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Linus Tech Tips: Buying a Computer from a System Integrator Seller. Secret Shopper

Ragnorok64

Banned
Nov 6, 2017
2,955
Not sure how to best title this thread but I found this video super interesting. They used one of their LTT employees to call various system sellers with a $1500 budget and see how the sales people guided her.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzpYkpZX8qw

Assuming people here can get past the intro, the results were pretty interesting. From one seller that sold her a computer without ever actually telling her what they were selling her, to one who just straight up didn't even attempt to sell her anything. It's really interesting to take a step back and see what the computer buying experience is like from those that aren't tech savvy to begin with.
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,022
Please tell me he is self aware about his youtube thumbnails. They make me die a little in side each time i see them
 
Lilalaunebaer

Lilalaunebaer

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,499
Feeling bad for people that just want a good pc without getting much trouble. Either you get ripped off or you´re gonna have a bad time just trying to buy something.

Slayven said:
Please tell me he is self aware about his youtube thumbnails. They make me die a little in side each time i see them
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He is. Basically, he doesn´t really like it himself or would choose to do them like this, but it´s what gets clicks and he has a bunch of employees, so he´s kinda forced to.
 
Nacho

Nacho

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,108
NYC
Huh, this was pretty interesting. Not surprised though that most/half of the reps really couldn't tell you one computer part from another.
 
gagewood

gagewood

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,206
Just started the video and the first rep who keeps mentioning a laptop is hilarious.

"I'll just have a desktop."
"Laptop it is.
"No, I said desktop."
"Laptop?"
"Desk-top."
"Lap-top?"
"D...E..."
"L...A..."

6MqWZzi.jpg
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,022
TheMadTitan said:
He is. He made a video about them; he hates them personally, but his traffic goes up on the videos with them compared to ones without them, so he uses them.
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Lilalaunebaer said:
Feeling bad for people that just want a good pc without getting much trouble. Either you get ripped off or you´re gonna have a bad time just trying to buy something.



He is. Basically, he doesn´t really like it himself or would choose to do them like this, but it´s what gets clicks and he has a bunch of employees, so he´s kinda forced to.
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Thats good to know
 

ISOM

Banned
Nov 6, 2017
2,684
Gattsu25 said:
This video is actually pretty informative.

Remind me to never bother with CyberPowerPC...jesus
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I have not watched the video but fwiw I bought my current pc from cyberpower and it has lasted 3 years. And the price was only like 50 off what I would have gotten if I had ordered and built it together. I don't if the quality has gone down since then though.
 
Uhyve

Uhyve

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,166
ISOM said:
I have not watched the video but fwiw I bought my current pc from cyberpower and it has lasted 3 years. And the price was only like 50 off what I would have gotten if I had ordered and built it together. I don't if the quality has gone down since then though.
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Their computers might be fine, this video was more about the experience for anyone buying a PC who isn't tech savvy. They were just kinda useless in that regard.

LTT went in trying to buy PCs, but weren't actually able to buy a computer.
 

Jest

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,565
Seems like the Big Box companies (Dell and HP) outsource, so their call center employees seem to lack sufficient training and are far more concerned about upselling. Which is to be expected, honestly.

The others were more concerned with funneling the customer through the website and there may be an internal reason for that.

Overall though, it really seems like the reps need either better training or more comprehensive scripts breaking down what the components do in laymens so they can relay that to customers, if needed. If I had to hazard a guess though, I doubt the specialty SI's have completely computer illiterate customers shopping with them. Which may be why they stumbled here and there. Dell and HP though, likely get a LOT of calls from computer illiterate customers and since they're outsourced to call centers that are likely purely numbers driven I'm sure they really don't care at all that their sales lines are handled this way.
 
OP
OP

Ragnorok64

Banned
Nov 6, 2017
2,955
I wonder if Cyberpower has some sort of policy about funneling people throufh thier website or something. That one just made no sense.
 

Deleted member 16452

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,276
The last one was great, even told her to wait for black friday deals.

Alienware was bad and so was cyberpower (for different reasons).
 

PrimeBeef

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,840
Ragnorok64 said:
It's really interesting to take a step back and see what the computer buying experience is like from those that aren't tech savvy to begin with.
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You should see the responses my wife gets when she is asked if she needs help and she gives a very detailed response. Most of the guys at these tech stores seem to want nothing to do with a woman who knows her computer shit. It's like they cannot take advantage of her.
 
CatAssTrophy

CatAssTrophy

Member
Dec 4, 2017
7,609
Texas
Slayven said:
Wow that really grew my respect for him. And learning that videos get 20% more clicks with those things is sad
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I also saw a video about "YouTuber techniques" once that said doing those outtakes, goofs, as well as just talking to the crew off camera during the videos makes your engagement spike as well- even if it's all fake.

It showed a bunch of clips of popular YouTube channels before and after they started intentionally adding in flubs, tongue-twists, and joking with the camera man, and now they do it for a large percentage of their video runtime because they know it gets them subs. Linus does those things too.

I hate all of it but I get why they do it.
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,022
Watching the video, salesmanship is hard but a lot of it comes from the company not really equipping people that face the public very well
 
deftones r cool

deftones r cool

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,050
Slayven said:
Wow that really grew my respect for him. And learning that videos get 20% more clicks with those things is sad
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To put things in a more fair perspective, Linus is oddly popular w/ a lot of young kids on Youtube (just look at any vid of an LTX con). I'm not sure why really since so much of his content is based around expensive product reviews, but it's a lot better than them watching some dope like PewDiePie.

Explains why he keeps amping up the zaniness of his videos though, as a result. It's for the kids.
 
TarpitCarnivore

TarpitCarnivore

Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,207
Ragnorok64 said:
Assuming people here can get past the intro, the results were pretty interesting. From one seller that sold her a computer without ever actually telling her what they were selling her, to one who just straight up didn't even attempt to sell her anything. It's really interesting to take a step back and see what the computer buying experience is like from those that aren't tech savvy to begin with.
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Haven't watched the video yet, but the bolded is indicative of _any_ uninformed shopper exerience.
 
B4mv

B4mv

Member
Nov 2, 2017
3,054
deftones r cool said:
To put things in a more fair perspective, Linus is oddly popular w/ a lot of young kids on Youtube (just look at any vid of an LTX con). I'm not sure why really since so much of his content is based around expensive product reviews, but it's a lot better than them watching some dope like PewDiePie.

Explains why he keeps amping up the zaniness of his videos though, as a result. It's for the kids.
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I can understand kids watching. He does videos on all the newest gaming PC stuff, phones, hovershoes, robots. He does a lot of expensive stuff, but it's expensive sutff kids want.
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,022
deftones r cool said:
To put things in a more fair perspective, Linus is oddly popular w/ a lot of young kids on Youtube (just look at any vid of an LTX con). I'm not sure why really since so much of his content is based around expensive product reviews, but it's a lot better than them watching some dope like PewDiePie.

Explains why he keeps amping up the zaniness of his videos though, as a result. It's for the kids.
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He is zany in a good way especially when he starts getting excited by something, so i can see his appeal with kids. He probably kill if he started doing minecraft videos
 
HamSandwich

HamSandwich

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,605
deftones r cool said:
To put things in a more fair perspective, Linus is oddly popular w/ a lot of young kids on Youtube (just look at any vid of an LTX con). I'm not sure why really since so much of his content is based around expensive product reviews, but it's a lot better than them watching some dope like PewDiePie.

Explains why he keeps amping up the zaniness of his videos though, as a result. It's for the kids.
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It's definitely his presentation as well. It does have a bit more humor that kids would like as opposed to watching someone like Dave2D who happens to be very informative in his reviews.
 
EAPidgeon

EAPidgeon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
68
Linus does what he has to do to maintain good popularity on videos, but a lot of that just comes down to YouTube's weird algorithmic recommendations, and he's mentioned this in multiple videos. It's the same reason even if they don't want to pretty much every tech youtuber has to cover the new iPhone releases if they care about viewers. He explained as much in the video here. The slightly goofy production style is pretty natural to the team after watching a few streams though, and there's nothing wrong about it persay. If you want a deep technical dive it's better to watch GamersNexus or dive into enthusiast forums.

In regards to the secret shopper video I did part out most of what was sold, and it seemed like there was at least 500-800$ margin by the manufacturers so pretty insane at times even in the best case of ignoring how awful most of them are at being basically competent in sales.
 
OP
OP

Ragnorok64

Banned
Nov 6, 2017
2,955
On the subject of thumbnails and stuff it should be noted that videos with Linus face on them literally get more clicks even if the thumbnail style is the same.

Check from about 10:45 onward on this video

https://youtu.be/JERw5YcbmDg
Specifically at 18:18.
 

Sandstar

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,739
I bought a cyber power pc through costco and got a 4 year warrenty because of it, so it was well worth getting. Especially since it could get the pc I wanted without paying too much money. I haven't had any problems.
 
Kalentan

Kalentan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,615
As someone who bought and currently uses a iBuyPower PC I'm happy to see that their live support is mostly good though for sure seemed like that agent was having problems. But man that last guy, I'd feel confident buying a PC from them after that tbh.
 
Rizific

Rizific

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,948
who would buy a gaming pc in that way instead of just going to a big box store? also wtf at that 1050ti build for $1500? wtf?
 

i like big butts

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,970
Having worked in system integration, going through customer support to purchase anything is always typically useless and geared towards upselling. Customer support for the consumer side is never particularly good, it fucking sucks when you're trying to get a batch of RMAs through.

In that regard, its completely unsurprising that Maingear did pretty well. They're really more of a boutique system integrator, closer to Falcon Northwest than your CyberPowerPCs. Customer service doesn't pay for itself, its kind of why you're paying big bucks when you go through the business/corporate side of Dell/HP or go with smaller super expensive system integrators like Puget Systems.

bmdubya said:
I know someone who bought a CyperPower gaming laptop. He has had nothing but problems since purchasing. I told him to return it and get something different.
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No idea what it is but $5 that its just a Sager or Clevo laptop with CyperPowerPC branding slapped all over it. Pretty uninteresting as far as custom laptops go to be quite honest.
 
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