Companies, Brand Loyalty, and Warranty

[big_lilo]

Intel & Corsair are my two main brand loyalties  

[BrightCandle]

When it comes to choosing between a few particular brands all of the same item then by and large its price verses the less tangible things. Some companies have tweaker positive warranties like EVGA and sometimes you find different manufacturers using higher quality components. But I also have to weigh this up against the companies recent history, I go looking for comparative failure rates and such as the difference between manufacturers can be striking. I also look at places like resellerratings and such to find out how good in practice the RMA process is going to be even if I do have a problem.

 

But when your comparing two products with different performance characteristics and features its enormously more complex. CPUs isn't so bad right now, its mostly performance in scenario verses price but the GPU battleground is insanely difficult. I got completely screwed by AMD with my 7970's in crossfire, I had that frame pacing issue on them for 1.5 years and I only last 5 months of that before I replaced them as they were unplayable. That cost me a lot of money and the absolutely terrible support I received really weighs on my mind. In total I raised 19 bugs of which they fixed one, 1.5 years after I raised it, the rest still remain. Nvidia on the other hand I have raised 2 bugs, had 1 fixed and the other is still outstanding after 9 months (and its a serious performance bug within Windows itself). I think choosing between these two companies is about who is less bad not who is better. They are both pretty awful to their customers, both price gouge when it suits them and the feature differences that result in suboptimal gaming when choosing one over the other is just horrible. Its hard to be brand loyal to two companies that in the last 2 years have been the only unsolvable problem with my PC. Frankly I hate them both, I just hate Nvidia a little less at this point as its evils have been less impactful. But the moment either announces fixing the problems I have with their cards I'll have a favourite again, I am driven entirely by the reliability and capability as by and large the minor performance differences when they are working aren't a big deal.

[Dr_Orpington]

Corsiar, ASUS, AMD. Unless somone else offers a compelling deal.

[warmmilk]

I have a reverse brand loyalty.  Once I have a bad experience with a brand, I'm pretty loyal about never buying anything from them again.  A lot of times even if its really minor...

[hawthorne]

Found these stats in a which? magazine. 

 

Found it pretty interesting, these are no giant surprises except sony smart phones which I thought were not very popular. 

 

(sorry is it a bit wonky ) 

 

Are there any brand you are loyal to? 

[BloodWithIce]

Apple 89%....
ok 

[Crook7]

I buy the best product not the brand.

Amen. Although I must admit when looking for certain products I usually end up looking at more or less the same brands. Lukily for me, we've got a buttload of reviewers out there that make the job a lot easier. 

[Lord Gaben]

As @ said, I choose the best products, not dependent on brands.

[JDregius]

i have almost no brand loyalty. the only brand i have a bias towards is asus, and that is due to looks and personal experience with reliability. but when it comes to phones, laptops, tvs i will buy the thing nearest to what i want that is on clearance deals

[Dimwitted]

It depends. Brand loyalty or disloyalty? You might pick a brand if it did right by you, but if you've had problems in the past I can guarantee that you'll not pick a particular brand next time you purchase. Sony is losing a lot in that race I think. 

 

I would also like to see how loyal people are with this race to the bottom on pricing that everyone is going through. Do you care who "makes" it or whether it is the least expensive version? And on that, what is a brand these days? Do you care or does bother you to find out that ASUS m/bd was made by Foxconn? Is Corsair reliable enough when you know they don't manufacture a damn thing? PNY? Patriot?

[spwath]

Silverstone

Logitech

Corsair for ram and keyboard

Motorola

[hawthorne]

Silverstone

Logitech

Corsair for ram and keyboard

Motorola

The only one that surprises me is motorola, any reason why? 

[Robi_g]

if I had other stuff in my system that was a certain colour I'd buy from the same brand to get it all looking the same. But I guess paint would do a similar job

[spwath]

The only one that surprises me is motorola, any reason why? 

Well i just love my Moto X and the google now implementation, and the Moto 360 looks really nice too.

[TetraSky]

I buy the best product not the brand.

This ^

First I research what I need, then I look at what others have to say and choose in consequence. The only thing I own, from all those company... Is a Canon Printer.. only because it was the cheapest available and I can refill the cartridge with much cheaper ink. (not officially, though, need to drill a hole and...)

Most of them are locked down tight, with proprietary connectors and what not, no thanks.

[Guest]

Be practical. Loyalty is not practical. If you keep buying products from the same brand it should be for tangible reasons. You trust their products or their support. If you're loyal to a company because of a sense that you should, then you're doing yourself a very serious disservice. I intend to buy more EVGA gpus because EVGA was nice when I needed them to RMA my card and Galaxy wasn't. But I don't like EVGA, they just have a policy that's convenient for me. And they don't like me or care about me, they just have a policy that's likely to make me buy more of their products. Be rational and you'll be fine, don't be loyal.

And now you know why Apple has the most brand loyalty.

[Blecter]

I won't lie, I am slightly brand loyal. But with that said, I'm the kind of brand loyal who will, when I'm looking for something, check the companies I've dealt with before and had positive results first, then others. I will check others, but if there's minimal or no price difference I'll buy from my more "trusted" company. If there is a big difference then I'll start looking up more on the other company before making a choice.

[Syntaxvgm]

Brand loyalty is one of those things that everyone thinks they are better than but everyone is guilty of it somewhere. Even for necessitates or other stuff you probably grab the same brand a lot and don't even notice or have a reason why. 

[deVIZtation]

Everyone is a bit brand loyal to something in their life. I am brand loyal to Corsair. I never had anything I bought from them be DOA. I have brand loyalty to New Balance, I love their shoes, they are so comfortable.

[Phillyphries]

Corsair, gigbabyte

[amintha1992]

there is nothing wrong with liking a brand. as long as you understand that there are other things that might be better or different out there. 

[CrudeStatue]

I try not to get too attached to a company and usually just go with whatever is best, but I might lean a bit more if the product is made by NZXT or Gigabyte

[piggykid1]

What site?

[DarkNemesis]

For PC stuff, no fixed loyalty, just go based on Reviews. But for my Phones, tablets... Mine's with Samsung.

[TheWall]

Brand loyalty is just stupid and bad for consumers, i have no idea why people do such things