Buying Advice (Dell)

bennyx_o

I've been wanting a laptop for a while now, and after alot of looking around and reading reviews, I've settled for an Inspiron 6000. Now, I've heard some people say that when they ring up to order one, they managed to get further discounts, free warranties, accessories, etc. Is this true? Would it be easier to just order off the website? Is it easy to "haggle" with Dell on the phone?

Cheers.

x in the city

dont buy a dell dude....

if you got issues with it expect endless unresolved calls to banglore.

and then you got upgrade 'dell only' options.

muppetkiller

Well if you look at my Are Dell always this crap thread you'll see the fun i've had with them ...although my Insirion 6000 is due to arrive later today and I only ended up paying 560 for it with the ATI x300 (as they had to upgrade me)
But i had to put up with a month of phone calls to india and ireland etc.. and when i treatened legal action they were very nice to me ..

mike dee

Definitely don't buy Dell. I bought Dell laptop recently. HD went, no usage at all, had major problems getting this rectified. Had to thraten legal action also. Wanted me to change HD even though I paid for next day door engineer service. Believe that would void warranty.

maidhc

Buy Dell if you want, as far as i know most Dell, Sony, and HP laptops are made by Quanta in China. It doesnt really matter what make you buy anymore.

Bangalore is a pain alright! But they have always fixed any problems i have had ASAP.

To answer the question I bought a desktop from them a few years ago. I priced it online. I rang up, and got yer man to knock off the delievery charge. He emailed me a quotation, but it still had a delivery charge, although the price was reduced by the 50 or so quid. So I rang up again, and got another guy to knock of the delivery charge, again. So it worked out over €100 cheaper than buying online.

skywalker

bennyx_o wrote:

I've been wanting a laptop for a while now, and after alot of looking around and reading reviews, I've settled for an Inspiron 6000. Now, I've heard some people say that when they ring up to order one, they managed to get further discounts, free warranties, accessories, etc. Is this true? Would it be easier to just order off the website? Is it easy to "haggle" with Dell on the phone?

Cheers.

Im interested in this model myself. Interested to hear the feedback here.

To maidhc, how did you get the guy to do away with the delivery charge?

maidhc

By asking nicely to be honest. Didnt really have to try too hard. I know a fair few people who have got things like extra warrantys on laptops for a reduced price, or bigger monitors, especially if there was some offer on, but it ran out by the time they were ordering.

There is definately scope there for haggling, especially if you are spending a few few bob and Dell are making a decent cut on the machine. Also if you get a quote over the fone, i think it stands for a week, so if u think you have a good bargain you can sit on it for a while and wait.

Goldstein

Always better to ring with Dell. When you get off the phone to them, they send you a confirmation email. Once you send that back your order has (relative) priority and goes straight to the guys in Limerick. When you order via the website your order goes in with all the other orders with no priority. So when you order on the phone it usually shaves a few days off the delivery time.

Sometimes they "forget" to ask you what warranty you want, or go on about some seemingly omnipresent "warranty upgrade". These extra services are how they make a lot of their money these days. Ignore this and go for the 1 year collect and return. Even on the off chance that something breaks after a year, it'll probably be cheaper to replace it rather than pay for the warranty upgrade.

It never hurts to throw in "Is that the best you can do for me?" at the end. Or there's "Oh, I thought it was free delivery this week, I might hold off a while". Worst that'll happen is they'll say no and you might end up getting a few quid off it.

bennyx_o

I got an Inspiron 6000 off boards today, so, I wont be needing to ring them.

Sparky

Ive never had many problems from Dell reguards their computers, but the one problem i had with them was their delievery service, interlink said they did'nt get it and dell said they gave it to interlink, but all was resolved when a van man arrived one day with my laptop and a luxury case and free printer, which was'nt on offer at the time, i agree if you order through the phone its way quicker, where as if you oreder online your just another number and they dont deal with you person to person, thats my experience anyway.