Like everything else with Applied Intellect, our sales work a little differently than most other places.
Our sales focus on three primary areas.
1. Service and Repair.
For service and repairs we have no bench fees and aside from simple basic job, no typical set fees. Each job is unique, each customer is unique so we don’t treat things in a cookie-cutter fashion. For our standard repairs and upgrade pricing feel free to check out our Price List (coming soon). For everything else, come on down and let’s have a look. For most generic things pricing is simple. If you need a new hard drive installed, that’s cake. We do it all the time and we know what it costs and how long it will take.
But a lot of our repair work involves things like, for example, removing a pop-tart from a floppy drive, fixing a laptop that someone sat on, and, everybody’s favorite game “find the burning smell”. There’s simply no fair way to price these jobs in advance. Being it down and we’ll have a look. If it’s something we can fix in just a second (and a very large percentage of computer repairs are just dumb little tweaks that we can do in a minute or two) we don’t even charge for it.
Aside from a very few very standard items we do not keep a parts inventory. A parts inventory that would be functional for all of the massive varieties of computers that exist in the world that we see every week would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and fill a good sized warehouse. We’d be happy to do that, but if we do we’re going to have to triple our prices and neither of us wants that.
This however does give you the opportunity to save a fortune on your computer. You get to choose how you want us to handle the job. If it’s a MY GOD I ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE MY COMPUTER WORKING RIGHT NOW TODAY problem, we will gladly send a driver out to get your part right now. If it’s something where you need it as fast as reasonably possible, we’ll order the part overnight from a mainstream parts supplier or one of our wholesale distributors, but the shipping is hefty. If it’s a kind of thing where you need it soon but it’s not urgent, we’ll order it with our standard parts order (we do these twice a week) and you’ll have it in a few days.
Time is money, and the faster you want your computer fixed, the more it costs. Most people, the overwhelming majority, feel it’s totally worth saving a bunch of money to have us order the part from a wholesale distributor and wait a couple days for the parts fairy to arrive with their little box of computer magic.
Our group of trained A.D.D. enhanced caffeine freak weirdo Geeks work in our brand new state of the art tech area to fix your computers. Our tech area has 4 workstations and can handle 8-12 active repair jobs at any given moment. It’s typical for each tech to be working on anywhere from 1 to 4 computers at any given time.
2. Used Computers and Parts.
By working in partnership with the Group, AI sells the surplus computers that the Group gets donated for it’s uses. The Geek Group gets several thousand computers donated every year. The Group uses them for projects and classes. The Geek Group gives away hundreds of computers to other organizations, underprivileged students, and other worthwhile causes. The majority of computers donated to the Group are used in their projects, classes and philanthropic causes. However, this leaves a lot of machines that would normally just be scrapped.
Applied Intellect overhauls these machines and sells them for the Group at a massively reduced cost to the public. These computers are usually sold to broke college kids, but we do see a wide variety of people that want a cheap and simple computer. They’re called our “Hundred Dollar Computers” and we’re famous for them.
The exact specifications vary day to day as the stock changes constantly. But these are rock simple computers that are fast enough to run Window XP at a useable speed. This means USEABLE speed, not “It will boot” speed. You can get XP to run on an incredibly bad computer, but it’s far too slow to be useable.
We use those computers for Linux, and they work great.
Now, each computer comes with a basic monitor, keyboard, mouse and Kubuntu operating system with all the typical software a student needs. They’re broadband-internet ready (this means they come with ethernet) and if you have a typical college dorm internet connection you can get right on the net with one. They come with Open Office so you can type papers and do homework.
For cost reasons they do NOT COME WITH WINDOWS. If you want Windows on it, bring us your disk and we’ll be happy to install it for you right here while you wait. Most people just do it at home. If you want a new copy of Windows on it and don’t have a copy, get one from a friend or we can sell you a full legal version, but you just doubled the cost of the computer.
This is why we put Linux on them. If you’re new to Linux, don’t worry, a lot of people are. But it’s not what most people think. Modern day Linux is a very wonderful replacement for Windows for the average user, especially a college student. You can do all of the basic things you’re used to from use the internet (Firefox was originally a Linux program!), type papers (Open Office is not only much faster and more stable than Microsoft office, it’s also $700 cheaper!) to put music on your iPod or anything else. The only thing our Linux computers don’t have that your windows machines do is Anti virus.
Because Linux machines don’t get viruses.
There’s also a lot of other things you’ll have to get used to in Linux, like not having to reboot your computer all the time (Linux machines often run for many years without ever having to reboot). Your hard drive will *never* need to be defragged in Linux. Your computer will not get slower and slower every month like a Windows machine does (this is why a Windows machine needs a complete overhaul and re-install about once a year or so). Linux is very different in it’s inner workings, but the look and feel is very, very similar to windows. It’s easy to use and lots of fun.
And everything in Linux, is free.
So, for $100 you get a simple basic computer that will work for any student and the majority of home users. These work just fine as-is, or you can upgrade to your hearts content and the limits of your budget.
3. New Computer Systems
There are no standard prices for our new computer systems. This is because A: the prices change every day on computer parts, and B: every customer is unique. The first step in our building you a new computer involves something that’s very rare in most other computer shops.
It’s called Listening to the Client.
We have a seat and take some time to hear exactly what you want to do with your computer. We listen to what your wants and needs are and we work out what your reasonable budget is. We work out what you want versus what you need versus what you can actually afford and we find the right set of specifications that works for your individual set of circumstances.
If you’re a generic person with no real personality and don’t care about actually having a computer that works for what you want it for, go to a big box store and hand the first smiling salesman you see your wallet and pick something shiny. You deserve what you get. Don’t worry, we’re happy to fix those machines too.
We feel that if you’re going to buy something as profoundly personal and unique as a computer, an appliance that you’re going to have for years and spend several hours a day in front of it, that it’s our duty to build you the best machine that we can for your needs. Because of this our computers are as unique as fingerprints. We take such pride in our work that if you look inside one of our new computers, the names of the techs that built it are autographed on the inside of the case.
There is no limit to the computer we can built you except for your imagination and budget. We can do everything from basic used hundred-dollar-systems, up to 12 screen in-home supercomputers with water cooling 16 processor cores, and laser-projected keyboards. We have built computers for in-car use (our Geekmobiles are an excellent showcase of custom car computers), to modified laptops, and anything else you could ever dream of. We build cases by hand in our machine shop and can do carvings and engravings on our state of the art CNC equipment. There really are no limits and we can do this for single machines or outfit your entire company with 200 new machines. No job is too big or too small. Our largest single order to date is 208 computers for a single client.
So give us a call at 381-TECH and let’s see what we can do to make your digital life better! This guy wants to answer your call. Because right now he’s just surfing midget porn and slacking off listening to old Metallica albums.
