Dell Dollars - Fine Print Sucks - Laptops with XP are Hard To Purchase
I am pricing laptops after the Dell C640 died Monday night. I want a the new Mac hardware with Leopard on it. So far, there have been various delays and with the Dell finally going to that great /dev/null in the sky, I believe my hand is forced.
I own a very fine HP laptop and would like another. The problem being HP only offers Vista on their new hardware and I refuse to be a Vista Owner. (If you care why, listen to episodes 73-77 on the SecurityNow podcast. Very enlightening stuff.) Because of my preference, I am limited to the following Laptops:
- Vostro 1000
- Vostro 1500
- Latitude D520
- Latitude D531
As a Red-Blooded Card-Carrying Capitalist, I am offended to be limited to 4 laptop models. We live in a 'Free Market' Society. The last time I checked, there were 4 Major Laptop vendors and a smattering of lesser known/quality manufacturers. Surely one of them (preferrably HP) can offer XP on their computers.
So after swimming through the injustices and trade offs, I finally select a laptop, configure it to my satisfaction and begin selecting the support options. I normally decline support, but Dell offered a very interesting deal:
Apply Dell Dollars coupon to your next purchase! Discount Details
So I get Three Years Support for essentially $100? Lemme check the fine print:
*One coupon per customer, one time use only. Coupon expires 120 days from date of eligible system purchase.
So they will send me a coupon for 70$ off my next purchase. It will take 4-6 weeks after my order ships. This $70 coupon expires 120 days from "date of eligible system purchase".
I am no expert in accounting, but if there are 10 days between the date of the system purchase and 28-42 days required for arrival of said coupon, there will be somewhere between 68 - 82 days to use the coupon. Man, gotta love fine print.
So for now, I am going to put away the credit card, cancel my $1,400 order from Dell and keep it just me, the HP, the old MacBook, and my new Coaster, the Dell C640. There has to be a better way. I appreciate all advice on the topic.
Fair question.
I work remote. The HP has all the programs and settings needed to access the corporate network. I want to avoid any chance of monkeying this laptop up because to get it fixed, requires 2 days and 20 hours of driving. Thus, I don't use this computer for anything but work for my main client.
The MacBook is not up to hard core development, since it only has 768MB Ram. So I keep it downstairs for casual web browsing and the like. I guess I could throw it away, but it serves a purpose.
The Dell C640 was the development machine for my other clients, open source development, and general tinkering. It is also the machine I use IRC on. I am using an older desktop now, but it is sub-optimal and won't travel easily.
Take the deal from the dell web site, print it out, and call a rep. They will usually bend over backwards to make a sale (especially if its near their end of quarter), so mention the dell dollars and either try to get them to take it directly off the price, or let you use it right away for a mem / hdd upgrade, whatever. I find that talking to a rep will often get me deals that disappeared off the web site, or better deals.
I ran into a similar problem. I ended up buying a laptop (Sony, but there were others) from Best Buy for Business. I "told" them it was for business use and that I needed XP Pro. They showed me a catalog of 20+ different laptops with XP Pro.<br><br> Good Luck!
Also search fatwallet or slickdeals.net. There is usually a 10,20 or 30% off coupon code floating around.