It’s not just the price tag, you have to be careful about hidden costs and maintenance too.
Low-cost TVs, printers, personal computers, cameras or even music players make an appealing buy. But price tag is the only thing we focus on while buying these items and ignore the cost of maintenance that may be embedded. In most cases, the upfront cost of a device is only the tip of the iceberg. What lie beneath that ‘affordable’ price tag are hidden costs that come back to bite our budget.
PERSONAL COMPUTERS
The actual cost of owning a PC is one of the best-kept secrets. When a consumer pays Rs 25,000 for an entry-level notebook, no one counts in the cost of upgrading the operating system (OS), onboard memory, graphics card that supports the OS and even accessories like webcam or speakers, which complete the package.
If you want to watch movies stored on your PC on a high-definition TV set, your computer should have a video card with RCA, VGA or HDMI port, which is used to convert a computer’s video signal through a supporting cable that goes to a TV set. The cable costs extra, starting at Rs 500 and, if you want to have a good video card, that costs you an extra Rs 1,200 (approx).
S Rajendran, chief marketing officer of Acer India prescribes consumer must check on all the accessories he would get along with the purchase of the laptop or PC. “Users should know about the value-added tax applicable on the PC, as well as the warranty term (one year or more). One can also get additional warranty for the PC, which would cost around Rs 2,500 for two years,” says Rajendran.
Look out for a Recovery CD/DVD that should be bundled with the PC (in case your operating fails and crashes), because, unbelievably, some vendors do not supply one.
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PRINTERS
The sticker shock normally occurs in reverse when buying a printer — the surprise comes in when the consumer finds out that the printer cartridge price exceeds the cost of the printer itself. Typically, a compact printer for home users costs between Rs 3,000 and Rs 6,000.
Ramprasad S M, senior business manager (Consumer Product Group), Epson India suggests the average consumer usage is not very high so one need not worry about cost per page. “What needs to be factored is the cost of buying a single cartridge, because the user will often have situations where he needs to print just five to ten pages urgently. Cartridges for entry-level printers cost about Rs 700-800. Therefore, while choosing a printer, buy one that includes printing in colour and separate ink cartridges for each colour.” He concludes that an inkjet single-function or multifunction printer with individual cartridges delivers economic cost on each cartridge to home users.
Once you select a printer, find out the cartridge capacity (how many pages it will print). This is probably one of the most important questions in order to get the true cost per page.
TELEVISIONS
When people shell out over Rs 50,000 for a new flat-screen TV, the basic thing they should consider is what they are going to watch on it. A digital Direct-to-Home (DTH) subscription, which costs Rs 2,000 for the set-top box, about Rs 300 for installation and a recurring monthly subscription to watch the preferred channels are just a few costs to begin with.
If you are a premium consumer opting for a 3D TV, then companies like Samsung have ensured free installation. After all, you have paid anywhere between Rs 1,29,000 and Rs 4,35,000 for a 40-inch to 65-inch 3D TV. While a pair of 3D glasses is given free, for more a customer needs to pay Rs 4,990 (battery-type) to Rs 9,990 (rechargeable) for each pair of glasses.
It is recommended to invest on power surge protectors. While you could always go the cheap way and spend Rs 1,200 on a power regulator, a branded one would cost you Rs 1,700 or more. Most HDTV’s need an HDMI cable to deliver the true high-definition experience and these cables can be expensive (if not pre-packaged with your TV). The starting cost of HDMI cables is about Rs 1,000 and, depending on the length of the cable and quality, it can cost up to Rs 3,000.
CAMERAS & CAMCORDERS
Buying a digital camera or a camcorder can be troublesome — given the variety of brands and models available. Batteries and memory cards are the two most important accessories of any camera or camcorder. A protective camera or camcorder case (Rs 300 or more) is necessary, too, if you plan to take these along on a vacation.
Cameras that take in standard-sized AAA batteries are bound to give up within 20 shots or 15 minutes of video recording. It is advisable to get rechargeable batteries (a set of four costs between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,500) that make a cheaper proposition in the long run, even as they appear to be higher initial costs.
Cameras and camcorders have minimal amount of device memory, so it is a must that one forks out Rs 2,000 for a 16 GB card or Rs 950 for an 8GB one.
A handy tip while purchasing camcorders would be to completely ignore the megapixels, as these are the count of resolution of still pictures that they can take and have nothing to do with the videos. Instead, focus should be on the size of the sensor along with features like image stabilisation and sound-recording capability.