Which Computer Stores Offer the Best Advice and Service?
Last updated May 2025
If you need advice, buy from a store with staff that can help you choose products, get you started using new stuff, and solve any problems. You also want low prices. Unfortunately, we found the lowest prices are mostly offered by online-only retailers; if you need a store with personnel that can offer solid advice, you may pay more.
Which Stores Get Top Grades for Upgrades?
You’ll learn a lot by checking out impartial sources (CNET, PCMag, Consumer Reports). Some retailers also have staff who can offer helpful advice. When discussing options with salespeople and reading online product descriptions, remain skeptical. Remember, it’s a salesperson’s or website designer’s job to sell you merchandise, and the store makes more when you spend more.
Our Ratings Tables report how computer outlets were judged by consumers we surveyed (primarily Consumers’ Checkbook subscribers, but we also invited a sample of other area consumers to participate).
Our survey asked consumers to rate computer stores they had used “inferior,” “adequate,” or “superior” on several questions, such as “advice on choice and use of products,” “reliability (standing behind products, delivering on time),” and “overall quality.” For each store or chain that received at least 10 ratings, our Ratings Tables show the percentage of surveyed customers who rated it “superior” (as opposed to “inferior” or “adequate”) on each question. Click here for further discussion of our survey and other research methods.
As you can see, some stores received very high marks from their surveyed customers for important aspects of service. But others scored dreadfully low.
The best way to see if a product meets your needs is to try it. Many stores offer one-month trial periods for hardware, enabling you to return products you don’t like. Stores have much less liberal return policies for software. Since policies vary from company to company and from product to product, find out how much time you get to test or return a product, and ask specifically about restocking fees if you return a device after you’ve opened the box.
Be Careful When Buying Used
Because so many users trade up to get new devices, there’s a bustling secondhand electronics market. Although you can save a lot buying used tech vs. new, secondhand stuff often still comes with big price tags. And for computers, smartphones, TVs, and the like, it can be difficult to determine if a product is defective.
Be careful who you buy from. Avoid private sellers unless you know them or someone who can vouch for them.
Stuff that was returned because the buyer wanted something else is fine; in theory, that’s the same as buying new, but the box or packaging was unsealed.
Next-best are products refurbished by their manufacturers. You can still run into trouble, but at least most of these deals come with warranties and tech support. For example, Apple offers a one-year warranty on its refurbished phones, as does Samsung for its certified preowned phones. Dell offers a 100-day limited warranty and a 30-day guarantee on its refurbished machines. We’d buy under one of these plans, especially if it’s a gift for our accident-prone kids.
The problem? The latest models are rarely available used.
While refurbished stuff sold by manufacturers is probably fine, we wouldn’t buy secondhand items from other retailers. It’s unclear where their products came from or what (if anything) was done to refurbish them. Some stores hawk items that were returned because they were defective; the store or manufacturer has (hopefully) repaired them before dumping them onto the secondary market but we’d rather buy something never deemed defective.
If you’re thinking about buying from a retailer offering used stuff, read the fine print on your returns rights, guarantees, and warranties.
Don’t Buy Optional Extended Warranties
Most retailers will urge you to buy an extended warranty. These plans are profitable for the stores, but few consumers benefit from them. We recommend against buying them.
