HP Pavilion p7-1067cb

The HP Pavilion p7-1067cb ($999.99 list at Costco) is the PC to grab if you're completely replacing your desktop PC and old monitor. It has the whole kit and kaboodle in one box: desktop tower, huge 25-inch HD monitor, keyboard, mouse, and even external speakers. If you don't want to go the all-in-one desktop route, this system is the one you want.

Design and Features
The p7-1067c-b packs all of its power into a utilitarian-looking tower, with the usual glossy black plastic front face. It has been updated compared to last season's HP Pavilion p6727c-b ($749.99 list, 4 stars), which used HP's older Pavilion chassis. There isn't a lot of difference in design between the two systems: The p7-1067cb has the new round HP logo (the old one has the rectangular logo), and the glossy plastic front panel seems to float on top of the metal front plate. The media card reader is still on the top of the chassis, and there are a couple of USB 2.0 ports and audio ports behind a slide-down panel on the front of the desktop. In the back, there are four more USB 2.0 ports, DVI and HDMI on the AMD Radeon HD 6450 graphics card, audio, and Ethernet port.

Given the desktop's bundled 25-inch LCD monitor, I would like to have seen a HDMI cable packed in with the system. Granted, it would make more sense if the monitor had built in speakers so the HDMI cable could carry both video and audio signals, but HDMI is still more convenient to attach than DVI or VGA (both of those cables are included). The system comes with two tiny USB-powered speakers, which are adequate for basic system sounds.

The tower has some internal expandability. There are three free PCie x1 card slots, and you can install one additional optical drive plus one internal hard drive, The PCIe x16 slot is filled by the included AMD Radeon graphics card. One nit is that the system's two memory slots are both filled, which means you'll need to remove the existing 8GB if you want more memory. This isn't a deal-breaker, as 8GB is more than most users will need even four to six years from now.The system has an internal unity of 250W power supply (PSU), so you will not replace the Radeon with a high-end Radeon HD 6990 one, but the power is certainly sufficient to support more than three cards PCIe x1, another hard drive, and an additional optical drive. The system has 802.11b/g/n WiFi network card installed in slot MiniPCI system, so you do not have to worry about one x1 PCIe slots to be filled. The Wi-Fi card connected to our test network easily and returned a reliable connection to the Internet. As well as systems with the Asus Essentio CM1730-05 ($ 569.99 list, 3 stars) lack this crucial wireless connection.

Costco Holds to Member Friendly Return Policy - RetailWire

By George Anderson

Costco, it is well documented, is not the typical retailer. While all claim to be focused on the customer, it is one retailer that demonstrates that commitment in clear and simple turns on a daily basis.

One such example is the warehouse club's return policy. Costco guarantees all the products it sells and will accept returns from customers even if the item has been used for an extended period of time. Shoppers have the option of a refund or store credit when they bring product.

Of course, with such a broad guarantee there are bound to be people who will take advantage. A report on the Daily Tech web site relayed the story of one shopper who returned a digital camera after four years of use. After receiving a full refund, the same shopper proceeded to buy a new camera in the club.

While there are examples of club members using Costco's return policy to the detriment of the retailer, those instances are called rare. An unidentified Costco associate told Daily Tech , "Sometimes we'll get the odd return of a product that we haven't carried for years. Customers are usually returning defective products and want a replacement. It's not often that we get someone trying to get their money back for something that's really old."

The one area where Costco has found it has had to place a time limit on returns is personal computers. In 2002, the company instituted a six-month window for consumers to return defective items.

"We'll take anything back without batting an eye, except for computers," said an unidentified warehouse store manager. "We don't really like seeing TVs that still work fine come back after a year, but we'll accept something if it's broken."

Richard Galanti, vice president and chief financial officer of Costco, said there's no reason to change the company's policy. "For every customer that abuses that privilege, there are 99 other customers that go, 'Wow.'"

Discussion Questions: Why do so many retailers, implicit in areas such as product returns, behave as if their customers are out to cheat them? Do return policies contribute to whatever sense of "loyalty" shoppers have for a particular store?No policy change Costco Back Tech - Daily Tech

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