Laptop for headteacher

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

So you're not going to share this immense opportunity with us social soldiers, and PC builders extraordinaire at VeryPC because we haven't listed pricing on our website?! I'm crying here!

 

You're missing out on the love @pcstru! And possibly a brilliant deal

 

If you'd be willing to whip me an email or even fill out our contact us form with your wish list and price expectations, we'll have you pricing back in no time if that'd work for you? If not, we totally understand and hope to make life easier for prospective customers in the future with great feedback like yours.

 

I like your idea of at least listing a value range, that's cracking, and will feed that back to the relevant departments.

 

Wishing you well, and I apologize to all for derailing the thread somewhat.

[Koldov]

Ah yes the old head teacher must have a MacBook quandary [emoji849]

 

And in my case, it was quickly followed by the request to have it do everything like a Windows laptop (SIMS, network shares from the Windows Servers, Microsoft Office & Outlook, etc, etc). I really don't see the justification for the extra £'s spent on it. What exactly does it do that is so special (maybe he plays on Garage Band when nobody is looking)?

 

Good grief man, just have a Windows laptop (or two for the same price)!

 

It WAS silver though.... and man, that @ key thing is really annoying...

[Fazza]

So you're not going to share this immense opportunity with us social soldiers, and PC builders extraordinaire at VeryPC because we haven't listed pricing on our website?! I'm crying here

 

It's why we have only recently become a customer of yours Colin - it's seen by a lot of people as if you are too embarrassed to list a price as you yourselves think your prices are high!

 

I first became aware of VeryPC 5yrs ago and when I saw no prices on your website I just closed the site and never looked back and purchased 100s of PCs from your rivals who displayed prices that were well within our budget constraints, as like I say, no prices suggests high prices.

 

It was only because we were after a particular type of case that you happened to sell that we now have 100+ PCs of yours - you could have sold us 100's more over the last 5yrs if we hadn't been put off by your lack of pricing on your website!

 

A 'Starting From' price is all it needs so people can see if you fit in to their budget constraints or not. Maybe your latest 'Special Offer' on each model. We look for prices so we don't end up wasting our time and a companies time discussing specs only to find several hours later they are way out of our price range!

 

It's not just companies like VeryPC, the same goes for a lot of software companies not listing a price - for customers it's a sign that it's so expensive that they need a salesperson to butter you up and tell you about all the features to try and justify a high price that once revealed tends to be out of your price range so you can't buy it and have just wasted everyone's time!

[pcstru]

So you're not going to share this immense opportunity with us social soldiers, and PC builders extraordinaire at VeryPC because we haven't listed pricing on our website?! I'm crying here!

Sorry to read your choices have resulted in tears but at least the solution to that is entirely within your control.

You're missing out on the love @pcstru! And possibly a brilliant deal

 

If you'd be willing to whip me an email or even fill out our contact us form with your wish list and price expectations, we'll have you pricing back in no time if that'd work for you? If not, we totally understand and hope to make life easier for prospective customers in the future with great feedback like yours.

That would be like a supplier having submitted a price and then, when told they have not won, saying they can do it cheaper if only we will let them submit another quote! To be fair in that situation, I'd have to go back to all the other suppliers and give them an opportunity to re-play. I wonder if I allowed such a thing, how then I would ever get anything done as I'd just be constantly re-running the tender over and over again? I think at that point, the tears would all be mine!

I like your idea of at least listing a value range, that's cracking, and will feed that back to the relevant departments.

Not difficult and it instantly tells me whether it is worth picking the the phone or if I need to keep looking. I can search and evaluate a handful or two of products from supplier websites in the time it takes to talk to one (and that is if they are on point and not chatty), so my first pass is always going to be the website and if it doesn't have any pricing on, I just move onto one that does. Then I have a small list of suppliers who have a high likelihood of being worth spending the time taking to. I suspect others on my side of the counter will work in similar ways.

[PotNoodleTech]

It comes down to time. Most IT depts in schools are understaffed. We do not have the time to spend hours/days sending emails back and for to each and every company just to get a baseline price. Companies that think we have hours and hours to waste just to get something as simple as a price - are companies that are missing out on business.

 

For us - we look on your website, if there are no prices, we move on to the next competitor. There are many competitors, the vast majority of which show prices. Even if you do a password protected part of the website that the school has to look into - that would do. I can go on a public website now and immediately see that a dell SAN of a specific specification is going to cost £30,000. Why on earth do you think the prices on a £300 PC need to be a closely guarded secret???

 

Just my 2p!

[mullet_man]

And in my case, it was quickly followed by the request to have it do everything like a Windows laptop (SIMS, network shares from the Windows Servers, Microsoft Office & Outlook, etc, etc). I really don't see the justification for the extra £'s spent on it. What exactly does it do that is so special (maybe he plays on Garage Band when nobody is looking)?

 

Good grief man, just have a Windows laptop (or two for the same price)!

 

It WAS silver though.... and man, that @ key thing is really annoying...

 

Mine has a lot of tech - including Mac laptop and a standard Windows laptop.

 

I've gone past the point of caring about the extra £'s - if that's what they want just let them. Do you have Citrix or RDS they could use to access SIMS etc?

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

I'm still crying @pcstru! However if we're not best value for you once your quotes are in, then so be it really you don't need to go back and forth with all of your suppliers. We're only ever asked to sharpen prices by clients that really really really want to have our kit and support. We're not cry babies if we lose, just ask @Fazza for evidence on that LOL!

 

And you dear @Fazza I am wildly appreciative of your orders and was proud to help out. I am gutted we never got the chance with your previous 100, but you've got to admit that when you did come to me, you won, I won, everybody won, and your Ken is now besties with our Head of Accounts of all things! Fair enough I haven't performed so well on the 3rd party stuff so far but there's still time.

 

To be honest I used to purchase in the same manner myself and for the most part still do when it's an off the shelf product (you know researching pricing online and buying off the cheapest) but the fact is we're not an e-commerce website retailing stocked product, we're a team of super skilled IT professionals specializing in building custom PCs for brilliant customers. When there's 100s of devices in play though we're a phone call/email away. I hope you'll now be willing to investigate our offerings but I get it if you don't. The benefit of a bit of interaction is mainly being able to understand the pressures you're under for that procurement, and to ensure the advice we provide is sound and that we can meet your budget constraints. You won't be disappointed.

 

Fingers crossed you take the plunge as it'd be lovely to put a name to the edugeek handle.

[Koldov]

That would be like a supplier having submitted a price and then, when told they have not won, saying they can do it cheaper.

 

This has annoyed me for quite a while with insurance companies. Recently having received a quote some £40 more expensive than last years premium, I had to telephone them and cancel. Obviously you need to call so they can try to keep your custom and they do this by 'seeing if they can give you a better quote'... Seriously?! You should give me your best quote in the first place!

 

Why on earth do you think the prices on a £300 PC need to be a closely guarded secret???

 

There must be some sort of business model whereby business A won't give out a price for spec X+Y+Z, because if you do, either:

 

1) Business B will undercut your profit margin and sell it cheaper for extra customers (knowing exactly how much you are charging from looking on your website)...

 

or people will work out that you are

 

2) Overcharging for putting it in a shiny case...

 

It's why we have only recently become a customer of yours Colin - it's seen by a lot of people as if you are too embarrassed to list a price as you yourselves think your prices are high!

 

The old 'price on application' (or if you have to ask you can't afford it) theory. Gives an air of exclusivity and quality.... I guess.

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

Beautiful stuff, thanks everyone.

 

I think we're all agreed that having at least a price guide would be mega beneficial for increasing demand for a company's products and services ie; ours. All your guys logic is sound and I'm on-board (anything that leads to more customers, and helping the company keep growing is worthwhile in my book - but more than anything it seems it would be super helpful for all you guys when you're entering into the discovery and research phases of your planned purchases). I'll be bringing it up in our Sales meeting on Monday and really appreciate the feedback.

[Koldov]

Do you have Citrix or RDS they could use to access SIMS etc?

 

Yes, I didn't have any real say in the matter. Annoys me though that these are the 'budget conscious' Head's that may well be saying there is no need for the expenditure of teacher laptops...

 

I ended up putting 'MICROSOFT' RDP on it for him to access a Hyper-v session of windows on the server, just to run SIMS...

 

building custom PCs .

 

Aren't there sites for that?

Edited November 8, 2017 by Koldov

[bitznpcz]

I'm late to the thread, but wanted to add a couple of points. For my schools @VeryPC are my first point of contact and I do very often buy from them. The prices don't suit all budgets, but the equipment is second to none. The team are also great.

 

I have a head teacher with a MacBook Pro but I had to put Parallels on there with Windows 7 to run SAP as it only works with IE (in Derbyshire at least).

[vimagoes]

I don't understand why a HT needs a high spec computer when most of the time they are in meetings and almost all the computer work is done by office staff. Anyway @VeryPC will give you a computer with high specs, very good price and 5 years warranty.