Buying my first Dell Precision laptop

I am going to purchase a Dell Precision m4600 laptop soon and having been reading the owners lounge have seen I can get the price down from approx £1700 to £1300 if I sourced a 750GB hard drive and 16GB RAM myself.

My question is how do I broach the subject of a discount from the Dell sales rep? If I can't get a 400 quid discount would I void the warranty by purchasing the bare minimum and fitting the hard drive and memory myself?

 

You won't void any warranty by changing the harddrive and memory, though obviously any issues with those components you would bring up with the manufacturer, not Dell. As for a discount, I would come up with a reasonable figure you're willing to pay, round it down a bit and tell the rep that budget is about that price and that you'd ideally like it around or below that. I'd also do some research on pricing of the competition (HP Elitebooks, Lenovo W520), you can use those are bargaining chips.

Also be sure to check this post out: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/456885-aw-dell-ordering-advice-how-save.html

 

Many thanks for the info ksna. I will take a look at that link later and report back with any questions I may have.

 

I just tried to order the Dell Precision m4600 with a voucher code from Voucher Codes - Exclusive Discount Codes and Discount Vouchers that was offering 15% off a system order over £599 (excluding vostro and m11x systems). The rep says the voucher code was not valid for Precision models and would not budge and would only offer me a 10% discount when I threatened to walk away.

I don't understand why they refused the voucher because the terms & conditions did not say Precision models were excluded from the offer.

I am considering getting the bare minimum spec and upgrading it myself.

 

That I believe is because the Precision is exclusively a Business laptop and Home/Home Office codes will never apply...

Also upgrade the processor/gfx/display/wifi/fingerprint reader from the manufacturer before buying because those are very hard to DIY upgrade later...

 

Even though the Vostro is a business laptop....?

 

Dell's issued coupons (the ones I get from email, mail, costco, etc.) tend to be from one of the 3
Dell Home
Dell business
Dell Employee Purchase Program.

I have not bought anything from Dell home for at least 10 years as I can just buy from Dell EPP with better support option (for me anyways, I got really fed up with the script robots at Dell home when I help friends & family with their Dell home system tech support).

Those 3 business units issue their own separate coupon codes and they don't mix. I've asked Dell employee before, he said those 3 tend to have their own separate revenue goal/targets to meet and they have full time employees dedicated just to code all those myrid of coupon code into the system and how those coupons work. They don't really mix by default. I can't use Dell home coupon for Dell EPP, or Dell business, and vice versa. I can, however, use other division's coupon discount as a bargaining chip to try to force some concession out of the Dell sales rep as they all try to meet their own sales target.

I think one exception was Dell employee's own discount coupon. I remember he was showing me, while he was here, how his employee discount code was able to break through that barrrier, worked for Dell Home & Dell EPP, but I don't think it worked on Dell business.

Dell home generally won't have Vostro line. However, if you go to Dell EPP, you will find Dell Inspiron, XPS, Z, Alienware, and Vostro.

Check your coupon, the coupon code you have may be from Dell EPP and not Dell business. I don't recall Dell EPP have precision or latitude laptops in their offering, at least when I can remember back in 2004 or so.