Dell purchasing experts

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stogiedude

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So I found some promising Dell refurbished laptops on the Dell outlet pages but at the bottom in the fine print it says doesn't include shipping, taxes etc. blah, blah, blah. So how do I get them to ship it free? I was looking at some 17" models from $599 to maybe $659 or so. I can walk into Office Depot and buy a brand new Toshiba, Pentium dual core or core duo or whateverthehell they call them with 2GB ram etc. for $699+tax. or a 15.4 inch model with 2gb for $499+tax.

Any chance I can get them to throw in free shipping?
 
You can wish in 1 hand and you know what in the other and see which one gets filled first...
 
the dell refurbs seem to pay off when you buy in quantity and then they send you discount coupons for future purchases. That's usually how we can give employees at our work good deals on them..
 
That wishing thing is pretty funny, but I'm looking for someone who is familiar with buying from Dell regularly, knows the ins and outs who can tell me if there is a way to get them to throw in free shipping or maybe someone here who buys from them a lot that can get me some kind of dealio.

Otherwise I can just walk into Office Depot and buy a brand new Toshiba, no muss no fuss. We're talking maybe $50 savings or something like that, it's not a huge deal. I really don't want to pay for shipping and if I bought a new Dell it looks like they throw in free shipping a lot. I've never owned a Dell, don't know if they are better or worse than Toshiba or if I would even want one rather than a Toshiba. I know I don't want to pay shipping.
 
You might want to wait a couple days and keep checking the website as they seem to change their specials often. My brother just bought a Dell desktop the other day and they are offering free shipping on desktops right now.
 
My brother used a $300 off Inspiron desktops over $999. I think he got a Core2 Duo with 4MB cache, 3GB RAM, upgraded video card, and 22 inch monitor for $805 delivered to the door.
 
I ordered a Inspiron 1720. 17" xga+ screen, Intel core 2 duo 1.66mhz, 667mhz fsb 2mb cache, 2gb ddr2, 128mb nvidia grapics, 160 GB SATA drive, wireless g.
$620 + $20 shipping + tax
Couldn't get free shipping or a free bag or ANYTHING.
I'm hoping it's better than the Toshiba I saw at Office Depot for about the same price. No looking back now, I'm committed, done deal, end of story.
 
I saw that Toshiba in the paper on Sunday. I like Toshiba's but I don't care for all the goofy software you have to install in order to make everything work. You made the right decision. How long is the warranty on this new unit?
 
I think you did alright. We always had issues at work with Toshiba laptops. It seems that whenever tech support contacted us with a software compatibility issue, it involved a Toshiba laptop. Our apps use the serial ports and they always seemed to have timing issues that we had to deal with.
 
One year standard Dell mail in warranty.

By the way, I got a Dell Outlet Refurb, that's why it was so cheap. Those 17" Inspirons start at $799 and go up. The Toshiba at Office Depot was $699 + tax after rebate. The rebate was like $150. It was around $850 + tax so after rebate with tax it would have been $910-$150= $760 The Toshiba has a web cam, my Dell doesn't. Other than that they are roughly comparable. I think the Toshiba had a little bit larger HD too, but I don't remember for sure. I got a little bit less for a few dollars less, I think it's a wash. The main thing is I wanted an Intel CPU this time and I was really trying to keep the price down. I could have gottena Toshiba with 15.4" screen for $499 after rebate at OD, but for what I want to do I felt the larger screen will be better. When I'm done with it I can give it to my daughter or my son.
 
I was mistaken on the Toshiba, it was $799 after rebate.

My Dell laptop just arrived, I plugged it in to charge.

I'm planning to download the VISTA SP1 first thing. Do I get it from windows update or is there another place to get it?

If Norton or Mcafee are on there they will be the first thing to go. AVG goes on after those pieces of trash are removed.
 
Ok, I'm installing windows updates right now, installed Firefox, AVG and winpatrol. I'll be getting rid of as much stuff I can to improve performance.

So far I'm very pleased. The laptop looks great, the screen is good, the battery seems to last a long time and when I took it out of the box it looked brand spankin new, not a smudge, scratch or any kind of blemish or imperfectin of any kind.
 
I would ditch the Winpatrol thing. Is it really needed with Windows Defender in Vista? Maybe it works great, but I am always a little leery of that type of app.
 
A cheapskate in me always buy the Poweredge or Vostro bare bone server and mod it with parts from newegg and ebay. The most recent deal I got is the Vostro with Pentium E2160 and Aluminum foil mod that overclocks it.

The rule of thumb is you got to have free shipping or else it kills the deal.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
A cheapskate in me always buy the Poweredge or Vostro bare bone server and mod it with parts from newegg and ebay. The most recent deal I got is the Vostro with Pentium E2160 and Aluminum foil mod that overclocks it.

The rule of thumb is you got to have free shipping or else it kills the deal.

You can always get free shipping if you know how to negotiate after purchase, but you can usually get free shipping anyway.

The biggest killer about any Dell deal for you and I is the sales tax.
 
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