I'd take either Acer or HP over Sony, but fortunately I get Fujitsu kit which is simply superb.
My parents aren't too bad, as my Mum works in IT as an SDM so my Dad has learned to listen to us. In fact, the deal he found online for his new laptop was superb. Could hardly be beaten for price at even the online outlets! It was his IT department that screwed that up.
No, it's the in-laws that are the nightmare for me. TalkTalk came to my house while I wasn't there and our lass let them in (WTF?) whilst we had Sky ADSL, so I come home to two of them giving the hard sell on their product. I stop them mid-flow, tell them I work in IT support and ask them:
- Will their uptime be better than that of Sky, who have been online for the 2 years I've been with them except for one planned 30 minute outage?
- Will they guarantee they won't throttle my connection, it will sync and maintain at over 8Mb, which is what I'm connected at with Sky?
- Will they be cheaper than Sky, given that we get free anytime calls and broadband cost next to nothing as it was tied in with the Sky World TV package?
Their answers to those questions were all no, so I kicked them out. I immediately phoned the in-laws who live up the road and told them that if they had a knock on the door they should say no thank you, not even let them in, and I will find them a new provider if they want one.
A week later they call me. "We signed up with TalkTalk and they're rubbish, we can't get a proper connection and their customer service is rubbish". Yes, I know this, this are the main reasons I told you not to go there. "You can still cancel it, do that now and I'll get you a new provider".
2 days later they ask our lass if I can go have a look. They didn't cancel. They're now in their contract. 3 years later they're still with them and still complaining
