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Is this a mistake?

Started by ukdeveloper Sep 4, 2005 at 7:48 AM 4 replies 1.9k views

Original Post

Sep 4, 2005 at 7:48 AM

Hi, I was looking at the Dell UK website, because I'm going to get either an XPS Gen 2 or an Inspiron 9300. The thing is, the XPS Gen 2 starts at about £1500, which is fair enough. But the lower specced Inspiron 9300, according to Dell, starts at about £750 base spec. Here's the link. I click on "Customise and buy", and I'm presented with the 9300. Base spec, pretty low spec actually, £1700 [oh] That has to be some kind of mistake, I'm sure I've seen it on the Dell site starting at £1000 less on that spec, so if it's lower specced why sell it for £200 more? Am I missing something here? Thanks, ukdeveloper.

Spoonbender

Sep 4, 2005 at 8:08 AM

Dell likes to mess a bit with the prices, make something expensive seem cheap, for example by making a ridiculously low base price, and once you get into customizing it, suddenly the expenses just pile up (And you might end up buying it, instead of some other model, which has a higher base price, but could offer the same specs cheaper)

I don't think it's a mistake. Just their way of getting more money out of people.
At least, I've encountered it several times before, so if it's a mistake, they're not trying very hard to avoid it [wink]

Will F

Sep 4, 2005 at 11:40 PM

Quote:
Original post by Spoonbender
Dell likes to mess a bit with the prices

This might have changed, but dell sometimes sells the exact same product for different prices depending on what section of the site you are looking at.

CNN also has an interesting story about product pricing on the internet.

PnP Bios

Sep 4, 2005 at 11:58 PM

Dell is crap, used to work at a helpdesk, and dell was the IT department's unit of choice.

Get an HP, better yet, get a refurbished one.
http://www.hpshopping.com

nagromo

Sep 5, 2005 at 12:02 AM

I also found different pricing depending on how I got to the page. I ended up pricing out a few different models through different methods and choosing the cheapest one.

The cheapest XPS Gen 2 I see is $2300, which is a lot of money. The base system is plenty high end, though.

I'd say be sure to wait for a coupon for $500 off or $750 off, depending on the original price. I saw these coupons at least once or twice a month from April through when I bought my laptop in July.

Dell laptops are listed at ridiculous prices, but with this deal my Inspiration 9300 was cheaper than comparable laptops.

itachi

Sep 5, 2005 at 6:47 AM

I got the XPS Gen 2 in May and I'm quite happy with it. On the phone I told them I wanted the minimum amount of RAM possible, because it was going to be cheaper to buy and install additional RAM myself. The last offer I got (and took) was the maximum amount of RAM, for 600€ below the list price. So, you could at least try debating the price, it worked for me.

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