<p>My son will be attending UB in the fall and he is our first going off to college. Im curious how competitive on-site stores like UB Micro are opposed to buying a laptop through a store or online. Does anyone have any experiences or recommendations either way? Well be checking the website ourselves, of course, and comparison shopping, but I thought Id ask for first-hand insight at the same time.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Dell for UB son. (gift) My computerphile son loves it.
Dell gift) for non- UB son. Then MacBook Pro, which is unbelievable. We bought this on Amazon- cheaper than the Apple website online.</p>
<p>Whether you get the laptop before or up at school, it is nice to know there is a nice computer store on North campus for any accessories you may need. (Also the UB bookstore carries some accessories too.</p>
<p>Get prices from UB and then yourself and see which is cheaper.</p>
<p>UB Micro’s prices are fair, but nothing to marvel at. They don’t seem to be any better than the big-box stores and you can almost certainly get a better deal online.</p>
<p>UB Micro generally sells business-oriented laptops, for example they carry the Dell Latitude. While they are definitely good for the business environment, I don’t see much of an advantage for the college student. I was able to get a much more powerful XPS from Dell for cheaper than the Latitude I was looking at from UB Micro.</p>
<p>UB Micro does offer extended service plans which are pretty comprehensive, but I don’t believe they are worth the money. Take care of the computer and you shouldn’t have any issues - and if you do have an issue, it’s not likely going to cost as much to fix it as you end up paying for the service plan (unless you drop it and it shatters).</p>
<p>Their repair services are nothing special, maybe slightly higher quality than you’d get at a big box store but not much. Their number one solution for everything seems to be reformat and reinstall.</p>
<p>Yes, UB Micro is convenient, but in my opinion they really don’t offer anything that others do not, and you can usually find more bang for your buck online.</p>
<p>We shopped locally and online last year and ended up buying a business class laptop from Micro. Performance is very good, as expected, but it does seem much more rugged than our other laptops and is in perfect condition after a year of constant use and travel. They had awesome deals over the summer and beat Best Buy by quite a bit, even with an employee discount and my BB rewards points! It came with a $200 rebate, a Flip video camera, and a decent Canon printer/scanner for $19 which came in handy when she needed to print something quickly or the print center was backed up/closed. D picked it up the day she moved in and they had it completely set up for her, which was a great thing for me too! She had a couple of minor issues and Micro took care of her immediately (unlike my experiences with BB’s “black tie” warranty which usually ends up taking about 2 weeks:(.) Idk what the 3 year warranty cost from Micro was…it was included in the price as I remember but sounds like it may not be for all computers? I think they told D she could have a loaner if it would take more than a day or two to fix, which was a concern for her, but I may be mistaken. Her student insurance policy, which I highly recommend, covers actual breakage, theft, and accidental damage to all her electronics as well as her other possessions - that’s well worth the $100/year to us!</p>
<p>You might want to call/visit Micro and see what they offer… Shop everywhere and see what fits your budget/needs!</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies and information. The day after I posted this, we received a flyer in the mail from Micro telling us about deals that will be available starting on June 1st. Well definitely do our homework, but I always like to hear word-of-mouth recommendations.</p>