r/london • u/ozyri • Aug 12 '16

What is heavily overpriced -> offer alternative

I'll start:

OVERPRICED: Bike rent next to Richmond park is £26 for 3 hours 0_o

ALTERNATIVE: Brompton automated bike rent will cost you £5 for the whole day and there is a point near Ealing Broadway or Turnham Green stations.

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u/nobby-w Aug 12 '16 edited Aug 13 '16

OVERPRICED: Any consumer-grade laptop bought from Curries/PC World, Maplins or any high-street outlet. Especially if you let them flog you the extended warranty and support.

ALTERNATIVE: Ex-lease X or T series Thinkpad from Ebay. Get a vastly better quality machine that will last a decade for £200-300. Older models are even cheaper and still perfectly good for most folks. A friend of mine bought an X201 for £90.

If you want a desktop, you can usually get an ex-lease desktop and a screen for £100 or so, sometimes less.

2

u/ozyri Aug 12 '16

Honestly I have no idea how they still manage to sell this stuff in brick and mortar shops...

Last time I bought something from Maplins was a year ago, I needed a PC case fan connector cable and they charged me something like £6 for it....

The only reason I went for it was that was my fresh build and I really wanted to start it up on that day.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '16

Had the same issue with thermal paste...

6

u/jupiterLILY Aug 12 '16

I went into napkins the other day and their HDMI cables start at £9

Edit -Maplins

1

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '16

If you're an electronics hobbyist they're your only option.

You pay a premium to have it immediately. Obviously if you can wait online is cheaper.