tornado thoughts

Bought my very first laptop!

I have been procrastinating from buying a laptop since early last year. I kept telling myself that it is not necessary and it's a spending with no returns. The temptation came and gone until I saw 2 brouchers A### and D###. Both offer very competitive pricing and specifications. I made the decision to purchase a laptop finally because
1. I would be able to use it as presentations when I visit customers locally,
2. I would be able to update the projects that I'm handling anytime and anywhere.
3. I would be able to access email when I go overseas
4. More importantly, I can chat online with my dear dear whenever I'm overseas (though the frequency is like once a year?)

Yesterday, I went down to Sim Lim with my dear thinking that they would offer competitive pricing for laptops. However, after going to several shops and enquired on the price, they gave me exactly the same price found on the published brouchers. A fellow friend told me that don't buy a laptop just by looking at the specifications, you need to physically look at the item, feel it, type on the keypad, weigh it and after all these you must like it. It's the same concept as buying cars, flats or even diamond rings. We also went looking for 2.5" external hard disks but realised that though the pricing was competitive, the cover looked very filmsy which deterred us from buying.

Deep inside, I wanted to buy A### after walking around as it met my budget (less than 2k). However, another side of me just wanted to at least give D### a chance coz the cover looked very nice on the broucher. We searched the whole Sim Lim but found no retailer was selling it thus we went to Suntec to look at their only shop front. When we reached there, the covers were indeed very appealing HOWEVER the keypad was not nice to type (the feel was just different). Another drawback was it takes 2-3weeks to build! I told myself that today is the day that I'm going to buy my laptop coz it's a critical time where it will come in handy at work. I remembered that Carrefour also sells A### thus we went there to take a look.

After negotiating a while with the salesman, he offered to upgrade the ram from 1GB to 2GB (equivalent to what D### offers) and a free 4GB thumbdrive thrown in. In my mind I was struggling with which to buy. Suddenly, God spoke to me saying that do not judge a book by its cover. What do I really need? Functionality or appeal? At that instant, I wasn't confused anymore. I made up my mind to take up the A### package. I"m not saying that A### laptop doesn't look nice. It has a sleek black cover and a very nice keypad feel to type on, just that it doesn't has funky colors like D###. Since the laptop is used for biz, A### would portray a professional and confident look. In the next 2 paragraphs, I'm gonna describe how amazing that I followed God's instructions.

When making the payment, the salesman proceeded with upgrading the ram for me. When he made the invoicing, I think he accidentally deducted an additional hundred bucks (by right should just deduct the cost of the free ram) which I didn't take notice too. It was when after I sent my dear home and realised that where is my free 4GB thumbdrive. I called up Suntec Carrefour and the person was trying to contact me at the same time. He said he made a mistake in invoicing and would appreciate if I can go down and re-do the transaction. He also said that the free thumbdrive is given when I go to funan IT mall to redeem my S$300 bucks rebate. Deep inside I had 2 choices.
1. I can just say that I'm not going back suntec anymore and forget about the matter.
2. I go back and re-do the transaction, who knows the salesman may get blackmarked or bonus cut if I didn't go back. (Being a honest person and want to stand righteous in front of God, I definitely would choose the later option)
As I was going back home to have dinner with my parents, I asked them whether they would like to go suntec to eat and coincidentally they said that my lil sis want to go Marina Square to shop for clothes. That was when I know what I should do.

I fetched my parents and my lil sis to marina square and ate at the food loth and while they were shopping, i went to Suntec Carrefour. When I reached there, I was in for a surprise. The salesman spoke to the management and they felt that they should honour their mistake and they decided not to pursue the S$100 bucks. Yeah! That would make my laptop cost S$1.9k. I honored God by going back to Suntec (means forgoing 100 bucks) even though it's troublesome and He honored back by giving the S$100 back. The salesman asked me to recommend my frens to A### and of coz not to mention about this mistake. (hee) When I told Jingxian that I purchased A### instead of D###, she said I made the better choice because D### purchases their components from various different suppliers (depending on stock and price). That would mean 1 D### laptop with the same spec may have different component (maker) to another D### laptop! Thank God I heed His voice and didn't went to buy D###. I pray and I believe that this laptop will last me at least 4 years! Thank God for His goodness. =)

posted by tornado @ 3:38 AM