AW Canada makes me wanna SCREAM!

hey guys, just joined this forum for advice on this. i know most of you are in the US. and right now that is the easiest place to get things in north america right now. now that invisible line with mr. puffychest dividing Canada/US makes me mad. AW will create and ship a laptop to some where like north Montana or Washington, but will not serve me nor honor any warranted items because im a 3 hour drive from the border, LIKE REALLY! alienware/dell will end up charging me probably over $500 in price changes and shipping and whatever other funny charges they can come up with because I say eh and you dont? now i know what your thinking, ship it to somewhere in the US to a buddy and pick it up... well yes but they will not honor my warranty or provide service or anything like that. i can understand if you live in a country that is like 100 miles across but were 3 hours away from each other. and there canadian website makes me wanna cry a little. first of all, the m17x r3 with the 3d enables that comes with the glasses STARTS at $2300, unlike the 1600 on the US site. THEN on top of that, the 2820qm is an extra $100 as well as the 3x3 wireless card is $80 instead of the US $50 or close to it. i could go on all day, the total comes to 500 more coming to $3228 with no mouse, keyboard, software, case, headset, or anything, and without shipping then the same US configuration, and shipping is INSANE in Canada!

anyone else in Canada that thinks Canadian AW is a complete and utter JOKE/FAIL????

at this rate i might have to go to an asus

sorry for the rant, from now on you guys are gonna think im just a troll that comes here to talk crap lol, but im not i just REALLY REALLY had to vent!!!!

 

Enter key is your friend

Anyways, there's a mail holding shop in WA that holds mailed items purchased by Canadians. So you CAN purchase anything from the Dell US website or the Dell Outlet, have it sent there and go pick it up.

I already confirmed that the warranty WILL work. All you have to do is fill out an international warranty transfer form with your serial #, etc., and voila, you're covered.

You're going to have to Google that shop because I found it by accident when Googling one in NY which would do the same for ON residents sometime last night, but it's there!

Edit: The one in Niagara Falls, NY charges Ontario residents 5.95$ per item, so the shop in WA should charge a similar amount.

 

well that might be an option, sorry about the run on monster paragraph but i just needed to vent. im glad you told me that about the warranty, i talked to alienware today because of that and they would give me an answer, maybe its because I used the US chat session because like i said the Canadian one makes me want to cry a little. i chat with them tomorrow and maybe i can have a m17x by summer

thanks for the help, is that what you did, noticed you were from ontario.

 

The chat service reps are liars (one's I spoke to lied to me too). They want you to spend as much money as possible (very deceitful reps).

An Alienware rep via phone, Dell Outlet rep over the phone and other international buyers confirmed that you can transfer the warranty if you fill out a form and do a country transfer (both on this forum and Red Flag Deals, which is a popular Canadian forum).

I'm doing it with an M11X, since I'll be saving about 40% by driving to Niagara Falls, NY to pick it up.

Don't be surprised if you get lied to again I don't know what they think they're getting out of lying to people. The customer is just going to buy a different brand if he/she is forced to pay the outside-US price (at least most people will).

 

well thanks a ton, I dont like talking to places like that on the phone because of 1. the pressure to buy, and 2. the "how would you rate my service" crap... i will however play dirty when it comes to ordering it by phoning with a list of ways to haggle, and things to say, and if all goes well i have heard i can get almost $500 off and free expedited shipping=SAWEEET!!!

thanks for the help though ill look it up, and will defiantly visit this forum regularly. in the meantime, gotta catch some ZZZZs

 

Where do you live shanker?

 

In BC (written in his first post).

 

I'm in BC as well.
Today actually I plan on trying to order 2 M17x's and see if they'll match the US price via the Canadian site. fingers crossed I can smooth talk them, also buying 2 of them will hopefully help out.

I'll let you know how it goes, however if it doesn't work I'll just have it shipped to Point Roberts and go pick it up across the border.

Check this website out: Tsb Shipping Plus

I use it all the time when I can't get things shipped to Canada, it's our own personal US mailbox.

 

Yeah, I live in Calgary and feel your pain. I had NBD warranty on my M17xR1 and used it lots. I had to be patient, but eventually got the fixes I needed.

For your purchase, I concur with the rest here: Use a mail handling service and drive down to the border. eBay works too, but people generally sell refurbs for a healthy profit on there.

 

hey im back. no im not in BC im actually an hour north of Calgary in a small town. i was just using those provinces/states for examples. but i still am 3 hours away from the boarder.

ebicat, fo sho, let me know what pans out for you and how smooth talking the Canadians go.

 

Thought I read BC (lol).

But yeah, there's mail holding services at nearly every border crossing so that's your best bet. You save so much money that way.

--

Ebay is a rip off in the AW department. For example, an M11X-R1 refurb goes for 800 + 80 s/h. I even seen a guy try and charge 200 for s/h. The three hour drive is worth it.

 

Europeans are in the same situation,if that will make you feel better

 

I see. I thought he was in AB coz he typed couple hours from Montana

 

My mistake, it was in-fact AB Had a few threads open and mixed up someone else's province with his.

 

Weird I can't find the thread I started, but just an update.

I ended up purchasing 2 of the M17x-R3's just now on dell.ca (Canadian version).

The price I was hoping they would match was - $1874 (with i7 2720 mid range) which was the price on the US site. sadly Im in BC so + tax (12%) that would equal - $2098.88 (this would be the 3D bundle, with the Nvidia card and the 120hz 3D screen).

I was able to get close, I had me EPP of 7% off, and they knocked off another $70 per laptop and threw in 2 free cases of my choosing (which I planned to buy).

I ended up with $2220 exact AFTER tax with the cases.

A difference of - $122 per laptop

Thing is it would have been impossible to bring up 2 laptops from the US into Canada for less than that so it works out.

not bad, but could have been better

 

you could have drove to calgary to pick it up. if u wanted to drive bout 9 hrs there.

 

I could introduce some sales person from dell , I got free shipping and around $500 discount but the (HST 13%) ate me up lol. I'm from Toronto Canada.

 

I am at BC and ordered my R3 base model $1599+$150 1080P 60hz lcd+$50 460M+$50 6300 wifi. I got epp of 7% off and another $50 off (6300 wifi is $70 in US and he only charge $50....It's another $20 off) so I got the same amount of cash discount as you but without free case. I will call my sale rep to try to get a free case .

 

you totally should!
Yeah seems like they won't budge much on the new R3's oh well, like I said, it was a 100$ difference from the US price with free 100$ case so it worked out. glad to hear it worked out for you too!

 

You guys can always check out the Dell Canada Outlet as well, but they will not have any R3 units now, but they do have some nice R2s there.


http://dfsdirect.ca/



Also I have found the level of support was better from Dell Canada with the complete care warranty, and local Tech support for on site repairs.

At least I got to speak with a real English Tech. that counts for something.


As far as pricing goes, it not that much cheaper in the USA once the taxes and shipping (when importing) are added to the price.

but I have picked up laptops from my trips into the US and brought them back duty free on my longer trips with the duty free allowance.

 

The Canadian outlet is a BIG RIP OFF. Refurbished AW machines sell for way too much. 3

I mean, c'mon ...850$ for an M11X-R1 that's refurbished? No ty

The US outlet smokes the Canadian outlet in pricing.

 

I'm in Milton just outside Toronto and I just got mine today. It was $29XX pretty much loaded + tax of course. 2820,blueray,460 +3d/120hz,256 ssd,intel6300,2 years advanced. i haggled for a bit but because of the MB recall by intel I will be sending this machine back unless they offer me something to keep it and get it repaired. I will definitely be looking to ship to the u.s and pick up for some reason I just assumed they would toss me to Dell.ca when i would mention i was using a cdn CC.

 

Just a question has anyone bought from Canada from Dell.com with a credit card? I figure they would only ship to the cc address. I have to mail my r3 back because of the chipset and want to make the next order from .com and pck it up myself from over the border.

 

Canadian credit card does work If for any reason it doesn't, add your credit card to your paypal (which they accept), change your shipping address in paypal to the US address (from CBI USA) and voila, it works.

I'll be picking mine up from them sometime next week.

 

Ahh thanks so much!! I totally overlooked the fact that they take paypal!!! Wowsers that means I spent over $450 in Canadian taxes alone on my current setup... Thank god for the chipset recall lol!

 

I just noticed you can't add a US address to a Canadian paypal, so I've created a second paypal account (US version). I'll be ordering the M11X most likely tomorrow and should be golden. If I have any technical issues, I'll post in this thread, however I shouldn't since veteran members (lots of them) of RedFlagDeals claim it works successfully.

 

odd because ive been ebaying a LONG time and I have a ups store as an alternate address...

just triple checked and yeah all my u.s. addresses are there. maybe I got it done way before they changed the rules. so what about dealing over the phone? I have had much success getting lots of discounts including my work etc so i know I get at least 10%. Can I iron out a deal and then get the guy to paypal invoice me?

 

I don't think you can do paypal over the phone (might want to confirm), but I've heard of a guy on RedFlag that used a Canadian CC and was successful in ordering from the Dell Outlet (US-only) with 0 problems, so give it a shot and let us know how it goes

As for the paypal, I looked everywhere and couldn't add a US address (only Canadian - maybe I was blind ), but no big deal, I have 2 paypals now ...took 5 minutes to create

 

I've got just over a week with my unit before I mail it back. I know it's frowned upon to use the 21 day return policy to the limit but because of the chipset issue I plan to use it as long as I can since I can't get another right away. Here's to hoping r3 will be back up for sale soon with a 6970 here in the us!