Any one used a company called Mikesoft?

[Kyle]

I have had a flyer today passed onto me from a collegue from another school. The flyer is froma company called Mikesoft.

 

THey are offering this spec machine will a 4yr onsite warranty (provided by a third party company)

 

 

17"tft hard glass

P$ 3.0

Side & rear USB

Memory card reader

512mb ram

80gb sata

cd/rw dvd rom

51. sound OB

OB graphics and 100mbt NIc

MS keyboard and mouse.

 

Trouble is i have never heard of them. Anyone used them?

[PeterW]

Mikesoft is this them?

 

I cant see that spec on there though?

[Kyle]

I think it is yes, i looked for the spec but my collegeue said he did not think they had put it on their website yet. Apparently they buy in the monitor with chasis and then build the pcs to your specification.

[PeterW]

Was it an all in one system?

[Kyle]

Yes

[kingswood]

What- "MikeSoft" who, when they call the school asking to talk to someone in IT Support, fail to pronounce their name properly (consistently) and instead *let* receptionists and others believe that it is "Microsoft" who are calling you?

 

Yes. I had the sales guy for our area out one day last term and he took up nearly three hours of my time showing off a turkey basting tin...I mean, an all in one computer system. It was very crude. And cheap looking.

 

Paul

[localzuk]

Is the company's full name 'Mike Rowe Soft'

[PeterW]

Anything like ours here SCL AIO

 

These are a pretty good mid range solution as far as small form factor / all in one are involved as you have been told they take a standard micro atx mainboard, cpu, memory, hdd and optical drive so dont have the draw backs of being completetly proprietary i.e standard desktop parts can be swapped in and out with little hasstle.

[PeterW]

he took up nearly three hours of my time showing off a turkey basting tin

 

Not sure why companies go for the hard sell like this and risk alienating thier potential customers?

[deano]

Mikesoft are partner company to The IT Support Centre based in Burntwood, Cannock.

 

I have purchased computers, TFT's, SMARTboards and Servers from them. They are really cheap, and i bet you cannot beat their prices for SMARTboards and Servers

 

Their warranty of 4 yrs is awesome too. Their contracts are onsite, and its nice to know that the warranty has probably cost nothing and it also runs out just as your ready relocate them to the bin.

 

Contact details are a follows:

01543 458714

 

Contact:

Nick Scott

 

Please state that you obtained these details from Dean Stanley. Thank you

[tosca925]

@deano

 

THey are not far from us deano and i've never heard of them. I'll have to look them up.

 

Do they do 4 yr warranties on the IWB as well?

Whats the support like from the comapny you mentioned?

[StewartKnight]

This has quickly degenerated into another free advertising opportunity!

 

Deano, in what way are you affiliated with Mikesoft or IT Support Centre?

A noob posting about a company, in such glowing terms, is always suspicious!

 

IT Support Centre is like Mikesoft, as soon as a receptionist hears the name, they assume it's a legit call, as opposed to a sales call!

[AlexB]

Same deal on the telephone, our reception thought they were microsoft too. Whether they are a good company or not, this behaviour means I will NEVER use them.

[nathan]

i dont know why companies do this, when all they need to be is helpful and honest. I'm pretty sure they will get more business than trying a hard sell.

[mark80]

This has quickly degenerated into another free advertising opportunity!

 

Deano, in what way are you affiliated with Mikesoft or IT Support Centre?

A noob posting about a company, in such glowing terms, is always suspicious!

 

IT Support Centre is like Mikesoft, as soon as a receptionist hears the name, they assume it's a legit call, as opposed to a sales call!

 

LOL you been busted m8

[Firefly_Transport]

Tempting to start a poll:

 

How many sales calls can you get reception to bounce BEFORE the head askes you to create a 'trashcan' voicemail?

 

In my case it was the point the receptionist began making up stories about my fact finding tour of the middle east.......

 

(Don't you just love the April/May budget release - everybody loves you - and your capitation fund)

[Quackers]

Anybody actually bought off them? We are treating them with GREAT suspicion. They have come back unbelievely cheap, so we do not want to part with £22,000 with a dodgy company.

 

They are £60 a system cheaper than the people we normally buy off, and these are offering 4 year warrenty and free unpacking of pc's and placing on desks. We do not see how they can do it at the price they are saying.

 

Would you say £340 for a 17" TFT, intel core2duo 2.0ghz, 1gb ram, 160 gig hard, intel branded motherboard, 4 year warrenty and unboxed and placed on desk is too cheap?

[kingswood]

Anybody actually bought off them? We are treating them with GREAT suspicion. They have come back unbelievely cheap, so we do not want to part with £22,000 with a dodgy company.

 

They are £60 a system cheaper than the people we normally buy off, and these are offering 4 year warrenty and free unpacking of pc's and placing on desks. We do not see how they can do it at the price they are saying.

 

Would you say £340 for a 17" TFT, intel core2duo 2.0ghz, 1gb ram, 160 gig hard, intel branded motherboard, 4 year warrenty and unboxed and placed on desk is too cheap?

 

Nearly. But when you look at their prices, they aren't much different from lower end offerings from Dell. They do give a good warranty, but I wondered how they would deliver their side of the bargain given their relatively small size. If Dell offer me three years onsite next business day (which they do) for less than £50 a system, I can pretty much count on it that they will be around for the next three years to honour that agreement. If ANother company, much smaller than Dell or HP, tell me the same thing even though I might save another £90 per system, I think I would look at them with very slant eyes and take my money somewhere else.

 

A four year warranty is a *very good* deal at that price and with that spec, no doubt about it. Just have a good think about it is all I am suggesting...

[john]

I would find out if they subcontact the warranty out, a lot do, a couple of big names are Lasco and Ikon Office Supplies they are both big warranty partners for a lot of the smaller firms, so even if the supplier goes bust your warranty is with the warranty firm so should still be ok.

 

Also, I would avoid Intel Motherboards, never had anything but problems with them.

[Quackers]

 

Also, I would avoid Intel Motherboards, never had anything but problems with them.

 

How odd, as they have been my most reliable out of the mix of boards we have.....

[PeterW]

john wrote:

 

 

Also, I would avoid Intel Motherboards, never had anything but problems with them.

 

How odd, as they have been my most reliable out of the mix of boards we have.....

 

I would have to agree Intel boards have good reliability even if they are a little expensive.

[fooby]

We get for £260 (ish) - 3ghz celeron, 1gb ram, 60gig harddisk 17" tft.

 

one screen one box. no kb/mouse extras.

[PeterW]

Would you say £340 for a 17" TFT, intel core2duo 2.0ghz, 1gb ram, 160 gig hard, intel branded motherboard, 4 year warrenty and unboxed and placed on desk is too cheap?

 

We get for £260 (ish) - 3ghz celeron, 1gb ram, 60gig harddisk 17" tft.

 

Sounds about right to me

[Elky]

Would you say £340 for a 17" TFT, intel core2duo 2.0ghz, 1gb ram, 160 gig hard, intel branded motherboard, 4 year warrenty and unboxed and placed on desk is too cheap?

 

As a quick comparison, this would cost you around £300.00 with us. This is without us placing PCs on your desk though and with a 3 year on-site warranty which is sub contracted out to Logistics International whose clients include RM, HP, Dell and Simply.

 

This isn't a blatant attempt at trying to make a sale here by the way, I'm just offering you a comparison for your records.

 

Hope this helps

 

Dan

[kingswood]

Anybody actually bought off them? We are treating them with GREAT suspicion. They have come back unbelievely cheap, so we do not want to part with £22,000 with a dodgy company.

 

They are £60 a system cheaper than the people we normally buy off, and these are offering 4 year warrenty and free unpacking of pc's and placing on desks. We do not see how they can do it at the price they are saying.

 

Would you say £340 for a 17" TFT, intel core2duo 2.0ghz, 1gb ram, 160 gig hard, intel branded motherboard, 4 year warrenty and unboxed and placed on desk is too cheap?

 

Nearly. But when you look at their prices, they aren't much different from lower end offerings from Dell. They do give a good warranty, but I wondered how they would deliver their side of the bargain given their relatively small size. If Dell offer me three years onsite next business day (which they do) for less than £50 a system, I can pretty much count on it that they will be around for the next three years to honour that agreement. If ANother company, much smaller than Dell or HP, tell me the same thing even though I might save another £90 per system, I think I would look at them with very slant eyes and take my money somewhere else.

 

A four year warranty is a *very good* deal at that price and with that spec, no doubt about it. Just have a good think about it is all I am suggesting...

 

I had a call from the lovely Nikki at MikeSoft today, concerned about my own reference to the all-in-one solution that they provide and about the general course of this thread. Apparently it has led to some lost sales.

 

Now, after some clarification by Nikki about the general structure of the support system at the company and a little explanation about how they can provide an on-site warranty the way they do, my own concerns have been negated. I see no reason not to look at MikeSoft now and consider them in any school purchase alongside other companies like Dell or HP.

 

References to "turkey basting tin" were inappropriate, though tongue in cheek and my apologies go out to both Mikesoft and their sales-person for any offence taken.

 

Thanks to Nikki for maintaining some restraint over this matter!

 

Paul