I worked at a Computer Store Service Center and they paid us by the hour. They at some point in time paid employees with raises, but in all those years I never saw a raise or a cost of living increase. This win about 26 years of working there as a computer repair service technician. Yes I did speak to management many times about a raise, but they had a different excuse every time.
What management did was go to a incentive type program. This meant that we earned a bonus by how much money we made for the company. Even though management would not admit it, we were working by commission. They would refer it as a certain number of billable hours. The problem was that management would change the hours we put in and that way I hardly ever got any bonus. I found that the onsite technicians always made the bonus, because their driving time was billable. There were times when I made the high billable hours, but again there was an excuse. The teachers pets always seemed to get the bonus.
Okay, so back to the point of this blog post. You should find out if the computer store you are shopping at works by commission. One the sure ways to tell is if they keep trying to add more items to your shopping list. They may try to sell you the lower cost item and then try to push you into the more expensive item. If they are doing this, then it's time to leave and shop some place else. Believe me I did see the sales people try to do this to customers and I hated it. I remember one sales person tell me it was their job to lie to the customer. My response was , if you have to lie to someone to sell something, then there is something wrong with what you are doing.
So my advise is to shop at a variety of different stores, especially if you are looking for a new computer. Keep track of all the prices and pay attention of how the sales people work. I would also suggest to check out Amazon and Ebay for what they have to offer. Most local computer companies will build the computer they are selling. Generally they use the same motherboards and other parts in their builds. This way it's easy for them and may be cheaper for them. I would just look at what they are using, because you could be buying a cheap piece of junk.