Buying a UK spec PC

[audio]

I am trying to buy a UK spec. laptop. 

As I understand, French PC's are not only more expensive, they also come with a French operating system which possibly cannot be changed to English. Dell used to ship to France but now need a UK billing address, which I expect means that the 1 year warranty collect and return from France will not apply. Does anyone know of a company that will supply to France?

Toshiba, HP and Acer will not ship here.

Thank you.

[Clair]

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1398548/ShowPost.aspx

[Boiling a frog]

If you phone Dell France you can order and have delivered a computer with QWERTY keyboard and english operating system

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

If you get Vista, you can select English as your language anyway. And it's not hard getting used to the AZERTY keyboard. The only downside to AZERTY is the fact it's a pain in the bum to use numbers.

[woolybanana]

Are they really more expensive in France or is it the fall in the pound that has not yet worked through the system?

[audio]

Thank you for your replies.

 

1. I phoned Dell today, they will not deliver to France without a UK billing address.
2. I did order from Dell some years ago, but now the rules have changed as above.
3. You can change the Windows to English but only if you have the Vista Ultimate version (very expensive, talked about elsewhere on this forum)
4. Pc's are definitely more expensive in France, especially if you are receiving your pension etc in £s from the UK.

Regards.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Try this lady at Dell.

Isha Singhal

Sr Sales Expert

DHS CONSUMER SALES

0870-907-5128 extn.74206

Fax-0870-353-1312

[email protected]

She sold me my laptop a year ago and almost sold another to us earlier this year. Everyone else at Dell says no, this lady says yes. Note that shipping will be around £80.

[Boiling a frog]

[quote user="audio"]

Thank you for your replies.

 

1. I phoned Dell today, they will not deliver to France without a UK billing address.

2. I did order from Dell some years ago, but now the rules have changed as above.

3. You can change the Windows to English but only if you have the Vista Ultimate version (very expensive, talked about elsewhere on this forum)

4. Pc's are definitely more expensive in France, especially if you are receiving your pension etc in £s from the UK.

Regards.

[/quote]

 

I did say phone dell france not dell UK

[audio]

Yes thank you Boiling a Frog, you did say phone dell france not dell UK.

but the cost of the most basic laptop is 80 Euros more here, at present times, for me, that is a lot more to pay.

[audio]

LyndaandRichard,

 

Thank you very much about the information Re: Isha at Dell, yes she will ship to France but now the cost is down to £20

Regards

Audio

[Maricopa]

[quote user="LyndaandRichard"]The only downside to AZERTY is the fact it's a pain in the bum to use numbers.
[/quote]

Unless you use the number pad to the right?[geek]

[Âme]

[quote user="Maricopa"]Unless you use the number pad to the right?[geek][/quote]

But there isn't a dedicated number pad on most laptops, it's a fandangle of function keys to change some letters to numbers... I'm tempted by this rather nifty travel set including a separate number pad from France Telecom, comes some extra USB slots so you can plug in all the hardware.

Windows sets the keyboard to function as AZERTY or QUERTY, it doesn't matter what's printed on the keys. You can get a set of stickers (the RNIB do large print ones [I]) to convert a keyboard if you don't touch type.

I'm interested to know whether others have battery problems when they take a French laptop to the UK or vice versa. My (FR) battery doesn't charge properly in the UK, but is fine in France & Spain. I wonder if there's something different about the "box" on the cable, anyone know?

[Maricopa]

[quote user="âme"]But there isn't a dedicated number pad on most laptops,[/quote]

But the OP was talking about a PC?

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

They're all PCs. It just stands for 'Personal Computer' The UK Personal Computer World magazine was in print about 5 years before IBM brought out the 'IBM PC'.

[Bugsy]

Cheap as chips

Numeric Keypad

[Maricopa]

[quote user="Albert the InfoGipsy"]They're all PCs. It just stands for 'Personal Computer' .[/quote]

You are of course quite correct ATIG.  I prefer to use the term PC to refer to a tower (say) containing the CPU, drives etc, a screen and a keyboard, as opposed to a self-contained unit like a Laptop (sorry, yes I know they are not called that anymore).[:D]

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

[quote user="Bugbear"]Cheap as chips

Numeric Keypad

[/quote]

We bought one of those. You have to turn num lock on in order to use it. Which means the uiopjklm keys become numbers too. Can be quite tricky to use.

Audio. Glad Isha could help you and fantastic price on shipping too Good news.

[Âme]

Interesting, L&R. The keypad wouldn't be much use to me.  It seems easier just to stick capslock on & use the top row figures. I suppose it depends how long your accounts are [:)]

BTW thx for the Dell contact. I've noted it for when this one slips off the wireless coil. Much obliged.

[audio]

I just found out one problem before ordering with Isha at Dell UK. The unit will only be guaranteed in the UK and is not covered by European warranty. The quote did say collect and return to base- but this is not the case, unless one undertakes an international warranty option at £109 extra. Worth thinking about as my last laptop had to be shipped back to the UK TWICE in the first 2 weeks of ownership at my expense-not cheap when you add insurance and  return carriage costs[:$]