A view from the “inside” – Richard Wu
Ed Note: Kris Couter’s article detailed his experience purchasing and assembling a laptop from RJTech.com. Richard Wu of RJTech has kindly consented to answer some questions about laptops and their products; he is also offering a purchase incentive to our readers as outlined below.
Q: Why are laptops so expensive?
A: I don’t think they are too expensive right now. You can get one for under $1000 easily these days if you are not looking for maximum performance. For a desktop PC, the price would be about $800 – $900, including a 15″ LCD monitor; for a notebook PC with a similar configuration, it only costs about $300 more. Considering that you get portability in addition to desktop functionality, it’s not too much more.
Q: Is it possible to buy a maintenance manual for your laptops?
A: Our laptops all come with a user’s manual – we don’t have a service manual for sale. User manuals are usually downloadable from the manufacturer’s website; if not, we can help our customers to get one. As for a detailed installation guide, only Asus provides it for some models – most of the manufacturer do not provide them.
Q: Why are replacement parts so expensive?
A: To my understanding, manufacturers’ profits on notebooks are very slim and they might want to gain some profit from replacement parts.
Q: How long have you been in business?
A: We started in 1995, so it has been almost 10 years.
Q: What is your standard warranty and what happens if your company goes out of business?
A: Our laptops all carry a one year mail-in warranty, including parts and labor. We sell barebones from Asus, Uniwill, Compal and Clevo. Asus and Uniwill can take care of customers directly, but Compal and Clevo have to go through us. That means if we are out of business, the customer who has either a Compal or Clevo made notebook might not be able to get support, but if you have an Asus or Uniwill, then you still can get support from them.
Q: Do you sell refurbs?
A: We don’t sell refurbs.
Q: What percentage of barebones laptops which you have sold have voided their warranty due to a user’s mistake?
A: None so far.
Q: In the article by Kris Courter, he sent his laptop back to RJTech to check out what he did for warranty purposes. Is this standard procedure for barebones?
A: According to our records, his notebook was working fine and he was concerned that he might have done something wrong to it, so we just checked it and made sure everything was fine. Only a few customers need to send their laptops back for checking. Kris Courtier’s laptop, CL56, is the hardest model to install we have – the other models are not that hard and some are quite easy. Most of the time, we can teach our customers how to install their parts either by phone or by email, and it is not necessary to send it back to us for checking.
Q: If I don’t send in a barebones for “warranty evaluation” and it fails within a month, will you honor the warranty?
A: Of course, all our barebone laptops have a one year warranty. We no such “warranty evaluation” policy; as long as there is no physical damage when you install your parts in the barebone unit, then you have a one year warranty. In Kris Courter’s case, he had broken a screw inside and the keyboard connecter was broken, so he wanted us to make sure that everything was OK, so he sent it back. It was a rare situation.
Q: Have you ever had a situation where a laptop failed due to a faulty third party part installed by the user?
A: None, as far as I can remember. Most of the time customers who do not install their parts correctly send it back to us for installation.
Q: Would you offer a discount or other purchase incentive to our readers?
A: Yes, I think I can offer “dead pixel checking” for free; any reader who purchases our laptop 30 days from the date of this article should mention “Overclockers.com” and we will include it free of charge.
Richard Wu – R&J Technology
RJTech.com
Thanks again to Richard Wu for taking the time to answer my questions. If readers have any other questions, drop me a line and I will do my best to get them answered and posted for others to read.
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