Below is an article I wrote during the height of the credit crunch/recession. Whilst we are not in a recession currently some of the points it raises are still relevant.
Yes you're reading this right, we have a section on the recession. You may be asking why, well, bear with me and I will explain. before I do I would like to point out that after much deliberation this has probably been the hardest section of our website to write but, since this is something that seems to be affecting so many people I thought it was a relevant issue to address.
With so many companies laying off staff, down-sizing and/or going bust it can be a worry (when you have to make a big purchase) whether the company you buy from will be around in a few months, and therefor be able to fulfill the warranty the item came with. Whilst no-one can predict the future what we can do is offer some reassurance in the fact that we are in a cash-positive situation and as such do not rely on credit (that could be taken away without warning) to pay for our stock until we sell it. We realise that many other companies are not in this fortunate situation and we don't want this to sound like bragging, we are merely offering this information to try to give some peace of mind to our prospective customers.
On a more positive note about whether any company will be around to fulfill their duty to you, when you pay by credit card for item over £100 you are usually covered by what is called 'section 75' protection. Follow this link for more details www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases
When money is tight having a good computer could be the last thing on your list of priorities but, I would like to give you a little food for thought and I'm sorry if this is a bit long-winded. Without a computer you could either go to your usual supermarket and pay whatever they ask for the shopping you need or, travel miles touring them all in the hope of getting a better price at the next one. With a computer you could spend a few minutes each week checking which store has the best offers, enabling you to go straight to it and save money. Even if this only knocks £5 of your weekly shopping bill we have full computer systems that could pay for themselves within less than a year. Then there are the savings you could make by managing your energy bills online or any of the the other money saving ideas that are readily available from www.moneysavingexpert.com
Now this is the bit I am really nervous about putting in and I hope that it is read in the spirit of trying to help. If you have a business that is suffering at the moment and your computers are around 5 years old, upgrading them to the latest specifications could mean the productivity of your staff will go up. Those 5 minutes waiting for a computer booting up each morning add up and I really dont want to be blunt, but let me run this scenario past you.
A company has a 5 strong admin team, each using a five-year-old computer.
by spending £1200 upgrading 4 of them to machines that work twice as
quick, the same work could then be done by only 4 staff thus saving the
wage bill of the fifth member of staff. - Which could mean the difference in
the survival of the company and all the remaining jobs being saved.
Sorry, I warned you it was blunt but I hope you will agree necessary. I would just like to add that I sincerely hope the compassion that this section has been written with has come across in my words here.
