to resort to gimmicks to get people to actually listen.

Or it's a trap.

The cake is a lie!

Maybe I'm cynical, but receiving "free printer" this and "everything is free apart from when you pay for it all" that day after day I don't believe anyone any more

Oh, and the old "you've ordered from us before" trick...

[X-13]

Oh, and the old "you've ordered from us before" trick...

"Yeah, I ordered and the money was taken. But you didn't send anything."

Game. Set. Match. [And possibly free stuff if the person is sufficently confused.]


@AngryTechnician Why not shoot an e-mail off to one of the testimonial schools? See if they ACTUALLY said that the site claims they said.

[SYSMAN_MK]

Have been getting these for a while now. Have to agree with AngryTechnicians comments on the choice of company name and wording, and for that reason they go straight in the deleted items!

[CHR1S]

Same, read, chuckled and deleted.

[davepetty]

Good day to you all.
I have read your messages with great interest and have taken any negativity on board and will in future change the wording of future emails, as this is not our intentions to mislead but to try and get school staff and technicians to read the message.
Please let me reassure you all that we are a legitimate company offering a good service to all schools throughout the UK. We have worked with hundreds of schools and we really do try hard to offer a good service
As I was an ex network consultant / network manager for a secondary school for over 7 years, I share all your scepticism but all I can ask if to give us a try if you do not like the price we offer for your old / faulty items then simple do not take us up on the offer.

I hope this has been helpful and if any one would like to talk to us then feel free to get in touch, we can also give you the name of loads of schools that we have done business with.

Kind regards

David Petty
Laptops For Teachers
(company number 05392774)

[kearton]

From Repairs

Before sending us your faulty laptop we will always need the following:
<snip>
Access information: Username(s) & Password(s)

They're having a giraffe...

[gmj]

My spidey senses are tingling!

[X-13]

From Repairs

They're having a giraffe...

I'll raise you:

Upgrade to wireless.

This is for laptops... Which have wireless built in.

If they don't, they need a new motherboard [and case] or an adapter... Which takes all of 2 seconds to do and doesn't require an external company to do it. [May be wrong on the mobo part... I'm stunned by the levels of shenanigans.]

[AngryTechnician]

What percentage of your staff do you think are capable of installing the drivers for a PCMCIA card? I wouldn't peg it at a particularly high number here...

Asking for passwords is properly dodgy though. When I work on personal laptops and need access to their account, I ask the owner to remove the password temporarily. Knowing other people's passwords is a legal liability as far as I'm concerned, given the amount of password reuse.

[X-13]

What percentage of your staff do you think are capable of installing the drivers for a PCMCIA card? I wouldn't peg it at a particularly high number here...

Asking for passwords is properly dodgy though. When I work on personal laptops and need access to their account, I ask the owner to remove the password temporarily. Knowing other people's passwords is a legal liability as far as I'm concerned, given the amount of password reuse.

Drivers aren't that hard to install...

Also, I tend to ask them to make me a temporary account. That way, if I need to restart anything, I can carry on.