I need to buy a basic PC for my wife. Looking at a ZT Desktop (64 bit Win7) sold by Costco.com.

Good value, made in US (New Jersey), 16 year old company, "Real" Tech Support free for life (I did a test call to check it out), even comes with a reduced functionality version of Office (non-expiring) which is more than enough for my wife.

My only concern is, absolutely no one I've spoken with has ever heard of them. Very little info online about them as well.

Does anyone know anything about ZT, or even better, own one?

Link to PC I'm considering: Link to PC with specs: http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11628848&search=zt%20element&topnav=&Mo=0&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&N=5000043&whse=BC&Dx=mode%20matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=zt%20element&Ntt=zt%20element&No=0&Nty=1&Ntx=mode%20matchallpartial

ZT Home: http://www.ztsystems.com/

Instead of price shopping and coming up with a computer from a company that you haven't heard of before, why not by her a moderately priced laptop from HP, Apple, etc, that will offer her basic functions and not cost more then $l000.

No, I have never heard of this company.

Tick

Never heard of them.

I was drawn to their lifetime free tech support, and Costco usually sells decent quality products. Not defending them, just explaining my interest.

I found a nice little HP bundle at Costco as well for $599. Athlon 640 Quad, 750GB HDD, 4GB RAM, built in wireless-n, 22" 1080p monitor, DVD-RW. How does this sound?

I bought HP four months ago, but be careful what you load as a server. I love this little laptop. Ubuntu is loaded instead of Microsoft. It does everything I need to do which is basically e mail, AMHD and Google for recipes.
Tick

Thanks...

I bought one last Christmas and have been very pleased with it. THe hard drive just developed a glitch and needs to be replaced, but their 24-hour help was always quickly available and interested in resolving, not blowing me off. They invested several hours of telephone "let's try this" effort before finally determining the drive was faulty. I pay shipping back to NJ; they pay all repairs and return shipping. All in all, I'd buy from them again, as it's a good machine. Any manufacturer can have a hard drive go out: they buy them all from the same suppliers, anyway.

Thanks for responding Leonard. You are the 1st person on the planet that I have ever heard that owns a ZT. I'm glad to hear you are having a positive experience with it. I was really tempted to buy one, as I also spoke with their Tech Support dept to get some pre-sales info, and was quite impressed with their knowledge and helpfulness.

After asking around, everyone thought I was crazy to buy a PC from a company no one has ever heard of, so I went for the HP. They have horrible tech support, but I try to do my own service, and have managed to get by with my old HP, with a lot of help from this forum.

Good luck, and thanks again...

Of course leonard *could* also be a shill for the company. We've seen this time and time again, especially when they have only one post. Yes I'm cynical but it's from experience. :)

Hmmm. Now that's an interesting thought. :)

Needkarma,

That is about the dumbest comment I've ever read on a help site. Do you think a shill would mention the hard-drive failed in the first year, or that I had to pay out-of-pocket to ship it back? How likely is it that a company would pay someone to troll websites, looking for a question about their product so as to give a positive answer. Mitchsc, I'm glad you found one you like, regardless of who makes it. I'm pleased with mt ZT and Needkarma can go suck his pipe.

Needkarma,

That is about the dumbest comment I've ever read on a help site. Do you think a shill would mention the hard-drive failed in the first year, or that I had to pay out-of-pocket to ship it back? How likely is it that a company would pay someone to troll websites, looking for a question about their product so as to give a positive answer. Mitchsc, I'm glad you found one you like, regardless of who makes it. I'm pleased with mt ZT and Needkarma can go suck his pipe.
Yep, it happens all the time Len, you either just aren't aware of it or are doing damage control. Companies have employees Google any mention of their name on discussion boards and magically appear to vouch for them. How did you find this thread by the way since you've never been on this forum before?

Well, this is certainly a spirited conversation. I never thought about that possibility.

Leonard does make a point about mentioning his failed HDD, but I guess we may never know. Len, assuming you are a good guy, just trying to be helpful, I thank you for that.

I'm curious about one thing on the ZT. I bought one 4 years ago, and had to return it because the case fan sounded like a jet engine about to lift off. When I returned it to Costco, the tech guy there told me that is the primary reason for their ZT returns. I just asked them again at the returns counter, and they told me the same thing, 4 years later. Even escalated Tech Support at ZT admitted they do get PCs back due to excessive fan noise, but they didn't understand why. They said the fans sounded okay to them.

That said, I'm just curious if you have a desktop ZT, have you noticed any excessive case fan noise?

Good day to all...

Of course leonard *could* also be a shill for the company. We've seen this time and time again, especially when they have only one post. Yes I'm cynical but it's from experience. :)

If you notice in the "leonard post" they speak of buying at christmas and then having to pay to replace already. Also spending several hours with tech support first. Ouch. Red flag right there. More like a beacon. Most reputable computers have a 1 year full warranty that goes with them. Aparantly this one runs out in less then 6 months. Also the computer in question is a bottom end computer. In 2 years time it will need to be replaced just to surf the web. Take your time and visit all the places out there you can surf to and compare. You can start your journey here. These are 2 places I have used a lot and I have worked with both of them for over 30 years of purchases.

TigerDirect.com - Computers, Computer Parts, Computer Components, Netbooks & Electronics (http://www.tigerdirect.com)

Newegg.com - Computer Parts, Laptops, Electronics, HDTVs, Digital Cameras and More! (http://www.newegg.com)

Thank you...

Mitch, the fan noise has not been noticeable, either for myself or my girlfriend. I bought mine from Walmart, which may mean nothing or may be significant: my lawnmower repair shop guy maintains that Murray makes a lower-quality, special model riding mower to sell Walmart than they sell in mower shops. I suppose that analogy might be exended to PC's sold at Costco, but I don't even know if it's true about the lawnmowers. Our ZT has been a pleasure to use until the hard drive problem surfaced. I'd also point out it comes without Microsoft Office, something I didn't realize when I bought it. The hard drive problem surfaced when I repeatedly tried loading Office without success. I plan to buy the girlfriend a laptop for her birthday in October, and would definitely consider a ZT (if they make laptops). The really big issue with the ZT is my girlfriend: she likes it so much for Facebook, email, etc. that I never get to use it in the evenings. If I buy her a lappy, my custody rights to the ZT should be expanded beyond just
The weekends when she's working.

Needkarma,

I found this site while looking for the shipping address for ZT---that's all it took. I saw Mitch's question and took the time to respond; I have no interest in being an active member of this site or arguing with you any further. I really don't care if you think I'm a shill or not---your rudenenss suggests that you're a person I would not care to know. Think about it---I make one post to Mitch and you immediately jump to a conclusion and suggest I'm a shill because I said something good about a product? I took the time to answer Mitch; you had nothing to contribute but needed to run your mouth and be offensive, anyway. If you have any actual information on ZT's to contribute, then by all means do so, even if it's negative; Mitch deserves to hear the good as well as the bad. If you have no information to contribute, then kindly STFU; you have nothing but blather to contribute.

Califdadof3,

Either I mis-typed or you mis-read; the ZT had a one-year warranty and they honored it. My expense was limited to shipping it to them; they already told me they'd pay all repair expense and the return shipping.

If anyone is interested, here is a link to Costco's site on the ZT line. They sell 17 different ZT's ranging from $400 to $1k.

http://www.costco.com/Common/Search.aspx?whse=BC&topnav=&search=zt%20computers&N=0&Ntt=zt%20computers&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US

Cheers...

If you have no information to contribute, then kindly STFU; you have nothing but blather to contribute.
You sound like a nice person. :)

Needkarma,
If you have no information to contribute, then kindly STFU; you have nothing but blather to contribute.

Your contribution here seems to be lacking in the good graces, LC, absolutely no sense of humour; actually most people would have not made a comment and in my opinion 'STFU' is completely disrespectful on a forum such as this. I think an apology is in order here.

Tick

In fact I'll start:

Leonard,
I was indeed hasty in deciding you were a shill. The original first post did indeed fit the profile of the company rave-review-and-run type post. But now that you've stayed and contributed I see that it was an earnest review - my apologies. But not once did I treat you as you treated me here.

Tickle, you're entitled to your opinion; I'm entitled to mine. I noticed a question from a stranger and took the time to try to help him---Motormouth's accusation that I was a shill was way out of line and had nothing to back it. I'm not sure why you feel attacking a first-time poster is appropriate but find fault with my response; quite frankly, I don't care. I stopped to answer Mitch's question as a courtesy to a stranger. With that, I have no further business with this site and no reason to return. Vaya con Dios.

Ciao!