Another of Walmart/Sam's Dirty Secrets

So I need to get a new laptop and Walmart is pretty much the only place in Fairbanks that sells them. I notoriously hate Walmart, so I was talking on the phone to Az about what to do and I stumble across this article while we were on the phone. Dirty bastards. I'mma hafta order one from Office Max or something.


I print this comment about cameras and digital products sold by Wal-mart by a reader because it is so astounding. Please send in any of your own experiences. And Wal-Mart execs, I hope you are taking notes and making changes in the way you do business. The clock is ticking.

Here goes:

“>Here’s a cautionary tale for anyone thinking of making a purchace at walmart or sams based on price comparison.

I wanted an inexpensive digital camera for my daughter. After finding one with the basic features I wanted, I went to sears, target and walmart to check prices. All 3 stores sold the a camera with the exact same model number. Sears -$119 target -$109 walmart - $99 . I bought it at the manufactures online store but when the camera was delivered it DID NOT have all the features that the Sears and Target salesperson had shown me (couldn’t get help at the Walmart store). I contacted the factory store and asked them if perhaps the one I got was an older version of this camera since the model number on the unit was the correct. The customer service agent apologized and said I must have gotten one of the “WALMART” cameras. These units were manufactured just for them with the same model number but with reduced features. So while the price was a little lower at walmart, the value was worse since it was a stripped down version.

When I told this story to some friends, they were surprised because they had similar tales. One had purchased a computer printer and couldn’t get some of the features she wanted to work. When she called the factory, the first question they asked her was if she bought the printer at SAMS. When told that she did not, they were able to guide her through her set up problems. At the end, however, she asked them what SAMS would have had to do with it. The answer: that model, when sold at SAMS, was a stripped down version without the features she wanted.

Another friend wanted a computer. Being a very tech-savvy consumer, he heavily researched all the different model numbers on the brand he wanted so he could compare prices across the different Chainstores. WalMart and Sams were similar BUT slightly unique numbers, which his research led him to believe had inferior internal components, stripped down software and were loaded with WALMART spyware. I cant comment on the veracity of his technical observation - just that he felt that the general public was being misled into thinking they were a better deal than they really were.

This is just one of many reasons why my entire family and circle of friends now boycott Walmart.”

(continued @link)


http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2007/02/can_this_be_true_of_wal-mart.html


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-not-to-buy-at-walmart-17-05-2011/


http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=41823

Can confirm. My savvy dad noticed this when he once asked a manager why they never have the same models that are reviewed in Consumer Reports.

Can you find what you want at Fred Meyer's?

No, Az went went to Fred's (which I call The WalMart of the Great Northwest, lol) with me on the phone today (she goes all over the Northstar Borough with me that way... she's well traveled) and they have precisely four laptops. The Toshiba they have has 2GB of memory... that won't work for me. The Toshiba I was looking at on OfficeMax.com has 6GB of memory and a 750GB HD for only $50 more. I will never buy another HP, and I'm a little disappointed in what Dell has out for "competition."

Earlier today I googled where to buy laptops in the Fairbanks Northstar Borough and the first hit was WalMart, second was Craigslist. :/

Would it be too expensive to have someone in the lower 48 buy what you want and ship it to you ? Or why not have Office Depot drop ship it direct to you ?

And the model numbers are slightly different at the "big box" stores. That way, they can offer to match a competitor's "lowest price" guarantee for that model, because they are the only store selling that model. I watch the prices of the Sam's electronics and you don't get bargains buying electronics at Sams... at all.

I'm impressed by Lenovo's equipment, but currently use a Sony VIAO laptop. The Sony came with great specs, but the wifi card (a Broadcom) was horrible. I replaced it with a $25 Intel card and fixed my poor wifi reception. It is bad that you need to replace parts of a brand new laptop, but I did it because replacing the card was easy. Sony has since announced they're out of the laptop business.

I'm not too impressed with HP either. I had a "racehorse" of an HP. Five years go, I bought a $2,000 18.3" 1080p laptop with two hard drives, and lots of bells and whistles. The video chip they used was a brand name, but the company started using a lower-temperature solder and the solder melted inside the laptop. I reheated the solder on the board and got it working again, but it didn't last for long. HP said that their recall had expired.

have you tried to order online? I always go to best buy.

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

Would it be too expensive to have someone in the lower 48 buy what you want and ship it to you ? Or why not have Office Depot drop ship it direct to you ?

Az offered to do that when we were in Fred's, and I might have to have her do that. I noticed this morning that the machine that I'm looking at is not available online, not eligible for in-store pickup and is only available at "select stores" ... it is definitely not in Fairbanks. I mean, I'll go look, but it won't be there.

Eric wrote:

And the model numbers are slightly different at the "big box" stores.  That way, they can offer to match a competitor's "lowest price" guarantee for that model, because they are the only store selling that model.  I watch the prices of the Sam's electronics and you don't get bargains buying electronics at Sams... at all.

I'm impressed by Lenovo's equipment, but currently use a Sony VIAO laptop.  The Sony came with great specs, but the wifi card (a Broadcom) was horrible.  I replaced it with a $25 Intel card and fixed my poor wifi reception.  It is bad that you need to replace parts of a brand new laptop, but I did it because replacing the card was easy.  Sony has since announced they're out of the laptop business.

I'm not too impressed with HP either.  I had a "racehorse" of an HP.  Five years go, I bought a $2,000 18.3" 1080p laptop with two hard drives, and lots of bells and whistles.  The video chip they used was a brand name, but the company started using a lower-temperature solder and the solder melted inside the laptop.  I reheated the solder on the board and got it working again, but it didn't last for long.  HP said that their recall had expired.

I know Lenovo makes really nice equipment but I had one when I worked at WWS and I hated the whole setup from start to finish. It sucked because my manager was an old buddy and he had bought the machine just for me before I got there, so I felt pretty bad that I hated it. It was a really nice machine, it was just matters of personal preference that made me dislike it. I was going to mention this above because I figured you might suggest Lenovo

Chrissy* wrote:

have you tried to order online? I always go to best buy.

Yeah I'm looking at that. The machine I'm looking at is about twice as much at Best Buy.

E, this is the machine I'm looking at. Good reviews on test freaks.

http://www.officemax.com/technology/computers/laptop-computers/product-prod4280044?fromUrl=TmFvPTAmTmU9MyZOdT1QX1BST0RfSUQmTj0xMDAzMzE3KzQyOTQ4Mzk4MDIrNDI5NDk2MDk1NSZOcD0y

Test freaks:

http://www.testfreaks.com/laptops/toshiba-satellite-l955/

Any suggestions or recommendations? I would buy a more high-end machine but I recently decided that the Tacoma and I are breaking up. We're getting a divorce. It's time. So, I'm saving for a new (to me) pickup, which is priority. I need a 1/2-ton and something with better (newer) safety ratings. I've been meaning to start a thread about that, as I'm taking a poll between Ford & Chevy (don't even get me started on everything wrong with Dodge pickups), but I keep forgetting. So for now, this is the price range I'm looking at for a new laptop.

The specs are decent, Ricey.  The graphics chip doesn't have it's own memory and uses RAM, but if you're not crunching monster spreadsheets, gaming, GIS/AutoCad, High resolution graphics processing, etc., you should be fine.

If you want it for word processing, regular spreadsheets, web surfing, viewing graphics and the like, it'll probably be okay.  It says HD display, so it should have at least 720p, more than likely it is 1080p.

One of the two reviews at OfficeMax says his hard drive failed, so you might want to get a thumb drive or an external drive for your data backups.

I saw the hd failure but chalked it up to a one-off lemon since it got such good reviews at test freaks. I don't do gaming or anything and the most resource intensive thing I do is watch tv since cable is cost prohibitive up here. Aside from that, it's just for reading the news, spreadsheets, word processing and talking to you all. All of my huge excel work is done on my work machine, so nothing major there.

Thanks, E