Item Locator Item Locator that is broken (we can tell you where) and have us come  and install it. A service contract is a different thing. That is  the sort of thing we do. But it isn’t really appropriate for  the computer equipment used in a home. If asked if you  want an extended warranty, just say no. 2. Shopping for an item, but you want to see it in the flesh. This is the same as above, really, just with one  extra stage. First, go to a store of the relevant  type and look for the item you want. Repeat for as  many stores as needed, or until your legs fall off.  Note the prices in each shop. And note the model  numbers. Then, go to Amazon, etc as outlined above.  3. Finding information Here, Google is your friend. At the top of our internet  search page is a Google search box. Just type in what you  are looking for and hit the search button. You will discover  from experience that is isn’t always obvious what word or  phrase to enter to get the results you want. Usually a short  phrase works best. The items at the top and the right hand side of the  resulting search list are ‘sponsored’. They have paid Google to put them at the top of the list. Sometimes, they do turn  out to be exactly what you are looking for, but a lot of  them are just shopping comparison sites. As an  experiment, we just typed ‘world war’, and in the paid-for  links, the first was to a clothes shopping site!  If you want information of a scientific or technical nature,  then Wikipedia should be your first port of call. Wikipedia  is especially good if you want information on technical  standards, but it’s very good on most other things. As a  general rule, the less technical the thing you’re looking for,  the less likely Wikipedia is to be helpful, because you will  be offered opinion dressed as fact. If you are stumped, and simply can’t find what you are  looking for, then send us an email (link is below) and we’ll  see if we can solve the problem. It’s out there. Somewhere....  Set our internet search page as your home page  and you will then have 99% of your needs covered  right there on the one page.  1. If you are shopping for an item you already have or know all about. This is easy. Just go to Amazon and see if  they have it. Seriously. It will almost always be  the cheapest option, and there’s certainly no  more reliable brand. If there’s no joy, try  Play.com. We have banners for both of these sites  above and on our internet search page. Next, widen  your search to the High Street retailers. But beware: if  a High Street retailer has an item, and Amazon doesn’t,  then it’s probably one of two things. It’s either  obsolete, so you shouldn’t be buying it, or it’s their  ‘own brand’ version of something, which will be scaled  back in some way but the price won’t be. So you won’t  want to buy it.  For particular niches, like watches, for example, we use  Watchshop.com, for which there is a banner on the  search page. We bought a watch from them and liked  the service, so we put them there.  Note: When buying stuff from the major electrical /  computer retailers, make sure that the item is exactly  what you want. In the case of laptop computers, for  example, you may well see the same model number for  a computer in the websites of different shops, but not  be aware that there may be several different versions.  The big boys often have ‘stripped down’ versions  specially made, and offer these at what seems like a  bargain price, so look very closely at the specifications  to make sure you are comparing like with like on the  prices, and make sure that it has everything you need.  But really - and we can’t emphasise this enough - you  should NEVER buy anything from them. There is simply  no good reason to do so, and lots of reasons not to!  The reason is that the cost of computers is always  going down. You are covered for the first year in any  case, by which time the items in your machine will be  cheaper. So it would be much cheaper to buy the item   As we said on the front page, it can be remarkably difficult to find things on the internet at times. If you are looking for everyday items then it’s usually easy. But other things can be hard. Over the years we’ve adopted a strategy which we hope will be of help to you. It’s based on what it is that you are looking for, and it goes like this. HCR NEVER, EVER, EVER buy an extended warranty from these people - or anyone else - for computer equipment. They will try to make you do it, because it could be as much as several hundred pounds profit to them. They are an utter - and expensive - waste of time. Another bit of free advice while we’re at it: NEVER buy USB thumb drives from High Street supermarkets or Major Electrical Retailers. Why? They charge more than twice what they should! Buy them from our Amazon link above.