Best Buy = Horror Stories from many customers...use them for buying, not for service

True that. But the sheer number of times that I had to take it in for service....that's all on HP, IMO. But the service problems themselves, yeah, that was Best Buy's fault.

.....Except, now that I think of it, for the one time that the service people at HP didn't read the note that said the problem was with the AC adapter, not computer.

Hmmm, BTD, the list of things you want your laptop to do is exactly what I'm looking for in a laptop too. It'll be interesting to see what you find.

I've been checking out the Gateway laptops sold on HSN.com and the IBM thinkpads sold on QVC. They're just too pricey for me, but they sound fabulous. And I really hate thinking of buying anything from Best Buy, even if I can fix it myself. Their customer service is pretty bad.

How is Fry's selection of laptops?

As if Fry's service is any better than Best Buy's?

Honestly, from a service standpoint, you're better off going directly through Dell, HP, or Gateway than through a retailer.

Yeah, buy online, deal directly with the company, get the best service and exactly the components you want.

Well this is the kick ass Vaio I found. I wish I saw it when the ad came out.

I think I am going to get a Dell. I found some pretty nice ones via their deals of the week. The one I was going to get yesterday was slightly slower than this one with a better wireless and video card and came out to only $50 with a much longer (and better) warrenty. I think it was the 1150.

Yeah, I should have been more clear. At least with Fry's, they hustle -- from the salespeople to the checkout clerks. At Best Buy, no one seems to care -- everybody's in slo-mo.... Drives me batty.

But you're absolutely right, I can buy everything cheaper online, it shouldn't be different for laptops....

BTD, thank you for the update. Hey, I wound up buying the same camera as you two years ago, why should the laptop acquisition be any different. :)

Hehe. Thanks :) I bought the camera Euromonkey had at the time...

I'm looking at Toshiba, Sony and Dell now. I'll let you know what a hunt on Sunday returns. That Vaio was a killer deal, I may see if I can find it somewhere else who will price match.

As for Frys... I've worked there (don't shoot me, I quit after 2 months!). They put products known to be defective back on the shelf as new and their return/exchange is hell.

I found the best lap dances were at the Tropical Lei on Foothill in Upland. Alo, the Deja Vu in Van Nuys is pretty good. And they film a lot of movies at that one.

Oh... lapTOPs...

Never mind

This is exactly why I don't use Fry's for large purchases. If it's a WiFi card for my Laptop, then I use Frys. I did however, buy one of their $250 computers for a web server a while back, and it works quite well! :)