Best price/place to buy Z12?

Gonna retire my Z590 for a Z12 - I wanna get BluRay, 2 yr warranty, switchable graphics. Any tips on best place to buy? Or am I headed to Sony Style again? When I got the Z590 there were promos running, so I scored double-cap battery on the cheap. Doesnt appear to have any promos live on the Z12 right now.

 

I don't see a Sony Z with Blu-Ray at TigerDirect else you could have used Bing Cashback to save some $$ and avoid tax.

If you purchase the notebook with 2 year extended warranty, you can get 15% discount at sonystyle.
Also have a look @ Sony VAIO Z - PortableOne.com

 

20% off the warranty or off the entire purchase, or for future purchases?

 

15% off the computer price.

 

I tried adding the 2 yr warranty to my order and didnt get any discount. Argh.

 

They're not going to just give it to you because you added a warranty. Why would they do that if they think they can sell you the whole package at their asking price?

What you need to do is get them to offer you the deal, not vice versa. So you call them up and say you're interested in the Z. Talk for a bit, and when you get to the purchase discussion, indicate that the price is outside of your budget. But you really want to spend your money with Sony as opposed to going with your cheaper second/third options. The rep will probably put you on hold and then come back with an offer. Let the haggling begin.

 

Thx - got it. Sadly, I had to order 2 accessories to qualify. Got 2 50GB BDR discs. If I return em they wont kill my discount will they?

 

portableone.com I would say.

 

No they won't kill your discount. Just be discreet when you call to return (say you purchased the BDR discs from their site and decided you'd like to return them).

 

I got a decent price on a preconfig from Vanns via Amazon. Microcenter has it even cheaper but I dont think their reputation is too hot online. If you want to buy a Z from them I would go in-store.

 

Only way to get Blu-ray is through a preconfig through SonyStyle or a CTO from SonyStyle. About the accessories, I got a $25 notebook lock and others have got a $25 neoprene case, so it's up to you. I didnt try returning it so yeah, i guess just keep it a little discreet.

 

You might also be able to just go to the website and look-up your order and it will allow you to request the return from there. You can also return the warranty this way, with nothing to ship back to them.

 

I was required to purchase just one accessory which came down to be $16, so I did not return that, as one would need to cover the cost of shipping it back. I returned the warranty though, using the website.

 

Not 100% true, some sellers have preconfigured models with full HD and Blu-ray, like portableone.

 

Why do folks return the warranty? I feel like I def want a 3 yr warranty on a computer I'll lug around... and it helps resale value, no?

 

When you have a valuable product like SonyZ, you don't tend to think about selling it, rather use it for its lifetime

 

With my previous laptop, that's what I thought, having a 3-yr warranty will help me resell it later. The warranty was extended to 4-yrs for free, and that warranty was included with no additional cost when I purchased the computer as a student. I found out, that even though I carried the laptop around on almost a daily basis, I never had to make a claim due to an accidental drop, a spill, etc.

Many laptops that are going to fail due to some material or manufacturing defect will do so within the first year. This was the case with my previous laptop, it required service within the first 6-months. After that, it did not fail again until more than 2 years later, and for the same issue. By now, that issue was a well known manufacturing defect for which the manufacturer had agreed to cover the repair even if the laptop was out of warranty.

Laptops depreciate in price quickly. After 3 years, when I decided to replace my laptop with a new one, the value of just keeping it around, loan it to a visitor, or giving it as a gift to someone, outweighs the re-sell value of it.

Coming to this purchase with that experience, I figured I did not need any accidental protection, specially since I won't be carrying it around as much. Carrying a laptop around a lot and the abuse that comes with it is one of the factors that may cause it to break. If you know you will be using your laptop a lot and it will get moved around, a 1-year warranty may not be enough. However, if you have confidence you're buying a well built product, then a 1-year warranty can be just fine.

As for me, I know I will be using it a lot, but not moving it around as much. I expect the Sony to be a well built product, if my previous laptop of lesser quality withstood 18-hours of usage a day and more for the past 3 years, I don't expect any less from this one.

Another reason why I decided to return the warranty is because my credit card provider will extend the warranty for another year and cover the repair costs, or refund the original purchase price. I've never had to use this extended warranty but to me it seems better that other non-manufacturer extended warranties that refund you for the current or depreciated value, or that upon a second claim, they will discount the repair costs of the first repair.