Good shop to buy laptop

Imap if your overseas now it will probably be cheaper to buy the quality you need  at  home, import taxes in VN are about 100% for foriegn goods

Agree with Mark, electronic items in VN are expensive.

Phong Vũ at the corner of Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai and Cách Mạng Tháng Tám.  If you stick with the Taiwan brands and stay away from the mainland Chinese products you should be OK.

MarkinNam wrote:

Imap if your overseas now it will probably be cheaper to buy the quality you need  at  home, import taxes in VN are about 100% for foriegn goods

I'm not sure if he has updated his profile but iMap is from the Philippines and taxes on laptops may be even higher there.  I know Philippine ship crewmen are always in Best Buy in Honolulu buying electronics that are made in Asia.

I suspect that the taxes on electronics and cars in particular are levied as taxes on particular types of items rather than as import duties.  Else why would the Mercedes Benz assembled in Go Vap or the Samsung Phone made in the suburbs of Hanoi still cost double what they do in the US where they are both imported from Germany or Korea

Hello guys, yes I am still in the Philippines but will be moving there next year.

And yes, laptops cost a lot more here with very limited options. Upon initial checking of prices (at lazada vn anyway), vietnam has more variety of choices  and laptops are a lot cheaper there.

Thanks for the tip on Phong Vũ. Will definitely check it out. I also plan to really stick to Taiwanese products.

So guys if anyone else has experience with a laptop shop with good reputation - selling original, quality laptops with warranty (authorized dealer) and really brand new -kindly post them too.

Thanks in advance.

I second Phong Vũ . They have the largest computer department I have seen. I bought an LG monitor there, maybe 20% more that a US sale price. An interesting quirk about buying electronics is that after you pay, you go see a man who will test it. Opens the box, plugs in the cables, and verifies it at least turns on and is functional. I assume they offer this service because the people have had poor experience with customer service in general; also what if it doesn't work when you get home, then what? There are no 15 day, money back, any reason warranties here.

There are many big electronics stores like Phong Vũ. They also sell refrigerators, rice cookers and so on. A chain store I have shopped at is Cho Lon . They have sales promotions.

The places you get warned about are some small shops who are reputed to swap out new parts for used parts in the computers they sell. I assume it is an urban myth about how common that is (same story you hear for neighborhood motorbike dealers).

an USA guy i met in CY Con street put me on to a small shop in dist 1 for a new screen on my iphone 4s, $10 fitted and all is good no swap outs, i heard that Toshiba have a factory in the outer area ( industrial estate ) of Saigon, so they may be cheaper there

MarkinNam wrote:

i heard that Toshiba have a factory in the outer area ( industrial estate ) of Saigon, so they may be cheaper there

Don't count on it.  I think the government sees electronics as a cash cow whether they are imported or locally made.  I don't know how they get their slice of the pie with the items made inside the country but there doesn't seem to be any price advantage that I ever could see.

gobot wrote:

I second Phong Vũ . They have the largest computer department I have seen. I bought an LG monitor there, maybe 20% more that a US sale price. An interesting quirk about buying electronics is that after you pay, you go see a man who will test it. Opens the box, plugs in the cables, and verifies it at least turns on and is functional. I assume they offer this service because the people have had poor experience with customer service in general; also what if it doesn't work when you get home, then what? There are no 15 day, money back, any reason warranties here.

There are many big electronics stores like Phong Vũ. They also sell refrigerators, rice cookers and so on. A chain store I have shopped at is Cho Lon . They have sales promotions.

The places you get warned about are some small shops who are reputed to swap out new parts for used parts in the computers they sell. I assume it is an urban myth about how common that is (same story you hear for neighborhood motorbike dealers).

I agree Phongvu is good and seems reliable place i like it its organized and they maintain list of things they can offer . i went there to get some parts for laptop i am a geek so i have specific requirements on parts i take company and mhz etc. so lady over there took the details checked in her log book and gave me.

If u cant travel and need to do it some where near just go to a reputed place instead of some random shop that tells you come next day we shall fix it for ya

Never let it out of your sight.

Wow. thank you so much for the responses guys. Very helpful indeed

Good tip on basically sticking with reputable shops and I'll be alright. Kind of like here in Philippines.

Also, like in the Philippines, where the general advice is to never let your equipment out of your sight! had the mistake of leaving a laptop with a shop years back and it ended up with another whole set of problems: one part was swapped with another (this part was not what I wanted replaced!), had problems with my audio, etc..

Cheers!

I have a friend (true, with no financial advantage to me), who is senior at the Thien Hoa electronics store. Their laptop range isn't great, nor high end models (not like Phong Vu), but she will ensure it is genuine and may be able to get other models from some manufacturers eg Dell, Acer, HP.

http://www.dienmaythienhoa.vn/may-vi-ti … h-tay.html

PM me if you want me to put you in contact, and you know what you want. She often gives a 10% discount ('mates rates'!) and if she organises a sale is responsible for it.

However, getting genuine Windows 10 in VN may still be difficult, although it might be available for a price? I must ask. I am slightly out of touch, but even the big shops would put on cracked versions (that work well). You can always get your own if you insist.