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Best place to buy new Dell?

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  • 09-08-2016 10:08pm
    #1
    finnhuck
    Registered Users Posts: 11 ✭


    Ok, so my Macbook Air is gone as slow as Christmas. Time to upgrade - it owes me nothing at nearly six years since I bought it. I would have upgraded the RAM until I discovered you can't, and now the battery is gone it's time to start looking for a refresh.

    I thought about getting a new Macbook/Macbook Pro but want a laptop in the next month or so and don't really want to wait indefinitely until Apple upgrade their lineup. Plus I've been thinking about moving to a Dell XPS which would suit me nicely.

    I need a big screen, 15" or so. (Considered a Macbook and an external monitor at home, but I'd like to be able to upgrade bits of the laptop in 2-3 years which is pointing me towards the Dell).

    Now I'm (nearly) decided on an XPS, I'm wondering which is the best config you knowledgable people would recommend. Budget about €1700 or less.

    Secondly, any tips on where to get a good deal? I'm flying to the UK next weekend so could pick up something on the high-street there/in the airport if there was a good deal on.

    Any advice welcomed! Cheers.


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    #2
    Alanstrainor
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 23,157 Mod ✭✭✭✭Alanstrainor


    Which XPS are you looking at? I would guess the 13 since you are coming from a Macbook Air? The XPS 15 would be my choice if I had to buy now. I'm getting sick of waiting for the Macbook refresh too.

    The benefit of the XPS15 is that it is fully upgradable (RAM, SSD) which is very rare these days. The XPS13 does not allow you to upgrade the RAM, and you'll have to double check the SSD in that case.


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    #3
    finnhuck
    Registered Users Posts: 11 ✭finnhuck


    I think the XPS 15 would be the one to go to - bigger screen is much handier for work and I'm liking the upgradability option in the future.

    I was sticking out for a new Macbook Pro for a few months but then realised that I'm not that committed to a Mac, and I'd be paying a decent premium for a computer I possibly can't upgrade in the future.


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    #4
    testicles
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,198 ✭✭✭testicles


    This post has been deleted.


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    #5
    finnhuck
    Registered Users Posts: 11 ✭finnhuck


    I'd buy it from anyone, just checking if anyone knows where I'd get the best deal.


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    #6
    Curb Your Enthusiasm
    Registered Users Posts: 3,470 ✭✭✭Curb Your Enthusiasm


    finnhuck wrote: »
    I'd buy it from anyone, just checking if anyone knows where I'd get the best deal.

    Dell.


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    #7
    Lissavane
    Registered Users Posts: 542 ✭✭✭Lissavane


    Dell is charging full price for the XPS range at the moment. From time to time they go on offer. The best discount I saw recently was 10% off which lasted for a few days some weeks ago. I don't know how often these discounts come up.
    I think the sales people have some leeway to offer a discount on the prices quoted on the site but I'm not sure if they'd go as far as 10%.
    I'd be interested now too if I was offered a decent discount.


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    #8
    Curb Your Enthusiasm
    Registered Users Posts: 3,470 ✭✭✭Curb Your Enthusiasm


    Lissavane wrote: »
    Dell is charging full price for the XPS range at the moment. From time to time they go on offer. The best discount I saw recently was 10% off which lasted for a few days some weeks ago. I don't know how often these discounts come up.
    I think the sales people have some leeway to offer a discount on the prices quoted on the site but I'm not sure if they'd go as far as 10%.
    I'd be interested now too if I was offered a decent discount.

    10% off is available all the time with their VIP club... just use live chat to get discount applied.


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    #9
    Lissavane
    Registered Users Posts: 542 ✭✭✭Lissavane


    Curb Your Enthusiasm wrote: »
    10% off is available all the time with their VIP club... just use live chat to get discount applied.

    Unfortunately, that would seem to involve lying, for many people.


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    #10
    Curb Your Enthusiasm
    Registered Users Posts: 3,470 ✭✭✭Curb Your Enthusiasm


    Lissavane wrote: »
    Unfortunately, that would seem to involve lying, for many people.

    Why?...

    http://www.dell.com/learn/ie/en/ieepp1/campaigns/epp-home-page-ie


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    #11
    Lissavane
    Registered Users Posts: 542 ✭✭✭Lissavane


    Curb Your Enthusiasm wrote: »
    Why?...

    http://www.dell.com/learn/ie/en/ieepp1/campaigns/epp-home-page-ie
    It seems that either my employer must be a member of the "club" to enable me to join as an employee, OR I must be a registered student.

    Neither applies to me.

    For once, I hope I'm proved wrong!


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    #12
    hopskipandjump
    Registered Users Posts: 51 ✭✭hopskipandjump


    I just tried to get the VIP Club discount using Chat but was told I'd have to sign-up for it. There are discounted deals on certain laptops from today until 15th August, €100 off the one I'm looking at, Live Chat was offering 3% discount on top of that.


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    #13
    Lissavane
    Registered Users Posts: 542 ✭✭✭Lissavane


    hopskipandjump wrote: »
    I just tried to get the VIP Club discount using Chat but was told I'd have to sign-up for it. There are discounted deals on certain laptops from today until 15th August, €100 off the one I'm looking at, Live Chat was offering 3% discount on top of that.
    Yes. You need to sign up to the Dell VIP Club first before using chat to apply the 10% discount.

    My point is that it seems in order to join the Dell VIP Club, EITHER your employer must be registered for the scheme with Dell, OR you must be a registered student.

    Again, I hope I'm wrong!


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    #14
    ondablade
    Registered Users Posts: 38 ✭ondablade


    Thought of an XPS 13 but am having second thoughts now based on the following experience. It's nothing like the well oiled machine Dell was way back.
    I tried to buy on line, but due to a pretty crude website search engine had trouble establishing the available specs. Phoned sales who insisted x on a RAM capacity question and placed the order, but Y turned out to be the reality.
    Tried to get the order amended by sales within a few hours of ordering, but they ignored it for more than 3 days. Submitted an amendment form on the website, but received no answer. Escalated to support by phone less than 24 hrs after the order, but it resulted in no effective intervention so the wrong spec was shipped.
    It was tough to know how to proceed - the staff were more than polite but never seemed to volunteer information or offer advice beyond a very minimal interpretation of the question asked, or to take the matter in hand. Little advice on what to do next. The system is set up so that calls or messages it seems go to whoever answers, so there was no continuity, relationship or overall responsibility.
    Cancelled the order via the website, but again no confirmation. Phoned support again and got agreement to the cancellation, the package was to be intercepted in the UK. It didn't happen, so it was delivered.
    Had to write again to get a collection set up, this misfired. A very nice Indian lady eventually took pity on me and arranged the collection again, and seems likely to have triggered the refund by now. (don't know yet)
    Point is it's more than two weeks in, with huge amounts of time wasted when if the order amendment was handled promptly it would likely all have been unnecessary.
    I'm very grateful that the matter has been sorted out, and hearing some of the horror stories regarding third party service providers for other brands brought home just how easily I could have been hung out to dry if that was the intention - but the process is not efficient, takes a lot of persistence to get through (like a Kafka story/like trying to get through a maze - heaven help somebody with no understanding of how this stuff works) and is very worrying given the fairly large amount of money in play with a 14 days returns deadline/risk of the refund being cut off timing out in the background..
    I intended to order another XPS to the originally requested spec, but a subsequent look at user reviews on e.g. Amazon.com (scroll down the list as somehow all those at the top when I first looked were good) suggests quite a few problems. Either very good, or very troublesome - with about 5 issues popping again and again.
    Googling somehow doesn't seem to bring up issues, no idea why....


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