May 29, 2008 10:33 PM
4149 Views
I dont know about you folks, but as soon as the news spread that I was gonna visit the holy land of USA, random requests started pouring in from near and dear ones to'long lost dont know dont care about your existence' friends to get electric equipment of all kinds from there which they intended to collect post my return.
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" Hi Sourav, remember me? "
" mmm. NO "
"Guess who ! "
" Seriously can't! "
" Its me Anukriti . dont you remember me? "
( trying not to hurt feelings) " Oh yeah . how could I forget . how have you been? "
" Really well thanks .! "
. a little silence . expecting her to ask me how I have been .
" So I heard you were going to the states?"
" You did? Wow . news sure spreads fast among school friends . haa! "
"School . noooo I was in your 9th standard Math tutions . "
OOPS . embarrassment ? . So you think . she didnt care .
" Never mind . can you please bring back an small vaccum cleaner for me "
. Neither did I .
" Oh I wish you had called 1 week earlier . I am getting stuff for 6 people . would be all packed up .blah blah(excuses excuses) "
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But its a common thing to expect people going to the states to bring back electronic goodies which of course would be much cheaper than the market here. Well if you are one of those people I am sure this review would be an eye opener.
I bought 6 things from there(at relatively cheap rates, ofcourse) . 2 laptops(one for me, and one for my friend), an ipod nano, an 8 GB pen drive, a duck shaped fancy cordless phone with QUACK QUACK for ringing (for my friend) and a 500 GB external hard disk.
No doubt most of the things were very cheap.
1. The laptops I got were for$750 each with 1 GB Ram, AMD processor 160 GB hard disk . a good deal no doubt. HP vouched for a world wide warranty.( almost half the price they were available for in India). The one I gave to my friend blew up its NVIDIA video card within 3 months of use and the HP Indian service centers " DO NOT" accept worldwide warranty issued by USA.
2.The Ipod Nano was for$120 . I know they come a lot cheaper now but then, Ipod was the thing to own. This Ipod works just fine . just that you could get it now( 1 year later) for half the rate I bought it for.
3.8 GB Pen drive was for$60. I know it didnt make sence but I just had to have it because my friends back in India had never heard of a pen drive with a greater capacity than 2 GB back then.
My eagerness to boast proved a little too expensive as it decided to stop working one fine day( hardly 5 months down the line).
4. The duck phone was for$70. I have no idea how much it was for in India but my friend wanted it so badly that I just had to oblige. The rechargable batteries blew up within 10 minutes. This was because US has 140 V circuits and India has 220V or something. My friend now keeps the duck as a show piece as though he paid a heft amount repairing it, it only accepts calls, you cannot disconnect. The electrician said he did not have the chip meant for disconnecting calls which also blew up among other things along with the batteries.To disconnect as the electrician explained, pocketing the money he earned from my friend, just yank the wire out. Simple!
5.My 500 GB hard disk which I got for a mere$100 at thanksgiving was the best thing I spent money on. For 3900 Rs(its indian equivalent) you hardly get a 160GB hard disk here.
But what I intend to say out aloud by this review is, though the thought that something you own is from another country might amuse you at first, but you just might have to end up paying dearly for it.
The world wide warranties issued by companies like HP and AT&T( laptops and the phone respectively) though might be acceptable in other countries but India runs by its own rules and you seriously cannot do something that is worth your effort. You would rather spend some money to prevent yourself from all that hassle.
So my advice is instead of gambling your money for a US bases product, buy things from India with warranty they cannot refuse. With the amount of globalisation, you get EVERYTHING here!
