AW/DELL Ordering Advice - How to save $$$

Finally pulled the trigger and joined the family.

224-8107 1 Space Black - Anodized Aluminum
317-3657 1 Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
317-3663 1 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
330-7841 1 Alienware M17x 240W A/C Adapter
320-8856 1 17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p)
320-8858 1 Dual 1GB ATI Radeon Mobility HD 4870 in CrossfireX
342-0668 1 500GB 7,200RPM SATA-II HDD
421-1400 1 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
313-8977 1 8X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive,QuickSilver
430-3739 1 Intel Ultimate N WiFi Link 6300 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO Technology

Subtotal: $2,225.00
Total: $2,386.78

Cannot complain about the deal. Could of probably shaved off some more but the agent deserved his commission. The most knowledgeable of any of the reps I had spoken to. Great input everyone.. serious reps to bILLy.

Looking at an ETA of end of March though

 

dont worry i think were all looking at an eta of the end of march shoot even me lol

 

just curious, what did your eta say on the order confirmation email?

 

Nice job, You can probably get NBD delivery if you call back down the road and attempt to get it expedited for work.

 

Estimated Delivery Date: 03/29/2010


I even mentioned about the delay most were experiencing, he said that they started tacking on an additional 7-9 days due to that... He was a solid salesman though so who knows. I can only hope they give me a delay so I can fire back some requests.

 

... so i never got a comfirmation mail, and now i call the line and they dont' even have my order..

 

Exact same thing happened to me man... I got an awesome offer and tht lady said she ll call me in a while as I said i have my SSN for my Dell preferred account in my room... but she never called me nor sent me any email with her details.
Today i had to restart my entire order again from scratch.
but in the end it went good for me as i got some better deal for my m11x.
I talked with 3 reps today. I had to be on line for 2 hrs ...She was tryin to convince me 900$ deal is better than 800$ (sir this is really a gr8 offer than the previous 1.. :|).. W. T. F!!!! tht really pissed me off especially after 2 hrs of talking.. so I just disconnected and started over again... then new Rep said he ll talk to his manager and call me in 10mins(he said "sir, I 'll not let u down").. nothing again even after 1 hr W. T.F! man!
i waited ..waited... after one hr again had to call to another agent.. and finally got a awesome offer from this new rep.
Things I learnt:
1.If u talk with US agents (literal USA citizens or born here) U 'll get a better deal.. thts for sure. If they have some heavy accent(phillipin or Indian or chinese or whatever) , they ll need to contact their manager for evrything.. Its like they are some interpreter ..thts it. (i donno how far its true.. but its what i faced)
2.Never disconnect ur call after an awesome deal.. tell them to be on line.. and send the quote AND then after u see the quote in ur mail..then disconnect..
dell ll have no clue later.. if they go missing. Had the same exact problem. Got an awesome deal but still got no email with quote and so had to work from start. It ll p-i-ss u off.
3. *Humoring them really works.. make those guys ur friends.. not every1 try to open up. but if they... then u are good!
I am an indian, and the agent i spoke to ..in the end ... was so cool. We talked abt places in india. Lot of topics man. Its really cool.He even upgraded me to 500GB just like that.
Its not that every american ll be so friendly(every1 are human n have their own mindset)...so it depends. The first guy i spoke to..2 days before was an american and he was hard as rock.
I said.. how r u doin? n he replied.. "what do u want to purchase!" :|
And the agent i spoke to.. yesterday was from Philippines and she was awesome (until she screwed me..by not sending the quote)
4. Getting awesome deals are like winning a lottery. You have odds against you. Sometimes you get frustrated by getting sick reps and sometimes you are in awe as the reps u get are angels who save 100s of dollars for u. So just know the basics and be patient untill u get a good rep.
After a while u ll no if hes a correct rep for u... believe me. Just dont give up if u want some money saved. (if u dont give a S#$% abt money.. then just buy it off the site price.. no prob). It took me 4 days to get some good deal. You may be luckier than me or viceversa.
5. Try to sound like u no whats goin on inside. They ll initially try to fool u that things are hard written on a stone and cant be changed. Just tell that u have some friend who already purchased somethin from a sales rep. Then they get down to u .. "ooh I ll need to contact my manager" wait for 1 min and "yeah! i think we can do that"
6. If u get pissed off.. dont worry. Just express ur feelings or just say" I am not satisfied with u.. i need to talk to ur manager" (dont play with their career.. do it if u are really pis-s-ed off) Most prolly they ll change their tone after that (or) if they say they ll call again.. it means they ll not call u again Now its ur decision.. be blunt or leave him and try again.
7. If u are new to this game.. u ll need some practice If i cud do.. u can!

 

I updated post one (OP) with the following statement. It was something that came to me as I worked with a rep yesterday (the whole thing spanned over a month due to my shipping location) who sent constant feedback and went out of his way to verify information for me. The information was pertaining to my M17X R1 refund, but the rep was always polite, courteous and timely. He worked with me on the refund for the extended warranty (purchased after the M17X purchase) even though it was purchased through the home and office department and not through EPP. Technically it was out of his lane, but he saw the whole thing through.


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If you have a great experience with a sales rep, let them know. At the bottom of the email from the sales rep should be the managers email in charge of the sales rep. Send him an e-mail and let him know that you enjoyed the service of his agent who helped you. This helps to build that relationship between you and the rep, as that word will likely make its way back to the sales rep. It also lets the manager recognize the efforts of the person who helped you. After all, if you enjoyed their service, they are doing something right, and we want to encourage the great service and attitude. Plus it boosts their spirits. Do something nice and pay it forward.

 

^Exactly!
I ll do that immediately after I am finished with my whole procedure... I still got Mcafee included in my quote.. I ll try to make him remove it.. or add some external DVD drive or something like that.
I should be done with my purchase by 2mmorow (hopefully :| )
he's even willing to work on saturday .. :O

 

Here's what I'm ordering in on Monday:
Lunar Shadow
4GB RAM
Hard Drive 160GB SATAII 5,400RPM
Service 1 Year Basic Plan
Bluetooth Bluetooth Module, 2.1+ Enhanced Data Rate

The price comes out to $989, but I'm a student at school, my dad's employer buys a lot of stuff from Dell (Its a big bio-tech firm), I have a $50 off a $799+ system coupon and I'm a AAA member.

Do all the discounts stack up? Trying to knock it down to $800.

 

I donno if AAA discount and Student discount (EPP) will both combine..
but EPP(10%) + 50$ is achievable.
First u ll have to break the EPP site config to urs by speakin to EPP rep. Or u ll ll get lot of unnecessary stuff when u config from epp.
Then tell the rep to apply 10% + 50$ off... stacking is kind of hard now.. as it was some error that happened in the start(some reps say error and some say its a initial release promo.. either way they are giving hard time stacking coupons..) But still u can try as much as u can as u said u guys purchased a lot from Dell..so they definetely dont want to loose some frequent buyers..
And u can even get 3% off the entire thing with DPA if u have good crediti history. (remember if u no u dont have good CH.. dont apply for that as every failed credit check ll affect ur score -vely)
That are all the discount options for now. Rest it depends on reps.. mostly they ll try to add up few free stuff.. but they dont usually go down the price :| atleast for me.

 

I suggest building that config in your cart and saving it. The Dell Rep will be able to pull it up and apply the EPP discount. Then mention the coupon code. EPP Discounts don't stack (to the best of my knowledge) so you'll be at 10% either way. Thats said, if you save that config in your cart, then call EPP, they can pull it up. You won't be stuck with the EPP setup just as redhidus suggested.

Another option is get the tech guy from you fathers work to order it. They might have a better discount. So that might be an option, depends on your relationship with them. Once it is set, let them know your $40-$50 short and see if they can work with you. Let them know the specs are not really flexible for your work, and that you need it. If they can drop another $40 off, then you'll pay now.

And as Redhidus stated, you can always go the DPA way, and stack 3% on it.

 

Tell them you are in the middle of purchasing a home and you do not want to ding your credit and you are looking for them to honor the 3%.

Worked for me

 

Can't do DPA. I have NO credit history. I'll try om Monday since my check clears by then.

 

Thats my point, do not allow them to even pull your credit.

 

but point is... if u can squeeze the entire max discount without raising this DPA... then after he says "thts it sir, thts the max we can do" then u can still get this 3% off of what he gave. Its entirely given from dell .. irrespective of wht u are buying.
Or u can do what the abv guys said... in case u are sure u dont want to use DPA and max out extra discount from the rep using that technique.

 

I finally ordered my m11x. I just want to thank DR650SE for the great thread. I had the 10% epp + rep gave me 15% extra off + free shipping. So for a $1300 m11x I got it for $1000 tax included.

 

I finally went to the dark side

I ordered the M11x with the following configuration:

Item Description
Alienware M11x, Cosmic Black
Intel Core2 Duo SU7300 1.3GHz (3MB Cache, 800MHz FSB)
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
11.6-inch WideHD 1366x768 (720p) WLED
1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M
500GB SATAII 7,200RPM
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Integrated 10/100 Network Interface Card
Integrated High-Definition Surround Sound Audio (5.1)
1.3 Megapixel Webcam
McAfee VirusScan Plus - 15-Month Subscription
1 Year Limited Warranty
Optional Bluetooth Module, 2.1+ Enhanced Data Rate
No Internal WWAN Antenna Installed
Steam and Portal Factory Installed
Mouse Pad - Blue
Next Business Day Delivery
$988.19(Without tax)

@DR650SE Thank you for your ordering advice and this thread. The sales agent could not make changes to the basic EPP M11x configuration. I wanted to change the HDD to 250/320 GB instead of 500GB and did not want the 15 month Antivirus subscription, but the agent said she wasnt able to do it.

I was trying to justify my purchase by wondering if I got a good deal or not. What do you guys think?

 

Well it's $20 cheaper then EPP base configuration with $50off coupon. They told me the same thing (can't change EPP conf). Other people claim they had reps who could, so I'd guess the rep is lying.

 

@unreal25 did you talk to more than one rep?

I just spoke to two reps. I got disconnected with the first one and ordered with the second rep. The annoying part with the whole ordering process was that every time I discussed about a discount she had to put me on hold and go discuss that with her manager which made the process longer than it should have been originally

I got EPP + $50 coupon + 5% DPA. She also threw in expedited shipping and handling for free with a free mouse pad which on the quote showed $99.01 but when I checked it on dell's website was $10.99.

 

I spoke with only two. Both initially asked me whether I set the configuration in the card through regular or EPP site. I was tempted to sarcastically mention that you can't really "choose" anything on EPP website, but I didn't. They didn't go talk to the manager though so maybe I need to get a hold of one of those reps. (lol....) I still haven't tried direct extensions to the reps mentioned in this thread, so I'll try those as well.

Ah I forgot about the DPA. It's probably a typo with the mouse pad. You mean 3% DPA right. When I take the base EPP m11x with 10% off ($1069), add $50 off coupon ($1019) and take 3% DPA off that, I get $988. Which seems to be exactly your price.

I deliberately refused to order through the rep the exact same price I could get online. But I wasn't being mean I just said "I'll think about it." I refuse to reward someone with a commission when they show laziness and incompetence. Plus I am not in a rush to get m11x; I can wait till Easter and see if they offer more discounts...

 

Yes, "they CAN apply EPP discount on normal config"
Either your rep doesnt know how to do that or he/she is lying to you.
Please check the other post in this thread which i posted.
-> Make an impression tht u no whats goin on inside.
Its always better to say that you know a friend who already purchased the m11x and his Epp agent could do that for him.. they 'll take ll 2 mins to agree for manual config after you say that.
-> dont waste your time if they are not even coming close to 10% +50$ off... just dont ask for quote as it ll save the deal in your account when u come back for new Epp agent.
-> if the next guy mentions abt the older deal, mention why u got p.i.ssed off in ur previous call.

 

@Unreal25 the 3% DPA was coming out to be $30 but the rep after talking to her manager gave me $50 off. On the website my configuration was coming out $1087 with the EPP discount.

One thing I really did not like was the Antivirus subscription you have to buy on EPP website. I do not need an Antivirus. Free antivirus software works perfectly fine with me. I dont mind the 500GB HDD but Antivirus was one thing that disappointed me a little.

I am so tempted to call EPP number again and see if things will change if I can speak to a new agent.

Which direct extensions are you talking about? Do you have a link to those posts?

 

If u already have the quote with you... then u can always try for new agents if u are not satisfied with this.
Tell the new agent tht u ll buy it rite no if u can change the HD option and remove antivirus. They shud be able to do that.
But 50$ off for DPA is cool man! I shud try that...

 

@redhidus I have one doubt though. Suppose if this new agent is able to remove the HD and antivirus, will I be still able to use the 3% or $50 off again for this new purchase?
How should i go about cancelling the previous order?

Just checked my order status. It is in Production. I m not sure if I can cancel it anymore.

 

No.. he shud be able to do that. just show him ur previous quote to apply the other discounts ur previous rep did. (u can even tell the new rep tht u ll cancel the order if they dont remove those options)
But if urs is already in production i donno if u shud cancel it and reorder.

 

What harm do you think it will be if I cancel the order when in Production?

 

nothing :| it depends on how fast u want ur laptop. If u not in hurry u can do that.
If they still insist they cant get lower as u got good discount and stuff... tell to replace tht antivirus with some external DVD writer or some other cool accessory worth 80-90$ ( i guess thts what they are charging for tht 15 month subscr)
HD is worth ... but frankly tht antivirus addition is sad.

===
BTW are u able to speak to epp reps on sunday??

 

Once it goes into production, I don't think you can cancel. If you realy want to cancel, it's worth a shot. Sunday EPP reps are off. They only work business hours during the week.

 

hmm... its weird. Some rep just called me to take my order. I said "XXX is handling my order, why did u call?" and he replied that he's not available..
I said to send his details to my email (I had few modifications in config..)
He said he ll send it and call me back in 10mins. Its already 1 n half hr since he called.. no sign of his email or call something fishy

 

Sales agent are working 7 days a week and Customer care is only from Mon-Fri.

 

I guess u are right..
"EPP Sales:For new purchases, product inquiries, or to change an existing order (Sales representatives are available daily between 8am and 9pm CT)."

 

I am trying to get to the chat rep to find out if I can still cancel my order but their server connection keeps getting lost.

 

I never had a good chat experience... better go with the phone.

 

Ah you added something then. $1069 is the base one that shows up when you click on m11x straight from EPP web. So yeah you got some extra discount then.

Here's one: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5885484&highlight=extension#post5885484

There were 1-2 other, but are buried somewhere inside this long thread. Or you can keep calling, I think you get a random sales rep every time. (Would be funny to get the same rep again tho ). Also the more ppl keep calling, the less likely you'll get the big discount from the same rep.

 

Just got off the phone with another rep. It wasnt fruitful. He did help me modify the basic configuration but gave me $0 discount. I think I am gonna stick to my original order and try not to be greedy

 

He wasn't willing to honor the previous quote minus the items you were unable to remove the first time around? Did you acknowledge you had a quote?

 

Yea you have to let them know you got a quote and email it to the next rep.

 

What if I have an order? Since in my case I already have an order. How do I bring that up? Also he was barely giving me a chance to speak which was really annoying

 

Cancel it before it hits production phase. If your not happy with your sales rep, then you shouldn't let him talk you into anything your not comfortable with. This person is working to get your money. He earns a commission of that sale so essentially, your putting miney in his pocket

 

Appreciate your help. There are 2 things:

1. My first order is already in Production
2. The difference between first and second configuration is $64. But in my first configuration I get 500GB HDD and 15 month subscription for McAfee compared to the second where I get 320GB and no antivirus.

So is the extra HDD space and antivirus worth $64??

 

AntiVirus is worth $0 imo. $500GB is really something though, it's basically as much I have on my desktop and laptop combined.

I probably wouldn't want to waste time with them and just let the order go. If someone offered you this, before anyone knew what the price of m11x is going to be, I guess you'd take it.

Possibly, in the worst case if you still want to return it, you can if you don't open the package (and avoid paying 15% or so restocking fee)? Not sure about that, but it's worth exploring if you want to really turn it back.

 

Please excuse my lack of understanding but could you please explain more about your statement:

"If someone offered you this, before anyone knew what the price of m11x is going to be, I guess you'd take it."

Are you saying I should go with the first order?

 

its ur personal choice.. and how much patient u can be ..
I got 1Tb external WD HD for 80$ from dell before.. so HD ll not be a preference for me.. I mean free upgrade is always accepted but i dont like to spend money on it.(64$ for 180 GB?? hmmm )
AV? Nah! there are loads of good deals out there and lot of free AV too.
I wud save tht 64$ if I were u (but i said i had a preference on HD)
==
http://www.deals2buy.com/search/anti virus
Norton Antivirus 2010 1 user/1 yr pack comes for 15$
or There's a discussion on AV goin on in this AW forum .. check it out as many are suggesting free microsoft 's AV.

 

I meant before everyone knew m11x is going to be $800 base configuration, people were specualting how much will it cost. A lot of people thought it's going to cost $1000 and would've bought it anyway. So I'm saying, the price isn't bad for what you are getting.

I would probably went with it, as I don't like wasting time with their "customer service". You could call at least, ask them if it's possible to cancel and make a new order, without paying any extra fees. If not, screw it. The more they tamper with your order, the more likely they'll screw something.

 

^^ yeah .. even this is true.. plus they are getting huge amounts of orders for this model.
Try to make change without canceling.. if its possible. Current estimate delivery is march end.

 

@unreal25 I agree and you are right about their customer care. I am on hold for almost 30 mins now.

@redhidus Thanks for the link. I think I might be giving up and going with my first order most probably.

 

On the phone and so far I got $100 off pricing on my configuration. I'll admit I didn't try very hard for the discounts...

 

dell has customer care? were have i been

 

Good one deltaone45.

I officially give up and stick to my original order. I was on phone for 4 hours this morning and cannot deal with it anymore.

@tears what kind of laptop are you getting? are you getting through EPP or regular dell?