Purchasing the P-7811FX

Like a lot of people, I am very excited about purchasing this affordable powerhouse of a notebook. My only wonder now is how and where I should purchase it. I called Gateway's retail number a couple days ago and that redirected me to Tiger Direct since they took over Gateway's Sales. The rep I spoke with didn't know anything about the laptop.

As everyone interested in this notebook has probably already seen, it is on Best Buy's website http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...cat150700050002&type=product&id=1211587727985

So this leads me to a couple of questions. Where should I purchase it in order to receive it as soon as possible? Tiger Direct or Best Buy? Will Tiger Direct offer student discounts like Gateway did? Would it be better to hope that it arrives at one of the two Best Buys in driving distance and do Store Pickup or to order it now online and pay the $20 in shipping cost?

Any other ideas/thoughts/etc. feel free to reply. I can't wait to get it and I need to asap because I'll be leaving for college soon after is is released on presumably the 14th.

 

Right now, the only model available in America for this iteration of the FX series is the 7811FX, and that's only available in Best Buy.

There may very well be a Tigerdirect model out in a while, but you can generally get a better price on Best Buy (as they offer great discounts), less so on Tigerdirect. You used to get decent prices from Gateway directly as you could negotiate with the sales reps. Unfortunately, that will no longer be possible with Tigerdirect, so you'll have to see if Tigerdirect's willing to discount it.

 

also. just look in the other threads. there are a million of them already and this one is not helping much.

 

If you want it as soon as possible, wait till its in stock at your local bestbuy and do a pickup.

 

Thanks a lot for that info. Looks like Best Buy will be the best and possibly the only option. I'll do a pickup then at whichever of the two gets it first. It's a shame I can't get it through Gateway with a nice student discount like I would've gotten had I bought the p172x-fx.

I apologize if there's other threads about this, but I just wasn't sure what the best option would be now that the Gateway sales has been completely taken over and pre-ordering vs. pickup at best buy.

 

If you throw enough in Best Buy's face, they might agree to give you a discount... heres what I plan on doing:

Bear in mind that I'm a total cheapo and I'm not saying anyone else should go to this extreme to try to get a discount

I'm go in and ask to see the 7811... look at it with the best buy employee next to me telling me about it, compliment it, then I'll go... hmm, I don't think I can afford this one though, but I really want it. He'll look at me like 'oh great.. one of these guys..' and then I'll take out my rewards card and pretend I only signed up because I thought that it got me discounts (you should sign up for a reward card, its free, and you don't give any credit card info). So then I'll be like 'wait I can't get any discounts on this even though I'm in the rewards program?' and he'll probably say no, then i'll say 'well don't you guys offer discounts on products for birthday months' (it's true, they do, and in fact I set my birthday month to august on my rewards card even though its october), he'll probably say yes but only on featured items, and then I'll say 'well I'm a student, do I get any student discounts?'

hopefully within one of these three things he'll try to get you a discount, and if not, try to say 'damn, if it were a hundred dollars cheaper, i'd definitely get it, it's just right above my budget...'. If all else fails, you walk out, because theres a chance he'll stop you and say ok ok we'll see what we can do.

theres nothing else you can do after that, so if none of that works, just go back into the store 5-10 min later and buy the damn thing....

 

LOL!! Almost sounds like you going in to buy a car. Good tactics though.

 

I highly doubt that will work and here's why. Remember that $1099 sale a while back on the 6860? I missed it by a week. I was out of the country. So I called bestbuy about my situation. I spoke to sever sales reps and managers and they all told me the lowest price it had ever been in the U.S. was $1200 and that they weren't able to give me the discount. So I looked around online a while. I checked out the gateway site and found a price that said the 6860 was at bestbuy for $1099 still so I clicked it and it brought me to bestbuy page where the laptop was selling for $1350. I decided to call gateway and see if I could get it through them for the $1099 price because of their false posting. They told me that bestbuy owned that portion of the website and that I should talk to them about it (he was actually pretty rude). SO I called bestbuy again. And spoke with a sales rep and told them the situation. They checked out the page and said that the price they were seeing was $1349. I then checked 3 other computers in my house and saw the $1099 price. I obviously thought she was lying so I asked to speak with a manager. The manager checked and saw the $1349. I wasn't too happy so I asked to send her a screen shot of what I was seeing and I did. She recieved it and told me that it was extremely strange because she was telling the truth. She then sent me a screenshot from her computer and sure enough her's showed $1349. She offered to call the local bestbuys and see if they would match the price I had found. None of them would even after speaking to this high up manager. SHe told me she could not force them because there was no policy allowing her to. So she tried BB online. She managed to get them to offer it to me for $1249. So I thought about it for a while and decided, that's as good as it gets. SO I got it. Even with my circumstances it took me nearly five hours to get $100 off and it should have been the price listed ><.

BTW, that night, the page changed to show $1349. Suspicious, most definitely?

Anyway good luck.

 

I've spent the past three weeks trying to haggle at my local Best Buy on the 6860. I've talked to at least three different sales reps with no luck. I've told them about the 7811 coming out. They've confirmed that with me, but are still unwilling to budge on the $1349 price on the 6860. I know a lot of you are excited about the 7811, but I missed the $1099 price on the 6860 by a few days, and that's more my budget range. The answer I keep getting from the computer sales reps is that they just don't have a lot of room to haggle on the computers because they aren't getting that much of a discount on them themselves. I even had one of them tell me that it's stupid that the 6860 isn't on clearance yet with the 7811 coming out, but there's just nothing he can do about it. If anyone is curious about when the 6860 will go on clearance, I was told the 13th. However, the sales rep wasn't able to give me the clearance price, and I think clearance at Best Buy is a store to store thing.

I was tempted to start a "6860 clearance watch" thread, but I'm not sure how many people are in the same boat I am. That said, I'll be checking with my local Best Buy again today or tomorrow to see if they have any new info.

Here's a question for you knowledgeable folk. If I buy the 6860 now, will I be able to get a price match on it if it goes on clearance in 14 days? I can't really tell based on BB's price match policy. It seems to exclude clearance, but I've had sales people in the store tell me I'll be able to do it. I can't imagine at this point that the 6860 won't be going on clearance within that time frame. If nothing else, the price of 6860s is dropping like a rock on eBay. All the interested buyers are aware of the 7811.

 

O_O Is it really going to kill you to pay the normal price for a laptop that's not on sale?

 

Yes!! .

 

Why do you even want to change your P-6860FX? Its not that big upgrade.

 

Is it going to kill me to buy it? No... donno where you see that in these posts..

Do I want to buy it at a cheaper price? Yes...

 

My experience was quite different. I read about this laptop all over and heard it was great. I remember seeing it previously in BB and thinking it was an attractive design with great specs. I checked the BB website ande saw it advertised for $1349. I had read that it had recently been on sale for $1099, so I went and looked at it. While looking it over I was approached by a salesman. He asked me what I thought and I flat out told him I really wanted it, but that the price was too high. I said I'd seen it for $1099 recently and refused to pay $1349. He went and talked to a manager and came back a few minutes later to tell me they could drop it $100, but that the lower $1099 price was advertised by Gateway previously, but not now. He said $100 off was the best they could do. It wasn't as low as I was hoping for, but getting that $100 off was very easy. Of course, with BB YMMV is a rule...

 

How do you people get discont I want a discont T_____T
Giev ^ ^

 

Did you forget to read the whole post except for the part where we said we got a discount?

 

Sounds about right.

 

One idea if they don't match the price is to simply return it and buy a clearanced one. I know it would be a hassle to reinstall all of your programs and everything, but it's a thought.

Seems like all of you have had some mixed experiences with Best Buy. I'll try and shake them down $100, because that would really keep me within my budget. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

 

Dunno if it would work on a new model laptop, but it's certainly worth a shot.

 

Yeah, but in order to avoid the restocking fee I would have to buy it and NOT open it. That's a bit of a tough one for me to do. I'm gonna head out to Best Buy this morning and talk to a manager. If I can get a manager to tell me they'll honor the clearance price, and get his name, I should be safe. I'll check back in with an update.

 

I've heard a several people on the forum say they've gotten the restocking fee waived by telling them you are buying a new laptop from them. It seems they don't mind so long as they aren't completely losing your business.