- “B” for Bad Offer. This guy is happy with his operating system, but says the RAM is lacking.
Ruth Sloan, a sweet 83-year-old woman, was flipping through her Plain Dealer recently when she spotted a full page ad that was right up her alley. Sprawled across the page was an offer for laptop computers on the cheap, part of a “new national program,” the copy claimed.
Underneath a grainy shot of a your everyday laptop, the text explained that consumers could get their hands on a limited supply of EZ Books — “Windows powered PCs” perfect for “students, grandparents and small businesses.” The computers ran “$600 in stores,” the text read, but if consumers called before “lines close in 48 hours,” they’d only have to dish out $179 for the hardware. Sloan was sold on what appeared to be a legit offer.
“I had been thinking about getting one so I could keep in touch closer with my cousin in Virginia,” she tells Scene. “I’m 83 and it’s hard for me to read and I can’t do much writing, so I thought this would be a good way.”
But when the delivery hit her doorstep, Sloan says she was stuck with a bunk product.
More info after the jump.
This article appears in Aug 18-24, 2010.
CVS and Kmart are selling similar 7″ netbooks. The CVS computer, a Sylvania, runs Windows CE and sells for $99.99…supposedly most CVS stores sold out of it the moment last Sunday’s newspaper came out with the front page ad in the CVS circular. Kmart’s is an Augen 7″ netbook that runs Google Android. I did buy one of the Sylvania’s from CVS…the netbook is good for just casual internet surfing and e-mail, but cannot download large files or view certain websites. Windows CE (which is a Windows made for mobile phones) runs almost like Windows 98 on these 7″ netbooks. The Sylvania also has 3 USB ports and an SD card slot for expanding the memory/storage. The Sylvania also appears to be similar to the EZ Book netbooks being sold via newspaper ads and online. There are also dedicated shortcuts for Facebook and YouTube…but the video is choppy and the sound is tinny. Basically, with these $99 netbooks (as well as the overpriced EZ Book), you get what you paid for. If you don’t mind Windows CE and just basic e-mail and web surfing, the Sylvania netbook is for you. Don’t expect it to work like a full-sized laptop (or even a $200-$300 netbook.) Don’t know much about the Augen, but I have read complaints about it on Kmart’s website, in the forums section. And unlike the EZ Book, at least CVS gives you 60 days to return the netbook if you’re not happy with it, and Kmart, 30 days.