Zepto is playing dirty

Just now I went again to their site and the 'power' option on the Nexus A15 price jumped rather 'nicely'.

It would appear they have standardized the 200gb 7200 rpm hdd into the pricetag which of course increased it.
The 320gb 5400 rpm hdd is no longer available ... but the 500gb 5400rpm is.

So is the platter density between those two hdd the same, or is the 500gb version even slower?

Last night I configured this laptop with 9650m GT GDDR3/P8400 24 month warranty for 734 GBP, and now it costs about 50 GBP more.

They're playing dirty, on top of everything else.
I was seriously thinking on purchasing this option but now ... the pricetag went up above my affordable range.

Can they afford to play this dirty what with keeping their customers waiting on the pre-ordered products far longer than expected and not really being efficient when it comes to customer service if the laptop needs to be returned for repairs?
Likely yes, but I'm slightly annoyed when companies do this kind of dirty playing and put everything just above the affordable price range for some people.

 

well, IMHO, zepto is a ripoff and you should go for sager/clevo instead.

 

Are you shure there wasnt a discount that ended?

And the 320GB 5400rpm disk is the standard on the UK site so I dont know what your looking at

 

Zepto run promotions nearly every week. It would be very prudent to just watch what happens each week as you may end up getting a very good deal.

 

Those are even more expensive than Zepto ... at least as far as UK is concerned (which is where I'm gonna buy my new laptop).

As for the 320gb 5400 rpm hdd not being available ...
I just rechecked and only 500gb 5400 rpm hdd is available in 'power' option of Nexus A15 as compared to last night where it was obviously quite different.

It's a possibility they had an action of some sort offering lowered prices up until yesterday ... still I saw no info on their website regarding it.
And it's odd to say the least they would eliminate the 320gb 5400 rpm hdd and replace it with 320gb 7200 rpm drive (which of course bumps the price as well by a good margin).

They most likely decided to reconfigure the options in order to bump up the price.

 

Can't you buy a cheap-*** Nexus with a 80GB HDD
and buy a HDD that you want in a webshop and put it in yourself... (maybe there are warranty seals on the laptop...)

And every Zeptoshop is different.. Here in The Netherlands you can't buy the 500GB 5400rpm'er because it's from Samsung.
Zepto Netherlands only want to work with Hitachi, but the 500GB 5400rpm'er from Hitachi isn't 9 mm thick but 12 mm so it doesn't fit =)

 

Oh Man, any Poeples have no other to do.
To late for an offer, and it is an Zepto Issue ?
*** shake the head***

 

Mind you I have better things to do, but I also set aside some time to setup a configuration and check out the prices.

It IS a Zepto issue when they are first providing a specific setup only to change it dramatically a day later, eliminate some of the options by putting much more expensive parts in it's place and bump up the price a lot.

When I mentioned they are playing dirty, I was referring to messing up the cheaper configuration intentionally and misleading potential buyers, not to mention everybody who pre-ordered their laptops and are waiting for well over a month ... granted that's more in line with the shipment of gpu's not being delivered on time, but at the same time, plenty of people seem to have serious problems with customer support and waiting for about a month (if not more) for repairs to be done on the laptop in question.

 

Than buy another brand laptop and don't bother us anymore =)

 

If you have time, sign up to the Zepto newsletter and wait for a deal on the model that interest you. It's quite like there will be a slack period (and the possibility of a special offer) once they have assembled and shipped all the machines waiting for the 9650 GPU to arrive.

As for the 500GB, the WD5000BEVT is a new 2 platter 9.5mm thick and a good performer while the 500GB Samsung has been around for several months, is also 9.5mm thick, but is relatively power-hungry. Zepto used to offer the Samsung. Maybe the best strategy is to get whatever HDD comes cheapest and separately buy your preferred HDD plus an enclosure. Then clone the OS / software installation onto the new HDD and keep your original HDD as a backup.

John

 

It's a possibility.
I was surprised at the sudden 'specifications mess/changes' and bumping of the prices.
As for the hdd, for the moment Zepto doesn't offer any other lower cost versions of the hdd in the Nexus A15 'power' option apart from the 500gb 5400 rpm ... which is very odd from my personal perspective, but of course from theirs, it prevents users from customizing the laptop too much and saving up some money in not needed areas (for example reducing the price another 40 GBP).

Zepto may seem to be 'playing dirty' for now but I also have to admit that apart from them, virtually no other company in UK offers these prices for that hardware combination.

My only real issue with Zepto are delays in the delivery (since I'll be coming to London in a few days and stay for a month, I need to know the laptop would be delivered on time and not 2 or 3 months from now if I decide to go with Zepto).
Plus if something goes wrong with the laptop and I need customer support (although usually this never happened with my other laptop/another brand/ and computers) because of some malfunction not caused by myself, I wouldn't want to end up waiting months for the laptop to be 'fixed' since there's a possibility I won't be situated in UK just yet on a long term basis.

 

They couldn't garranty that... And if you want a laptop NOW you are restricted to some electronica stores with HP's, Asus, Acers and so on...

 

Well, I should be in UK until November 18th, so I can afford to wait 2 or 3 (3 and a half) weeks until the laptop is delivered I suppose, but more than that would obviously present a problem.

As far as I can determine the newer lines of notebooks Zepto has to offer are basically fine and are not causing issues on their own.
And I suppose there is a good possibility that 9600mG and 9650m GT won't also be problematic since those lines of cards are supposedly unaffected.

I'll give it some further thought and wait until I get to London on Monday.

 

Haven't you got any friends in England / London?
So the laptop can be send to their adress.. hopefully when you are there...
And otherwise they can send it to you in Idontknowwhere... =)

 

I do have friends in London, though having them send the laptop to Croatia/Zagreb via mail is not a practical solution as the laptop would be slapped with customs fee and additional 22% for local tax which in the end would bump the price to the extreme.
And since none of my friends are coming over for a visit, they can't carry it themselves.

It's a tight situation.

On the other hand ... are Zepto expecting any further delays with laptops that ship with 9650m GT?

 

Zepto can probably send it to Croatia trough the Zepto International page. Then you would only et 22% once and maby a small shipping fee as they dont have any offices in Croatia

 

See the thing is I can deduce the tax on the airport upon exiting UK and overall, the price for the laptop comes to about 120 GPB cheaper for me.
Given the fact I'm tight on money, paying extra 22% when the bugger reaches Croatia (not to mention the shipping fees) would hurt my wallet plenty.


As I said, I'll look into it more and I fired off an email to Zepto asking about a few things.

 

Why are you talking about extra taxes...
England and Croatie are both in the European Union..?

 

Nope, Croatia isn't a full EU member yet.
If he buys it in the UK and can get the tax he paid, back at UK customs, he only has to pay Croatian taxes if he told local customs there on arrival (if I understand correctly ).

 

Hmm weer wat geleerd ;-)