Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), Is Not Just A Buzzword Anymore

According to webopedia TCO is defined like so:

Abbreviation of Total Cost of Ownership, a very popular buzzword representing how much it actually costs to own a PC. The TCO includes:

1. Original cost of the computer and software
2. Hardware and software upgrades
3. Maintenance
4. Technical support
5. Training

But what does that really mean for the average consumer? Not much I am afraid. Most people who go out and buy a Dell have no clue that TCO is something they should consider. No, they only think about point #1 and just assume that the rest of that stuff will magically be ok.

Most of the “average” consumers that I have talked to seem to think that the price on the sticker is the “real” price that they are going to pay. Thus when you compare Dells to Apples the Dells always look better. But looks can be deceiving.

You see, when you buy a PC you obviously first look at the price tag. And let’s say a Brand New Dell cost $500. Then you have to add in virus protection, which costs anywhere for $30 - $60 per year. And of course you have to think about buying software and upgrading your OS. All of these things are fairly obvious and even the densest consumers have some inkling about their importance.

Well, that marks #1, 2 & 3 from the list and #5 really don’t apply so that leaves us with #4. And oddly enough most people tend to forget that very important selling point. You see, when you buy a Dell you get, free for a year, Dell’s suck-ass tech support. Of course at the time most consumers don’t think about that, all they care about is that their Dell cost $200 less than my Mac. And they chortle to themselves about the great deal they got. But when a problem comes up I can rest easy knowing that (according to consumer reports and my own experience) Apple has, by far, the best tech support around.

This situation is kind of similar to when I hear people talk about how good a deal they got on their Hyundai and how cheaper it was than a Honda. Ok, but what happens if it breaks down? And you have to get it repaired? Is it cheaper then? Because Hondas have awesome reliability, Hyundais, not so much. So, you need to assume that it will break and thus you will need to pay for repairs. How can that not be part of your buying process when looking for a car?

All of this leads me up to today’s story. This tale is about a good friend of mine and her mother. Both the friend and the mother are very smart people, in their field. However, they have little computer savvy. Thus, when their machine breaks they call tech support. This is a summary of what happened:

They plugged in a digital camera and couldn’t get it to load pictures onto the harddrive. No problem, they just call tech support. And who should pick up but a friendly resident of India! Who, in heavily accented and broken English, attempts to help them with their problem. Well, not to be daunted by this cab driver turned tech support helper they begin to lay out for him their fairly simple problem. His solution? You know you’re going to love it! Wait for it, wait for it. . .

Reformat the %@#*&!~ harddrive!

See, that $200 you saved isn’t looking so important now is it? But let me get back to the story. They didn’t know any better so they decided to take his advice and reformat the harddrive. Now, before all of you computer literate folks start calling them morons please remember that they don’t know as much about their machines as you do. So, before you judge them think about this. If you went to the hospital and the doctor told you that you were sick and needed to take a certain medication would you believe him? Sure, because he is a doctor and he works in a hospital and he has a nametag. And as far as you are concerned he knows more about the problem than you do so you are going to take his advice and use the medicine. You have no way of knowing if he gave you sugar pills or anthrax. You are just trusting that he is a real doctor who really knows what he is doing.

So, having said that I shall once again return to my story. They proceed to reformat the harddrive. Once they are done he tells them to insert their restore disks. What are those they ask? Why, the backups you made before wiping your drive, he responds. But you never told us to do that, they wail. Um, didn’t it say that on the screen? Yeah, but we didn’t know what it meant and you didn’t say anything about it so we just clicked past it. In fact, they only were able to save some documents and a few pictures to their harddrive.

But it gets better. They can’t find their application restore disks either. Uh oh. So what do they do? Why, the buy another set of disks from the same fools who told them to reformat their harddrive, then they ship their computer back to the manufacture who then reinstalls their software for them and then ships their computer back to them a few days later. The phone calls took hours, the repairs took days, but the best is yet to come.

When she tells me this entire story I look at her and quietly inform her that maybe she should look into getting a Mac. Her response? Oh no, we would never do that, they are too hard to use. Hard to use? Damn, you just went through all of that and still think Macs are hard to use? How freaking stupid can you get?

And yet this mindset is more common than you think. So, next time you argue with someone about getting a Mac don’t bother talking about OS X, or how cool the computer looks, or how there aren’t any viruses for the Mac, instead, talk about tech support. And how when you call Apple’s help line you can be guaranteed to talk to someone who a) speaks your language, b) has a brain and c) can actually help you fix your problem.

Isn’t that worth a few extra bucks?

Nah, probably not. Much easier just to reformat your harddrive every time there is a problem.