Negotiate Prices with HP

Hi,

I want to get a 8740w in Sweden. I'm wondering if it's possible to negotiate a price here. I'm a student with limited fund, but I want to have something solid with a matte wuxga screen.

This one will serve me well: HP EliteBook 8740w mobil arbetsstation (WD938EA) specifikationer produkter - HP Små och medelstora företag

Also, may I ask how you'd negotiate the best price with HP?

 

You might be able if you buy it from a retail store, but I doubt you can if it's ordered directly from HP.

 

More you buy them, the better prices you can negotiate. One or three isn't much, but if you can get couple dozen other students to buy one too the dealer will be crawling at your feet. Take offers from several retailers, make them compete with each others.

 

You can check to see if your school has a computer store that does business with HP. Some schools have partnerships with Apple, Dell, or HP and sells computers to students at discount rates.
Otherwise you can call up HP sales, usually they give a slightly better discount than what is shown on the website. Mention that you're a student as well. Also you can haggle a bit and say if you can match this price I want, then it's a done deal. I wouldn't be too absurd and want something like 50% off but more between 30-35%.

 

On this topic, I know that some sites (like HP Shopping Coupons & Deals - Dealcatcher) track coupon codes for consumer models, but I'm not sure how things work in HP Business Land. Does HP release coupon codes or other discounts for their business notebooks, particularly Elitebooks? If so, how often, and is it worth it to wait for them? Or are we best off haggling on the phone from the list price down?

To fire off some more questions: Also, do they have any widely used discount programs, like Dell's not-so-employee-limited employee discount program, etc.?

Do they actually have discounts listed on their website (if so, where?), or were you just referring to the list price?

Thanks

 

If you go to the CTO configuration page, right at the top there's a listing for an 18% off coupon, which has been there for several months now. The code is listed as "CTO8740w", although I remember early reports stating that the code didn't work when they tried to use it through the web site. Even so, the fact that that code is posted right there should mean that you should be able to get at least that much off any phoned in order. Oh, and for the record, this is from the US site. It may be different if you're going through another country.

 

Sorry, wasn't clear. As Judicator mentioned, when you go to the CTO page for a particular model there usually is a discount code for additional % off. It also says, "Call XXX to get special promotional pricing for your customized configuration." You should get a slightly better discount for calling than using the coupon provided.

This is also for the US site, not sure if they have the same promotion for other countries.

 

Thanks, guys. jalaj, you wrote "Call XXX to get special promotional pricing for your customized configuration" in quotes. Are you speaking from memory, or did you copy/paste? I ask because I'm in the US as well, and I'm actually getting an error whenever I try configuring anything on their business site. For instance, the buttons on this page give me this error:

Am I looking at the wrong page?

 

For example, check this LINK for a quad core 8540w.

 

The buttons on that page seem to work fine for me; I just hit "Configure Energy Star" and then "Customize" on the "Configurable - HP Elitebook 8540w Mobile Workstation - Dual Core (ENERGY STAR) NU515AV", and then it takes me to a page with a bunch of drop-down selectable menus, as well as a line near the top that says "Use eCoupon code CTO8540w during checkout to save 24% on this laptop!" and below that a line that says "Call 888-762-1279 to get special promotional pricing on your customized configuration." (Bolding is HP's)

 

Man, that's weird. I'm still getting errors, even for the link jalaj gave. I do have the NoScript extension for Firefox, but I have all scripts enabled for their site. Hrm. At least now I know it's an issue on my end though, so thanks for the help!