I have figured Dell out.

They never have a sale. They perpetually have around $600 off on the xps line because the line is worth that price. They have 25% off coupons that don't work on things that are on "sale", so really, the coupon hardly works on any xps laptop.

The months I have been tracking here is what I have noticed...

1. They advertise the "$599 off" as limited time only, but it has been going on for months with no end in sight.
2. When they have a "sale" all they do is bring the "$599 off" deal to the front page and put a frilly graphic along with it. (Fourth of July sale, XPS week of savings sale)
3. When they do actually lower the price in a "sale", they downgrade the system, so it is not a sale, its a downgrade, in effect you are paying the same thing.

The only exception is the 40% off sale they had. It seems so unusual that maybe it was some type of error they had to go along with. Who knows.

 

Many people here will prove you wrong. the coupon savings are real, and dell deals are definitly not "fake".

 

The 25-30% off coupons have never worked on pre-configured systems that already include a discount. Typically, when you select a specific model on the Dell website, it offers you three choices (Good, Better and Best is how they're labeled). The 'Better' and 'Best' show a savings amount under the initial price and these configs can't be used with a coupon. The first choice ('Good') is usually the bare bones system with no discounts and you can configure all the specs, then apply the coupons.

Using one of these coupons, I bought my nephew an Inspiron 1520 with XP Home, T7250 processor and discrete nVIDIA graphics for $642 shipped last year. A steal in my opinion.

 

Your right that there is usually a dell deal at all times but most of the time they do give you a good discount. Beats what you get for a dell at Sam's Club or Best Buy.

 

The Coupon savings are very real. I got my XPS m1330 for about $1250 with the 25% off coupon. At another recent sale (during one of their 10 days of Dell deals), I configured the same system for about $1300. And now with their regular savings, I can only get the same system for about $1550. You have to shop around a lot to see what the best deal is. A similar spec'd Sony SZ would have cost me about $2050.

 

Dell deals are real (that coming from people who took advantage from them) and, as Egregious said, there's a deal going on almost always... so it makes you kind of wonder why don't they just put cheaper prices? Marketing strategy I guess.
But one thing I don't understand... DELL has lots of deals going at the same time, but choosing one deal over other may get you lower prices... not because deal 1 has 25% discount vs deal's 2 20% discount but rather because the starting systems are different and (I might be very well mistaken in this) components seem to have different cost.

Am I right in this?

 

Well currently they have no coupons for the 1530 (working coupons, that is) and the only deals they offer include Verizon broadband, which I do NOT want...

 

Some deals are just worse than others because yes they give you "discount", but they add warranty, and other useless options you most likely will never use. Its best to start at lowest config without discount then use the 25% off. It kicks serious butt!

 

Yup, it's a marketing strategy. Psychological studies have found that, when consumers are given a choice between two identical items with the same price, if one of them is marketed as a discount (even though they're still the same item for the same price!) they will choose the one that is marketed as a good deal, even though the items were identical. In Dell's case, the discounts are actually real, but by offering big discounts instead of lowering base prices, they can definitely attract more buyers.

 

of course its a marketing strategy...they're tryin to make money.

i got my m1530 (specs in sig) for $1250. $1350 after taxes.

u just have to be a smart consumer and pay attention to exact details of the coupon.

 

Dell has a wide range of deals going on all the time, but to get the really good deals you have to sit back and wait! I got mine for $909 but had been watching prices for months... Be patient and you will get the deal you want but be ready to jump immediately or you may miss out!

 

Too much free time on your hands bud.

The savings, coupons and deals work.

Member discounts. instant discounts, coupons.

They all work and i got all of them when i ordered my system. Which hasn't arrived yet btw.

 

also, if u monitor slickdeals, there have been five occassions in April AND May that the M1530 was sold (T5750, 8600, 3GB, 250GB, 1 yr warranty) for $800 or less, but those deals were gone in an hour(think either dell messed up and finally changed it, or dell purposely hyped up the situation for a few hours)...

and dell epp sometimes gives u a much better deal than dell home, if u have access

(my machine in my signature was from dell epp @ $1268+tax, m1530 had the same specs and price plus 8600 and LED 15.4" LCD...but i went for m1330)

 

Some of Dells coupon deals are only good for so many uses, once its been used X amount of times its no good anymore, hence the really spectacular deals are usually long gone by the time you find out about them.

The best dell deals by far are from the outlet, I got my XPS M1210 from theres about 2 years ago for almost half of a new one with the current deals.

 

I actually purchased a refurb m1330 from the outlet with really great specs for about half the price brand new. But when the 25% i found got the exact config on a brand new m1530, so i just purchased it. The refurb went back to dell and i'm currently waiting for the m1530. You cant really put a price on peace of mind.

 

Dell's prices are always changing. I watched the XPS M1530 prices for a month before finally buying the best deal I had found all month on Dells Home site. Prices for the same configuration had varied from $1380 to over $1700 within a month and everywhere in between. Also base configurations seemed to change all the time. And depending on where you went on the Dell site, the prices varied alot.

 

^yeah the price variance is pretty annoying. I also watched the stuff for like a month and saw incredible variance on the same exact specs. Luckily I decided to order my 1530 when they had the deal I wanted, and then a few days after they made the deal absolutely awful so I ordered just in time. Still waiting for it though, should ship within the next week since the esd is thursday.

 

OMG, Dell is trying to make money off of you!!!!!!!!!!!

 

While the prices do sometimes go on sale, you are right. The actual difference in prices between normal prices and on its 599 off sales is 100 at most.

 

I thought that too, but then I realized that Dell adds 3 year warranties, extended anti-virus subscriptions, and other stuff to the configuration with the $599 off option, which raises the price before discount by a lot more, so the discount really IS a $599 discount. Not all people want the warranty, though... I personally never get any extended warranty.
The m1330 has a $642 off a $2091 configuration off right now. At first glance, the configuration's specs don't add up to $2091. But if you try to make the same configuration (starting from the base config), and include warranties, extended anti-virus, and the Verizon broadband wireless service, it'll come out to exactly $2091.