Should I Buy a Service Part or Finished Good ?

Many IT hardware components are being categorized into two major categories, which are the Service Parts and Finished Goods. It’s common that one identical item , ( same brand and specifications ) but available for both categories and selling at different pricing. For example, Power Supply Unit (or PSU ), might be available as Service Part as well as Finished Goods.

            Generally, the service parts pricing would be higher than the finished goods. Take the same example, PSU is available for end user to buy it and replace by themselves. However, any failure happened to the PSU or computer regardless during the installation or after the installation, the end user need to take the full responsible to check and troubleshoot the error. Once confirm the part error, the end user need to remove by themselves and send to the manufacturer or retailer to claim the warranty. In the worse scenario, any side effect caused by the PSU to the other components during installation or incompatible issues, the end user takes the whole risks. For this scenario, the PSU is being categorized as Finished Goods, or in other terms, Cash & Carry item. In shorts, to buy the hardware component in Cash & Carry terms, the end users need to bear more risks compare to purchase the service parts. Since the end user is taking over the responsible from the seller, very common that the end user is paying lesser if compare to purchase a service part.

            When end user is purchasing a service part, the part will be handled by the seller’s appointed or well-trained or certified technician during the whole installation process. If any incompatibility issues happened, the technician might be able to rectify on the spot. Within the reasonable periods after the installation ( few weeks or months ) of components, if the failure happened to the PC and if the end user suspect the failure happened due to the same part / component, the end user can send the whole computer to the seller for checking or troubleshooting at free ( or minimum labor charge depends on the situation ) and the whole warranty process is handled by the seller instead of the end user. When the end user is buying a service part, the end user is transferring the responsible and risks to the seller, in this case, this is fair enough that the end user got to pay more to get the item.

            Another possible scenario, during the PC failure, the end user is just guessing it’s caused by the PSU but without further troubleshooting, and proceed to purchase the PSU, there’re big possibilities that the problem doesn’t cause by the PSU but some other components.

 

            As a summary, service parts are available at higher price but it’s hassle free for end user, while Finished Goods ( Cash & Carry item ) is available at lower price, but it might cost more time or give some trouble to the end user.

            Following is some hardware components that might be available as Finished Goods and Service Parts :

  1. Power Supply Unit ( PSU )
  2. Memory Module ( PSU )
  3. Hardisk Drive ( HDD )
  4. Solid State Drive ( SSD )
  5. Cables ( inside the computer )
  6. Main Board
  7. Graphic Cards
  8. Laptop Battery

Troubleshooting a PC/ Servers failure might be a time consumed process, and this process required the correct tools, correct equipment, and the results might depends on the troubleshooter’s years of experienced and the knowledge. Some error seems easy and simple, but the root cause might be complicated as we can’t imagine and foresee.                                                                                                               Upgrading a PC/ Servers is another process which need to have proper preparation, tools and equipment and knowledge.

Computaas, as a service oriented company, we don’t advise the end user to handle these 2 process by themselves if without the enough experience, tools and equipment.

Let’s consider the following situations, we can guess that when a PC can’t detect the Hard drive is due to hardware failure, but it might be caused by the cable that connect the hard drive to the main board. It’s not rare that we receive a PC from the end user, claims that PSU cause the PC cannot power on, but after troubleshooting, some other components caused the issues. It’s also very common that we have buyer who bought the RAM ( as finished goods ) and plan to upgrade their laptop by themselves, but the RAM with correct specifications could not be detected and we exchange to another known good unit and still can’t be detected by the same laptop, the final root cause after troubleshooting is the RAM is not compatible with that particular laptop. To “suspect” a component failure is not enough to conclude and solve a PC/server issues, the proper troubleshooting process is needed unless you’re lucky enough that your guessing is always right. Same for upgrading a PC, by reading the compatible hardware list from the paper can’t guarantee you’re buying a right component, the only way is to install it and tested it.

However, if the end user is having enough confident in handling this and well prepared with the proper tools and equipment, we’re more than happy to supply the components to you.