Gutted! XPS1330 arriving today (T7500) but T9300 model now same price! Need advice

Hi guys,

This is my first post but I've been lurking on the forums for months now - always excellent information on any laptop question I've had..

I need some advice though.. I'm from the UK and spent lots of time a couple of weeks ago deciding on what laptop to go for and decided on the excellent XPS 1330. Priced it all up, went for the fastest CPU (T7500), 3 year warranty, 4gig ram etc..

Anyway, I was gutted this morning to check the Dell site and find that they are now offering the 1330 with T9500 2.6ghz CPU with bigger HD for around the same price I have paid.. I quickly rushed to my order status page to check if the laptop has been dispatched yet as they were saying an estimated delivery of the end of March.. Guess what? It's been shipped and is arriving today..

I was thinking of cancelling the order and re-ordering the faster machine..

My question is, what are my options now? I assume I can return the machine but I imagine it will cost quite a lot to send back.

Has anyone got an experience of doing this in the past. Just feels so gutting to have ordered a laptop on the 26th February only to find today that the same machine is now much faster and better specced..

I'm assuming the T9300 would be *alot* better than the T7500 right?

Any advice would be very greatly received.

Many thanks,
James.

 

Call sales for a rebate or to see if you can exchange your system, you are still within the 30 days. You gain some speed and extra 2Mb L2 Cache

 

Ah that's a good idea. Although on the UK Dell site it says I have 8 days to return it, but that is still enough time. Do you think sales might be open to exchanging it? My main concern is them not necessarily including the current website discounts and it ending up costing alot more to upgrade..

Or are they usually quite accomodating to this kind of request?

Thanks for the quick response by the way.

 

wow; after reading your post, i quickly went to the U.S. dell site to see if they were offering the same but i guess not. still the same T7250; otherwise, i'd return mine and go for the better deal.

good luck.

 

if dell supplies your work then you can get a discount. see here.

 

Tell them you are "not satisfied" by the way it went, that you spent x amount of cash on a new system and now they decided to upgrade the configuration of the system on the website at the same price you paid.

It's simple either you send your system back for a complete refund and you buy the one on the website or they exchange it....just make sure you get a new system and not a refurbished one.

 

In the UK you're entitled to return the goods within the first 7 days without having to give a reason provided you take reasonable care of the goods. You'll need to check out the Dell gubbins to see whether you need to pay for the cost of return shipping or whether they will cover it.

 

Thanks Crispy.. Dell are stating it's 8 working days from delivery to return it.

I imagine they would not refund the original postage charge or the charge for sending it back right?

Just wondering if it might end up costing alot more due to the shipping etc..

It's definetely worth going from the T7500 to T9300 right? I wasn't sure if the T9300 might take up more power etc..

Is sending an email about this the best idea or would a phone call be better?

 

Sorry about that. I would have thought you guys would have been the first to get this upgrade.

 

The penryn upgrade has been available for a couple weeks now, it's just that the T9300/T9500 are still quite a bit more expensive than when the T7500 was the top CPU.

I'd say just return it and order a new one if you can wait that long.

 

Yeah it's tempting.. I'm just concerned that the return postage costs and probably not getting a refund on the £60 postage it cost to send it to me will add alot to the price..

Worth talking to them though I would think.

 

To the best of my knowledge, they have to refund the original shipping costs under the Distance Selling Regulations as shipping is an inherent part of distance selling. You would probably be liable for the charge to send it back to Dell, however this is unlikely to be anywhere near £60 if you organise it yourself.

Probably best starting with a phone call (I never seem to get responses on Dell UK's e-mail) but they might ask you to confirm your intention to return in writing.

 

from Dell UK T&C's...

Consumers:
7.3 Consumers may cancel their Orders for any reason until, but no later than:
7.3.1 the end of the 7th "working day" (days other than weekend days & public holidays) after the day of receipt of the Product &/or of the Service Order Confirmation (as applicable); or
7.3.2 the end of the 7th working day after the date when all such information required by law is supplied.
7.4 Consumers' right to cancel Software that is supplied on CD, DVD or other similar storage devices is also lost if the Software is unwrapped.
7.5 On cancellation of Products Consumer is obliged to return the goods to Dell in their original condition, undamaged & at the cost of Consumer. Consumer shall take reasonable care to ensure that the goods are not damaged whilst in transit using means arranged by Consumer. Whilst in possession of the goods Consumer shall be under a duty to take reasonable care of them. Dell shall take action against Consumer for goods returned which have been made unfit for resale or damaged whilst in the possession of Consumer.
7.6 The provisions of Clauses 7.3, 7.4 & 7.5 do not apply to Product or Software that is damaged or defective.
7.7 On cancellation of the Order Dell will refund the price paid, less the direct cost of recovering the goods (when applicable), within a period of 30 days from date of cancellation.

 

Thanks Crispy - appreciate your help on this.

I'm fine with paying to ship it back as long as they would refund me the full amount paid. I won't take the laptop out so it will be in the original condition completely.

Just wonder what the chances of them exchanging it are.. at least at a decent price..

 

Here in Canada you have 28 days no quibble no charge full refund option from invoice date.In the US it is 21 days this is part of Dell's customer policy.Check terms and conditions on your order and on every page of Dell's website

 

After looking into the new Penryn processors, do you guys think it's actually worth the hassle of returning my T7500 XPS1330 and then maybe re-ordering the version with the T9300 in it, or exchanging and paying the extra now?

I'm reading some reports of the T9300 not really being that big an improvement on the T7500 in terms of heat or speed - well at least not to the levels some people are talking about.

Do you think it's better to stick with my T7500 unit and then maybe go for an official Dell upgrade down the line (I have a 3 year warranty so need to look after that).

I just hate to feel that I have missed out on a better unit literally by days.. Would be nice to think I've got the best unit I can for the money I've spent...

 

its mainly good for sse4 instruction set optimised apps, like for encoding

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3195&p=3

that shows it does a hell of alot better with the sse4 apps (like 40%) for the same clock speed, but regular stuff doesnt see anything drastically better. If it wasnt costing you alot to send back, then its probs worth it if you do lots of encoding and cpu intensive apps

I was thinking about it myself having got the t7500 too, but mine's form outlet so i got decent price cuts anyway for the spec

 

Thanks for the info TCL - much appreciated. I'm not going to be using the laptop for anything like that, or at least not to levels that will need the increased speed.

My main feeling that the increased battery life and lower heat would be worth having (the palm rest on the 1330 does get pretty hot), though I'm hearing these improvements aren't that much either.

Damn good price on your lappy! I paid just shy of 1k for my 1330 with 4GB ram, 200gb HD (7200) and T7500 with 3 years premium support.

It's just that as I'm going to be keeping this for 3 years at least, I'd like the get the best I can for the money I have.

My only problem now is whether I can return the laptop. I bought it via the home section of the website and my invoice shows a 3 year *consumer* warranty but as I used my business website login to order they may say it's a B2B sale and so not eligible for DSR returns..

 

Well in the case of temperatures, best thing you can do now is enquire how you could go about rectifying the situation as its clearly not fair. How much is it if you configured your exact spec now?

You should be able to at least get the difference in rebate, if your then satisfied you got the spec you did for its lower price.

it seems people are pretty good at negotiating lower prices with dell, but that is mainly for them getting the sale, though you could note that you are 'considering buying more from dell for your business' (which is worth mega-bucks for dell) and if your not satisfied with this order, it may dissuade you from placing an order with them..

following that, if they are helpful, follow up on your 'situation' and take the CSR's name, saying that you would contact them directly when it comes to making 'that big order for your business' and next time you place any kind of order with dell, use them, only if they help you of course.

 

Thanks for that - some good angles to try. The exact spec is about £150 more than I paid, taking into account the current discounts. That is with a bigger HD as well though - 350GB.

With the 10% discount I got on mine it would take it down to around what I paid..

I do think I need to give them a call to see what they can do...

Although i'm now questioning the LED screen. From the moment I turned it on I felt it was abit grainy.. No where near the stunning display I read it had..
Wondering if it's worth getting it changed for that..

Ah decisions, decisions..

 

Oh dear, does the 1330 also suffer these bad Samsung grainy screen's?

im praying for a good LG screen now.

Anyway, keep us up to date as to how it goes, its that 'christmas' thing going on, where you buy something pre-christmas, to then see it go to as little as a 1/3 of the price in the sale! Damn annoying!

 

Why not upgrading to the T9500??

 

Ah god yeah it is just that isn't it! I knew this would happen.. So ironic as on the day the laptop was due to arrive I had no idea it had been shipped, but felt the urge to see if the prices were different online.. Then found the new deal.. Checked the order status online (it had said due end of March) and it had been shipped - ready to arrive on that day..

I'm not convinced about the screen being dodgy now to be honest.. I had played with the Nvidia settings to improve the display and it does look better now. I had to do the same thing with my desktop monitors as they were too bright and washed out by default.
I think alot of the problems people think they have with these displays is perception - i.e expecting the screen to be incredible. I think there are limitations in how good the LED screen can be.

 

Good question. I read that the 9500 is not worth the extra money over the 9300 as the improvements are minimal.

 

The T9500 is more than 3x more expensive than the T9300 here in the UK and for what exactly? 200mhz. That's what.

It's a no-brainer to avoid that chip like the plague until Dell come to their senses about its cost.