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About LinkBacksRead more.And do such allegiances influence your buying decisions?
Read more.And do such allegiances influence your buying decisions?
None. They have to give me the price/performance and attributes I need in a device.
None really, I usually go for what does the job I need it to.
Jon
Loyal to? None.
Avoid? Those that have either given me good personal reason to avoid, or something publicly known, such as certain recent PSU problems.
But it is true that where I have repeated experience of a company's products, without trouble, it encourages me to risk them again rather than a shot in the dark. Even better, arguably, is where there has been a product issue and the company has demonstrated top class customer service in how they deal with it.
An example of the first of those is Seasonic. I tend to prefer their PSUs because none have ever given me problems. I don't know what their CS is like, having never needed to call on it. Similarly, though not recently, Enermax and Delta.
What I am certainly willing to do, though, is to pay a bit of a premium for products from a company whose past product performance has impressed me. If it continues to do that, it's worth a hassle-avoidance premium, aslong as it's not overdone.
A lesson learned from PeterB about dignity in adversity, so Peter, In Memorium, "Onwards and Upwards".
None really. They'd all throw me under the bus to increase the share price by one point. Personally I hate Apple due to the over closed, over priced nature. Google used to be ok (I use to be a big Google fan boy but really think they've lost it since the founders left) but seem to be throwing out everything good while chasing new vanity projects and jacking up prices/lock in.
That kind of only leaves me with Microsoft for a consumer OS/Browser with decent support (I like cloud sync) and at least some loyalty back (Microsoft points FTW). Best of bad choice TBH.
(Could you count Amazon as a tech firm? They are in a similar position to Microsoft but with worse employee treatment so i'd still go Microsoft.)
Here's hoping for a new firm to come out from nowhere and give me some more options.
None really. However there are a couple of companies where exceptional customer service experience would encourage me to buy from them again. An example would be Fractal who have sorted me out on a couple of occasions; once when the retailer shirked their responsibilities for a faulty item, and another sorting me out with replacement parts. I think Scythe sorted me out (at my cost, but a reasonable one) with a replacement fan that I just couldn't find at retail (non-standard size) when the original one on a cooler had worn out and become noisy after years of use. For these two companies, I've been continually impressed with quality and value, too. I do hope Fractal's proposed stock listing doesn't impact the company's values.
It's not exclusive to these companies, and there are brands I have come to expect consistent quality and support from over the years.
As for avoiding, I try to avoid writing-off companies based on anecdotes as all companies can have failures. However there's one company who produce memory/flash products that I seem to have had particularly bad luck with, with very high failure rates and/or poor performance. I still use a couple of products from them without issue but at this point I am inclined to avoid them.
I'm quite forgiving when it comes to failures, I just try to be pragmatic about it rather than getting emotional over a single failure. However, customer service in the event of a problem can make or break a company/retailer for me. There is one non-technology retailer who I had an appalling, unprofessional experience with and am unlikely to ever touch again. Having checked Google reviews of this company, it seems they have the same attitude towards many customers. It is the problem with using star ratings for customer service, and people leaving 5 star reviews for simply receiving the goods they ordered - it drowns out the complaints of people who have actually had to deal with customer service.
/rant. Well it was kinda related to the OP question!
I am loyal to the brands that have never let me down or failed me. The only one that really stands out though is AMD - Never ever had a problem with any of their products, no matter how much I push them, and I've had loads over the years. I've tried Intel, but I've had two of them fail on me (and they weren't even overlocked!)
None. If the product has positive reviews from a trusted source, I can even give a chance to an unknown company.
The closest to what I would describe as trustworthy computer-related brand, would be Seasonic. Their PSUs never failed me (I used to build PCs for a living, so some considerable numbers passed through my hands). Never had a chance to use their customer support.
I'm not loyal to any companies but there are some that I prefer to use over others.
The PC part space is far too restricted for me to be fussy about what I buy. If I want a graphics card you look at whats in my price/performance/power window then pick the quietest one without caring too much if its Nvidia or Amd. Cases are worse, try finding nice cases these days where the buttons & usb aren't on the top.
The only company I insist on using (not by choice) is Microsoft because of a mouse they stopped making 10 years ago.
The closest I can think of, in terms of a tech company I've bought from repeatedly over the years despite there being other offerings, would be my e-mail provider, FastMail. Their user interface is great, they've introduced new features over the years to enhance the product, and they don't mine your e-mail to sell data to other companies or place ads. Initially the latter was what drew me to them, but now it would be really hard to go back to GMail due to FastMail's superior user interface (and not just for mail, but for calendar as well...and I've used Google Calendar for work in the past year).
There might be an e-mail provider with an even better interface, or a similar one for a lower price, that also isn't an ad company. But I have no reason to spend time looking for one.
In terms of hardware, I'm not really a repeat buyer from much of anyone. To some extent good past performance increases the likelihood I'll buy again - e.g. my current PSU is my first Seasonic, and I may well buy one again. But not necessarily - my last GPU was a Sapphire, and it was great, but I went MSI this time. My laptop also happens to be MSI, but I went to the store thinking I'd buy a Dell, and bought the MSI because the "soft" parts of the hardware - the ergonomics, basically - were better. I've been happy with it, but my roommate has an MSI with an RTX 2080 that sounds like a helicopter about to take off, so I know they ship laptops with rubbish cooling systems as well.
It's more likely that I'll avoid companies, but even that can shift over time. I used to avoid Apple because of their walled garden, but once it eventually became unfeasible to remain on Symbian, I wound up switching to Apple because that was the lesser evil compared to Google's data-selling practices (and because Windows Phone was moribund by that point). I used to avoid Acer because of their reputation for shoddy quality, but a friend has an Acer gaming laptop that has been surprisingly robust for several years now, so maybe they've fixed their old problems.
I can't think of any company I am loyal to, I guess the closest I come is loyal to Google via Android but I have no loyalty to phone manufacturers within that depending on who will give me the hardware features I want with stock Android (because I don't want to be tied to/get used to a particular company's features/skin). I choose based on results - I've used both Intel/AMD and AMD/NVidia with various AIB providers. I've stuck with Gigabyte and Corsair for motherboards and RAM respectively for the last 2 PCs but my current PC is nearly 12 years old so who knows who I'll got for with my next (whenever that may be).
I do however have strong disloyalties - I'll never touch PNY again after the fiasco of their Ti4x00 series blue screening because the AGP contacts weren't the correct width.
Seasonic and Noctua. Seasonic because after having an Antec PSU go bang after only 3 years and discovering most PSU's are built by 2 or 3 manufactures I've always gone straight to the horses mouth. And Noctua because after having tried so many fans, and coolers, and always being disappointed I've always gone with Noctua because there's no question if it's good or not and having experienced a top notch RMA recently because of an incompatible PWM signal with Gigabyte MoBo's.
Actually, when I expand the box of tech company a bit, there is one I'm at least semi-loyal to. That's the U.S. retailer MicroCenter. They are the only sizable, high-quality computer store I know of in the entire country, but they're great. Great selection, pretty knowledgeable sales associates, you can find almost anything you might need there. Even better, you can safely send relatives there and know that while they might not get the exact thing you'd have recommended, they'll at least get something that'll serve their needs pretty well. Someone who only surfs the web won't walk out with an Alienware, and someone who plays the latest games won't be sold a machine with Intel integrated graphics. It's great.
So I prefer to buy my hardware from the local MicroCenter when possible. Sometimes I need an obscure part they don't have (replacement battery for an ancient laptop, for example), but if they have it or something pretty close, I'm probably buying it there. Surprisingly often it actually winds up being cheaper than online, but even when it's a bit more expensive, it's worth it to have such a great computer store close.
Crucial for RAM, ASUS for motherboards & Coolermaster for water cooling, power supplies & cases.
Loyal to... can't say I'm loyal to any off the top of my head.
Forced to use.... plenty of software (and nvidia gpu's) due to my work and the software I use (adobe/autodesk for example), would I go elsewhere if I could, hell yes and I am trying to where possible but when you need 'industry standards' you're kind of screwed.
Do I have a preference for certain brands, possibly but that's only due to having good experience with them but that can easily change if I get a bad experience.
Are there brands I avoid, not specifically but I do my due diligence first and will avoid things if they look 'problematic'.
None.
And i must with some level of embarrassment say there are many i use, which i should go right now and delete any association with as they are that filthy.
Today i think it is more a question of who should we de disloyal to and hopefully stop as soon as possible.
It is sort of the same feeling i get in traffic when some one give me a big smile / wave / thumbs up, when i have just followed a basic traffic law,,,,,, those people should not do that they could scream and flip off the people that are disregarding basic traffic laws.
Back to hardware, looking at my RAM collection dating back to DDR ram, it do seem like i have been somewhat of a OCZ fanboy, but my last few computers have not been with that brand.
As for Motherboards i might have had a few more Asus than others, but again times dictate and when i was doing OC that of course rule out some boards.
My current Gigabyte aorus extreme 399 is the first one from that brand,,,,, and TBH though i did not get it with any OC in mind, i am still left with a not impressed feeling for what is after all a HEDT board.
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