Friends, don't let friends buy on E-Bay!

This has no menaing beyond myself, but I have to voice this out! I have a co-worker that asked me for advice on buying a second computer, as I am earning my Bachelor's in Network Admin. To categorize him in a short phrase- A cheap bastard! He is the only person I know who will take his wife out to eat at the Hometown Buffet for their Anniversary. Anyway, I digress.... After asking whether or not to buy a "new" laptop on E-bay, I told him that I wouldn't do it. You never know what you're getting, if you get it at all! But he kept telling me about how this is a "new computer", and that he will be getting the manufacturer's warranty, and that it will only cost $300. I asked him what brand, and what the specs were, and his response was it's a new Dell laptop, it has Windows XP, and it comes with a wireless card. I showed him some decent inexpensive computers, Sony's, even (gulp) HP's for next to nothing. Well, they were too expensive was his reaction. I should have given up at this point, but I was persistent in showing him alternatives. I did a lot of research- logging in many man hours in between my studies and everything else that keeps my life chaotic. He still bought the damn thing from e-bay. It arrived yesterday, and he brought it in to work. This is what he bought: This "NEW" Dell Laptop was a never-been-used Latitude CI that Has a Pentium II 300Mhz, 6GB HD, 128mb RAM, no ethernet connector, and a interchangeable Floppy/CD Rom. The battery is rated at 1 hour, and I don't know how it got loaded w/ Win XP Home- The sticker on the lappy was originally loaded w/ Win 98. I guess that I am posting this as a reminder to people that try and be good samaritans.... DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!! Save yourself the headache, and let morons be morons! Thank you for listening to my rant. I feel better now....

I have to say that I tried to warn him not to do this. ANYTHING would have been better than getting in this situation, and yet he persisted in being cheap! He even complained that a deal we have through the Dept. of Defense to purchase MS software extremely cheap (MS Office 2003 Professional for only $19.95) was too expensive! Come on, a $300-$400 software suite for only $20, and it's too expensive? (It's a legit deal, provided by our base commander and the Dept of Defense!) To be honest, I am more upset that he did this after I gave him sound advice. Here is a picture of what he bought for just under $300........

Darth,
He's not a friend at all, he's just a co-worker. Also, I used the whole "Friends don't let friends" thing because it just popped into my mind, and it seemed kitchy at the time! Beleive me, a true friend of mine would not purchase something like this.

I asked him that question at work yesterday... His response is that he's upset that he will have to spend money to get a wireless router. Hopefully, it will work with the wireless card that the seller threw in for an extra $30.

nebulous,
I am not that pretentious as you might think. I have used eBay to sell things from time to time. (I prefer Craig's List) While I am honest in my transactions through them, there are numerous scams that people need to be made aware of. I have had another co-worker while I was stationed in Alabama, who got the winning bid on a German Black Forest grandfather clock for $250.00 He paid for it and never got the clock. But, by the same token there is a young lady in our department now, who back in Feb of this year, was the winning bidder on a brand new Acer Ferrari with all the bell's and whistles for $800.00. It was a legit transaction, and she couldn't be happier.
I think that the whole point of this thread has to do with the fact that I am upset with him for getting into this situation, AFTER he asked me for my help. I presented him with a sizeable amount of information-everything from Acer all the way to Ziggy's Computer Emporium. He even asked me about eBay, and I told him that he needed to be careful, because there are scam artists ou there, and he showed me some things he was interested in bidding on, and I told him to avoid the Dell CPI PII 300 Mhz. What does he do? He bids on it anyway, and ends up becoming upset at me for HIS error in judgment, after I told him to avoid it. I guess I deserve this aggrevation to serve as a punishment for helping someone out who asked for my help, but didn't really mean it.

stlee,

Yes, this is a true story. He took his wife to the Hometown Buffet in Vacaville, CA for their anniversary dinner. He and his wife both work and have very little in the way of debts. He complains about the price of rice at the military dining hall; which is 15 cents. I quit going with him to the dining hall, because he would compare everybody's receipts, to make sure he didn't get ripped off.

I guess I should have used a different phrase besides the whole 'friends don't let friends' thing. While he is a co-worker, he is not a friend, especially after disregarding my advice that he asked for in the first place.