Incoming freshman S attending orientation next week. Received mailer to visit TechHub, the “official tech store of The Ohoo State University”. Anyone familiar with TechHub? Good value? They tout their warranties and on-campus support, which has some appeal if going to be on campus for 4 years and really heavily on computer…or maybe i’m over-thinking this? Appreciate any thoughts or experiences. Thanks. ps - S is in engineering, if that makes a difference.
Hi! I’m an upperclassman at OSU.
Unfortunately, TechHub is a new service offered this year, so experience as far as those on this forum will be limited. In my understanding, TechHub is going to be the new “Wired Out,” which was a similar service offered to students up until this coming school year. Wired Out simply outgrew where it was stationed, hence the new tech center.
I have used the BuckeyeBar, which is a service offered through TechHub. It’s free with a BuckID and it simply offers assistance with minor computer issues. For example, I had a laptop that crashed and BuckeyeBar was able to get all of my files from my old computer and put them on a flash drive.
I have also purchased things like Microsoft Student through Wired out, and the package was $30 cheaper than at Staples ten minutes down the road. I’m not sure about their deals on computers and things, but I have a friend who purchased a Mac from them and frequently uses their service to fix it (I tell her to scrap the thing, but that’s a side rant). They understand that students are in a time crunch, but whenever her laptop needed to be fixed, it was around a 5 day wait to get it back, which is super annoying, but more convenient than mailing it off to an outside company.
I don’t think that it’s a decision that has to be made right away, it’s simply an on-campus store that offers support. Definitely look around and if you find a better deal somewhere else, make your decision based on that!
-Sleepy.
@ReallySleepy Thanks for the info. We did visit TechHub at orientation a week ago. They were helpful, recommended a couple laptops for my S (engineering student). They did mention that computers are at student pricing from the manufacturers. They carried Dell and HP, but didn’t see some others like Asus, Lenovo, and Toshiba. We’ve always been PC people, so not likely to venture into Mac world at this point. I have seen promotion at dell.com that was cheaper than TechHub price for Dell Precision M3800 which included a free 32" TV. I also think Dell offers support times (including onsite) better than the 5 days that you mentioned for TechHub. Thinking we’ll wait a couple weeks, see what ‘back to school’ promotions might come out. Here is link to OSU TechHub site for those interested: https://techhub.osu.edu. BTW - TechHub rep also mentioned that all OSU students will be getting free license for Microsoft 360, so he advised to holdoff on purchasing Microsoft Office. Not sure the details, i assume he knows what he’s talking about. Good luck all!