Summary

This policy lays out the standards for making purchases for both customers and company-use items.

Purchasing for stock

this section only applies to Purchasing Managers

When purchasing items for stock, follow the vendor requirements and preferences in the relevant sections below (“Third party vendor requirements” and “preferences”, respectively). All parts should be shipped to the Corporate office where they will be checked and inventoried before being delivered to a store location.

When purchasing parts for stock, use the billing information for the store that will ultimately receive the part.

Purchasing for PCs

Most PC components are available either through the manufacturer’s warranty process as part of a warranty claim or for order directly from the manufacturer or an authorized reseller/distributor. Whenever possible, order directly from the manufacturer or from an authorized reseller/distributor for parts that are specific to a device (keyboards, logic boards, trackpad, etc). A list of known parts sources is maintained in the “OEM Parts Vendors - Manufacturer and Authorized Reseller/Distributor” section below.

For “generic” replaceable parts such as hard drives and RAM, use items from stock or put in a special order on the work order if the part is out of stock.

Purchasing for Apple devices

Apple devices are divided into three categories in regards to support and parts availability: Supported, vintage, and obsolete.

• Supported devices are generally newer devices made in the past 6-7 years.
• “Vintage” is the designation Apple gives to products that are “getting old”. Parts may be available for these, may not be.
• “Obsolete” is the designation Apple gives to products that are older than Vintage devices. Parts are not available for these devices.

Follow this guide for purchasing parts for Apple products:

| When the product is... | Supported | .… you should ... | Only order parts from GSX | | Vintage | Check for parts availability in GSX. If none are available, or if there is a suitable third party replacement part from OWC, order from OWC. | | Obsolete | Check for parts availability on and order from OWC. |

The customer may optionally purchase their own replaceable computer parts (HDDs, SSDs, RAM only [not screens, motherboards, top cases, etc]) for any supported, Vintage, or Obsolete Apple computer. In this situation, instruct the customer that they are responsible for handling warranty situations with those devices and that our warranty only covers our labor to install, configure, and test the installed part.

Purchasing special order part (SPO)

this section only applies to Purchasing Managers

After diagnosing a part failure, LocalTechs will find a suitable replacement part according to the guidelines set forth in this policy and then create a special part order (SPO) on the work order for the device. Once authorized by the customer, the LocalTech will change the status of the SPO to “Order Part”.

Before ordering the part, double check that the part meets the requirements set forth in this policy.

Once the SPO has been ordered, change the status of the SPO to “On Order”. Before closing out of the order confirmation screen from the vendor, grab relevant details about the order (order/confirmation number, total price, estimated delivery time,etc) and paste it into the work order as a tech note.

Third party vendors

Only purchase from third party vendors when ordering standard replaceable components for stock (such as hard drives and RAM) or when ordering PC parts not offered by the manufacturer (excluding batteries - do not order third party batteries. See “Buying batteries” section below)

Third party vendor requirements

Where possible, try to stick with known vendors for all purchases. While purchasing from an unknown vendor or a niche website may be entirely fine, it is a gamble- with our time, the customer’s time, and our money. Try to stick with the following in order of importance:

1. US-based seller
2. Directly from Site Vendor (ie “sold and shipped by Newegg” and “ships from and sold by Amazon”) where available. Not Marketplace Sellers.
3. OEM part, not a generic or “knock-off” brand
4. A highly-rated seller (ie a 97%+ positive feedback with 10000+ feedback score on eBay)
5. Reasonable shipping charge and estimated shipping time
6. Not a used part unless absolutely necessary and authorized by the customer with the understanding that we cannot warranty a used part, that it is provided as-is. We still warranty our labor, however, meaning that (within 90 days) the customer would not have to pay again for labor if we had to replace the same part due to a defect -- they would only pay for a new part.

Third party vendor preferences

Amazon, Newegg

• Standard components such as hard drives, solid state drives, RAM for PCs, power supplies for desktop computers, retail motherboards, graphics cards, cases, etc.
• Accessories such as keyboards, monitors, speakers, docking stations, etc.

eBay

• Laptop screens, keyboards, motherboards, DC jacks, power cables
• OEM proprietary power supplies (such as for Dell desktops)

Otherworld Computing (OWC)

• Any internal Mac part, including RAM and batteries

Note that OWC also sells on Amazon as Galaxy Distribution Company, LLC.

Preferred eBay Sellers

• lcdtech889
• dvdsuper999

Buying batteries

Without prior approval from Corporate and the customer, do not buy batteries for non-Apple devices unless you are able to get them directly from the manufacturer’s website or from an official parts reseller. Under no circumstance should you purchase a non-genuine battery as a special order, as the quality and performance are frequently not up to par with genuine batteries from the manufacturer.

If you are unable to source a battery directly from the manufacturer, please refer the customer to a local business that sells batteries or to purchase their own third-party battery with a word of caution about the often lower quality and performance of non-genuine batteries.

Pricing

Part Minimum Price

When ordering or selling parts, there will be parts that cost very little. There is a price minimum of $25 on all parts. This means that if a part costs less than $25, after mark up, we would increase the price to $25.

As an example: If a part costs $10, we would add 50% mark up, making the part cost $15. Since $15 is less then $25, we would simply charge $25 for the part.

Storage Drives

Standard markup of 50% + $35 flat rate. For example, a 1TB drive that costs $40 would cost $40 + (0.5 * $40) + $35 = $95. When pricing a storage drive for a customer, the price includes the cost of a mounting bracket (if required).

Non-Apple Parts

Aim for a standard markup of 50%. Do not price in cents. All prices should be in whole dollar amounts. ($20 instead of $19.99, for example). Use the markup calculator built-in to PCRT to assist.

Include shipping charges in the total price, if any.

Apple Parts

When ordering parts from GSX directly for Apple devices, a different markup rule applies. This rule is as follows: Markup for parts ordered for Apple devices, ordered from Apple directly (GSX), is 50% OR $100 whichever is cheaper.

Here is an example: M1 MacBook Air Display exhange price from apple = $307.12 Price after 50% markup: $461 Price after $100 markup: $407

Because the $100 markup (407) is LESS than 50% markup (461) we would quote the $100 markup price to the customer.

When ordering 3rd party parts for Apple devices (ordered from OWC) the normal 50% markup applies. Remember, we are only able to order 3rd party parts for Apple devices if the device is OBSOLETE in GSX.

Tax Exemption

this section only applies to Purchasing Managers

All purchases made for parts that are being resold to the customer should be purchased as tax-exempt, where available.

All purchases made for company-use should include tax, where tax would normally be charged (some sellers do not charge tax at all). If tax-exemption is applied automatically (such as on Amazon), remove it.

For a list of sellers that are tax exempt, please refer to the Tax Exemption document

OEM Parts Vendors - Manufacturer and Authorized Reseller/Distributor

This list is a work in progress. Please send suggested changes and additions to corp@universitypccare.com.

By Part Type

LCD Panel

• All: https://laptopscreen.com

By Brand

Acer

• All Parts: https://www.sourceitstore.com/

Apple

All non-vintage, non-obsolete devices: https://gsx.apple.com.

Vintage, obsolete parts: https://eshop.macsales.com

ASUS

• Batteries: https://en.accessoires-asus.com/ (European Authorized Reseller, shipping takes at least 2 weeks)
• Other parts: https://www.asus-accessories.com/laptop/ (American Authorized Reseller)

HP

• All parts: HP Part Surfer
• All parts: HP Parts Store
• All parts: List of HP Authorized Parts Reseller

Lenovo

• All parts: Lenovo Official Site
• All parts: Lenovo Official Distributor
• Lookup parts: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/partslookup

Discussing ordering process with customer

Naturally, some customers are more curious about the repair process than others and you may find yourself in a position where the customer begins asking about our vendor, our pricing and our markup. In such situations, explain to the customer that you are not able to discuss our purchasing process, in accordance with company policy. You can direct particularly persistent customers to email us at corp@universitypccare.com if they would like additional information about our ordering process.

Under no circumstances should you offer the customer direct links or printouts for items that we can purchase as a SPO as set forth in this policy. If necessary, a technician can pick up certain SPO items at a local electronics retailer. Please discuss with a Purchasing Manager before deciding on this option.