Recently this happened to one of our customers:

This individual recently purchased a notebook from a discount retail store. The price seemed too good to be true.

It was labeled as a gaming machine. And he was ready to play.

He tried to install a game and couldn't get it to work. He called me and asked what could be the problem. I looked up the model with the distributor and manufacturer.

When he rattled off the specifications for the notebook he purchased and I compared them with the manufacturer's listed standard specifications for the same model # and UPC, they didn't match.

I talked to the manufacturer in question and was told that the discount store has non-vital components (like the listed audio and video cards) left out in order to offer the machines for deep discounts.

REMEMBER: YOUR COMPUTER IS AS MUCH AN INVESTMENT AS A CAR. (NOT QUITE AS COSTLY, BUT A SIMILAR TYPE OF PURCHASE IN OTHER WAYS). TAKE SOME TIME TO KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GETTING

Here are somethings you can do to protect yourself:

1) GET THE MANUFACTURER INFORMATION AND MODEL NUMBER. AND GET THE UPC SYMBOL FROM THE PRICE TAG. These will allow you to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges. Manufacturers do make several versions of a series of computers, with many different types of component configurations. However, when this is done the model number should change, AND THE UPC SYMBOL WILL DEFINITELY CHANGE. If you can not get to a place to compare UPC's - Brothers in Arms has the capability of comparing them at the distributor level.

2) Google the tag numbers you wrote down. You may get distributors, manufacturers, and retailers listing that item for sale. Brothers in Arms will be more than happy to provide this information to you at NO CHARGE.

3) Get at least 5-6 looks from different stores and compare the lists.

If you don't know what your looking at check the other threads in the forum.