[REQUEST] Need suggestions/advice

[GTP]

I have a good client who lives in Japan. His parents live here in Aus (not far from me). He is a keen gamer and has started playing Mortal Kombat X.
Unfortunately, his present laptop hasn't got the "gumbo" to run the game at any descent resolution and it is very slow and laggy.
He has decided to get a new "gaming laptop" and want's me to supply it!
Naturally, I have some questions!
1. I'm in Australia. With the dollar the way it is wouldn't he be better purchasing locally or even from North America?
Once he got the unit I could set it up for him remotely, I don't think that would be a problem.
2. How would I get it to him if I purchased it? I reckon freight/postage/courier would be a killer with the cost?
3. Have any of you guys shipped a laptop to somewhere else in the world? What was the experience etc?
4. If I sourced it here and he had an (hardware) issue how would he go with warranty?

I've got clients all over the world that I support remotely, but I've never had to supply the hardware.

Any advice/suggestions appreciated.
TIA

 

[Mick]

I've got clients all over the world that I support remotely...
TIA

Really? Blimey, I haven't got a single one more than twenty miles away. How on earth did you manage that? More on topic, surely there are some outlets in Japan that sell this kind of gear and have someone who can speak English? Couldn't you liaise with them? - assuming you can find them, obviously...

 

[JoelM]

What I have done in that situation is had them pay me a consulting fee to find & spec a machine for them to purchase & then they purchase the machine themselves.
If I cannot see or translate the website they are looking at I have them send me the specs and I direct them on which way to go.
They pay me for my time which I calculate to be what my mark-up would have been on the equipment.

 

[GTP]

How on earth did you manage that?

Word of mouth mostly! Friends and Family of clients here that live/work OS, but cannot find descent help when needed!
This client is an English teacher, teaching Japanese students to speak English.
He can speak Japanese fluently, so shopping for a computer there would be easy for him, as long as he knew what to ask/look for I suppose.

What I have done in that situation is had them pay me a consulting fee to find & spec a machine for them to purchase & then they purchase the machine themselves.
If I cannot see or translate the website they are looking at I have them send me the specs and I direct them on which way to go.
They pay me for my time which I calculate to be what my mark-up would have been on the equipment.

Yes, this is what I may end up doing.
There is the possibility that his Parents are going to visit him shortly, so maybe they could just take it with them?
Not sure what charges/penalty they would have to pay for extra freight on a "long haul" flight from Aus to Japan?

 

[Mick]

Just one thing: If he does wind up buying locally, tell him to check - as in, actually get it out of the box - that it has an English character keyboard. May sound obvious, but having had - once! - to work on a laptop with a Chinese character keyboard (and desperately trying to plot the QWERTY characters on to it in my head) it's not something I want to do again! I guess - assuming he trusts you, which I guess he does - your plan of asking Mum and Dad to take it with them is probably as good as any.

 

[Krynn72]

Not sure what charges/penalty they would have to pay for extra freight on a "long haul" flight from Aus to Japan?

If its a laptop, I'm sure they could just include it in their normal luggage or carry on. But also, given that he lives there and his family lives in Aus, I'm sure he's aware of the shipping rates, so he might be fine with it already.

 

[Markverhyden]

4. If I sourced it here and he had an (hardware) issue how would he go with warranty?
TIA

Warranties, because they are basically insurance plans, are country based. So no warranty repair in Japan for a laptop purchased anywhere else. Generally speaking the same goes for OEM parts.

 

[GTP]

Just one thing: If he does wind up buying locally, tell him to check - as in, actually get it out of the box - that it has an English character keyboard. May sound obvious, but having had - once! - to work on a laptop with a Chinese character keyboard (and desperately trying to plot the QWERTY characters on to it in my head) it's not something I want to do again! I guess - assuming he trusts you, which I guess he does - your plan of asking Mum and Dad to take it with them is probably as good as any.

This guy speaks fluent Japanese so the keyboard and OS were Japanese, it wouldn't be a major issue for him. I would need to have it in English though to provide support!

Warranties, because they are basically insurance plans, are country based. So no warranty repair in Japan for a laptop purchased anywhere else. Generally speaking the same goes for OEM parts.

Thanks @Markverhyden . I was thinking along the same lines. I will check each manufacturer to see what their warranty covers before hand.

 

[GTP]

You might surprise yourself at how fluent you are in Windows-in-other-languages. Over the past few years I've worked on Chinese, French, German, Danish, Italian, Japanese, and Hungarian machines brought in by clients with very few problems. The similarities are more striking than the differences and it's not as hard as you probably think.

Actually, thinking about it, I have a large cross section of clients from other ethnic origins. We have a large German population here as well as Dutch, Serbian and Eastern European generally, Danish, Russian, Italian, Greek, Chinese/Asian and of course, Indian etc. Most just have their computer setup in English but I do have some that use their native language. A quick keyboard switch to English fixes my problem but when the computer/Windows is actually setup in their language I need some help!

 

[GTP]

Update:
According to my client, finding an "English" gaming laptop is nearly impossible. He has asked at several major vendors with no luck.
They could order one in but they want almost double the cost! WTF!

So, shipping to Japan (door to door) from my suburb to his is AU$286.83 which includes insurance up to $5000. That's not too bad!
I can source MSI, EVGA and Dell (Alienware?) Gaming laptops here.
Based on the specs for Mortal Kombat X, which aren't that high, an EVGA SC17 or MSI GP62 or GS73, around $2.5 to $3.5k would be fine.

Not going to be as hard as Iinitially thought.
Only issue now is warranty. MSI have a "global" warranty but I need to study it in depth for exact details.

 

[GTP]

Update:
Just shipped a MSI GS73VR 7RF(Stealth Pro)-240AU Gaming Laptop, Asus ROG Spatha Gaming Mouse and complimentary MSI Backpack to Japan.
Cost to ship with $5000 insurance was $286.73 in two business days!

Comforting to know that MSI have a "Global pick up and delivery" warranty for 2 years! Sweet!

Another happy client!

 

[TECCS]

Very recently been to japan on my honeymoon. The gaming pc's and pc levels out there are excelent new tech showing up there first. The local shops there can mostly speak english unless rural. the other thing you need to think about is the voltage and plug sockets are different in japan and also the layout of the keyboard!! prices over there compared to england at least were roughly the same but the latest and best laptops were there.

 

[GTP]

Very recently been to japan on my honeymoon. The gaming pc's and pc levels out there are excelent new tech showing up there first. The local shops there can mostly speak english unless rural. the other thing you need to think about is the voltage and plug sockets are different in japan and also the layout of the keyboard!! prices over there compared to england at least were roughly the same but the latest and best laptops were there.

That's interesting! When I checked some of the Japanese retailers they could not/would not supply us with English/US Keyboards or even English versions of Windows unless we paid a premium! They could not supply "Gaming Laptops" as no-one uses/needs them.
As for power, he is already using an adaptor from Australian to Japanese socket on his current laptop, but I will make sure to mention the power socket mismatch to him.

 

[TECCS]

the keyboards were fine just not english layout but like the english uk and english us are slightly different. and just setup english as language for windows setup. the gaming laptops were available. However i do supose it depends where they are based.

 

[TECCS]

That sounds like a honeymoon well spent!

it was well spent 2 weeks in japan traveled a few places over 2 weeks then spent 5 days in hong kong