Good ordering experience with Sony Style over the phone

22 minutes on the phone and I went from "interested" to "confirmed purchase". Well done Sony rep! haha...

I've been looking for a SZ 6-series and people were mentioning the good deals that Sony will give you if you just call them up so I figured "what the heck" and just gave them a call.

They have a Student Discount going on where it's 300 dollars off if you buy their 3 year warranty. BUT you also have to order a 22 dollar carrying case and also a 40ish dollar mouse. I decided I didn't want to pay 62$ to upgrade my 1 year standard warranty to a 3 year so I just went no student discount. I barely have laptops for more than a yea and I'll probably do enough upgrades or hacks to void any warranty anyway.

As well as that discount the rep also told me that they have a $100 discount going on right now. I asked her if that was always there or was something special and she said that it's usually $50. Whatever, free money, I won't complain. So in my head I did a couple quick calculations and decided that I wasn't going to be able to find my configuration any cheaper anywhere else so I asked her to configure one for me so I could see the price. She said that was fine.

I wanted the 680 configured and did the following:

Bumped up the processor to the T7500. I'm guessing that that is definitely worth the $50. Larger cache and more speed.

I left the memory at 1 gig thinking that I'll just grab some memory on Newegg for cheaper than their upgrade. Plus I can get 800mhz speed memory instead of the 667. After doing some research I think that's the way to go.

I waffled between the 160gig hard drive with the hybrid flash memory and the one without. It's only a 30 dollar upgrade but then again it's only 256 megs of flash memory. I initially told her to do the upgrade but later when I was giving her my address I decided to roll it back to the normal 160gig 5400rpm drive. I just don't think that extra flash memory will help much and I was told that if you get a corrupted hard drive later than it's harder to fix a hybrid? I don't know if that's true or not but it was enough to sway my decision. Also in a year I'm going to swap it out for a new 128gig SSD anyway I'm guessing. Who knows, I rarely complain about hard drive speed so I figured I'd just save the 30 bucks.

I didn't need WAN because I can't afford the freaking 100 bucks a month it costs to use it.

I can't express to you how glad I am that you actually SAVE money by getting a black keyboard instead of a hideous silver one. That was a no-brainer. That silver keyboard looks horribly out of place on that sleek black machine.

Standard battery to save weight, basic software, no accessories.

Grand Total 1,919.99.

-$100.00 instant discount

$1,819.99, free shipping.

They also have free shipping on everything that supposedly ends Thursday. I was able to get fee one day Air shipping which I consider a pretty good deal.

I don't know how you can beat that at the moment. I should be future proof for at least, what? 3 days?

Seriously though, it was a good ordering experience, the lady was super friendly and I don't think you can beat the price for a SZ with those specs.

Granted I'll have to buy some more Ram now but it's going to be way faster than most other SZ's out there when I'm finished with it, and for way cheaper.

 

Summary. Now.




Glad to hear about a good experience, though; too often we only hear horror stories.

 

i dont think you can use all of the 800mhz, i believe it'll still clock down.

 

Where on earth did you find a phone number? I couldn't find a phone number or email address on that site anywhere.

 

Crap, are you sure it would drop down? The review didn't mention that. Why would it if the processor bus speed is 800 and so is the memory?


Component: No Integrated Wireless Wide Area Network
Component: Wireless LAN (802.11a\b\g\n)
Component: Microsoft Windows Vista Business
Component: MOTION EYE Camera
Component: 13.3" WXGA
Component: SuperMulti DVD±R DL / DVD±RW / DVD-RAM Drive
Component: 160 GB Hard Disk Drive
Component: 1 GB DDR-SDRAM (DDR2-667, 512 MBx2)
Component: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.20GHz)
Component: Norton Internet Security 2007 (Trial)
Component: QuickBooks Basic
Component: Video Standard
Component: Photo Standard
Component: Music Plus
Component: Microsoft Works
Component: No Engraving
Component: Standard Capacity Lithium-ion Battery (BPS10)
Component: Keyboard (Black)
Component: Trusted Platform Module / Biometric Fingerprint Sensor
Per Unit Price: $1,919.99
Quantity: 1
Total Price: $1,919.99
Description: VGN-SZ680 Configure-to-Order
Ship Method: 1 Day Air
Estimated Ship Date: 09/05/2007

-$100 instant discount.

$1,819.99

 

All over their site heheh, upper right corner too.

1-877-865-SONY

 

haha, figures. Thanks.

 

because they did it with the core 2 duo sz's too.

even if you put 667mhz ram (fsb is 667mhz on the c2d) it clocks it back down to 533

 

did you get the led screen?

 

So what's the best kind of Ram I can put in this thing?

It better be a LED screen... aren't all of the 680 models LED? I just assumed so since it's the black carbon fiber case?

 

yea i think its the led screen.

you could always put in the 800mhz ram, if it doesn't clock down then great, but it'll probably clock down to 667. maybe someone else knows

 

I was just going off of this review:

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/Sony-Vaio-SZ650.htm

That says:

To take full advantage of the 800MHz front side bus, the laptop should have 800MHz PC-6400 DDR2 RAM. However, that RAM is still a bit hard to come by (in fact when Intel finalized Santa Rosa it didn't yet exist), so the Sony has 2 gigs of DDR2 PC-5300 677MHz RAM. There are 2 standard SODIMM slots under a memory door on the bottom of the computer and the machine can address a maximum of 4 gigs of RAM (Windows Vista 32 bit can't see more than 4 gigs of RAM, only the 64 bit version of the OS can). The SZ650N/C has a 2.2GHz Intel T7500 Core 2 Duo processor, and the SZ670 and SZ691 have a 2.4GHz Intel T7700 Core 2 Duo CPU.



If it's true that it won't read 800 mhz ram I'll just grab 4 gigs of 677 speed ram for about the same price or a bit more. Granted it only will read 3.2 gigs of ram but that might be a decent boost from 2gigs. I don't like the thought of that wasted .8 gigs of ram haha.

 

i was just going off what sony has done in the past

oh and was this your first purchase from sony style store?
i got a 100 off an accessory because it was my first purchase from them along with the discount, i put it towards a dock which is a great thing to have.

 

Ok, I guess I won't be getting 4 gigs of ram... that stuff is way more spendy no matter what flavor you get it in.

Sony may screw me yet, but I'm just saying that their ordering experience over the phone through Sony Style was nearly perfect for a laptop manufacturer. The rep was extremely nice and friendly and we ended up chatting about all sorts of random things.

P.S. What in the heck is light leakage? And how do I check for that once it comes? It sounds like it's not an issue for the 6 series SZ's but I just want to be sure. I've never even heard of it before I started lurking here.

 

oh yea when i called and order mine they were great.

i believe light leakage is uneven lighting, heres a thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=158694

 

If you ordered the SZ680 you'll be getting the LED screen for sure. I can also say that the 680's LED screen is thinner than Dell's m1330, the laptop I sent back to get my 680.

 

Glad to hear that Ryan!

Thanks for the light leakage link... I hope it's not too bad. It doesn't sound like a huge issue though and people seem to be fine with their 680's.

 

I have a Sony Style store very near and they didn't mention anything about discounts (go figure), but the phone experience sounds like a great option. BTW, for true torture over the phone, order from Alienware! It's outta this world. (Sorry for the bad pun)

 

I figured it would be great, its not like they dont have the margins to keep a good sales team around.

 

i got a veryvery similar sz6 from newegg but it was less powerful. i think it was 1799 before tax and it has the 2.0ghz cpu and 120gb drive. its gonna be here tomorrow xD

 

I still can't decide what ram to get for this... People are saying the 800 speed ram won't work in it so I guess I'll just get a stick of 2gb 667 speed ram bumping me to 2.5 gigs of ram.

In retrospect I REALLY should have spent the 20 bucks to get 1 stick of 1gb ram instead of 2 x 512megs.

Oh well. Hopefully the benifits of 3gigs of Ram vs. 2.5 gigs of ram aren't too noticeable, otherwise I'm going to be kicking myself for the next 6 months until I break down and but an extra 2gig stick of ram.

Do you really need 3.2 gigs of Ram anyway?

 

haha probably not. just 2gb should be good enough for everyone

 

Yea it sounds like the jump from 1g to 2g's is HUGE, and the jump from 2 to 3 is relatively minor.

 

Hope you like your 680.
I ordered tonight too!!

T7500, 2Gig of RAM, 200Gig 7200RPM HDD, High Capacity battery, and a black keyboard for me!

 

Congrats! Did they give you the same $100 off? What did your total end up as? I'm kind of envious of the hard drive but didn't want to poney up the money.

 

Oh the price hurt overall.
They wouln't give me the $100 and $300 at the same time and it sounded like she wanted me to take the $100. (nope)

Subtotal: $2,404.96
Tax: $106.92
Order Total: $2,511.88

 

I've got another quick question.

The spec sheet says that there is 1 unpowered FireWire IEEE 1394 port (i.LINK in Sony lingo)...

What does "unpowered" mean? Will it charge and Ipod? I'm pretty sure that firewire is the traditional way to plug in an Ipod and grab a quick charge. I have a nano and don't really want to buy a dock and use the USB port.

 

I am winging it here but my understanding is that if you have a "Firewire" port it is understood to be powered much like USB will power your hub or charge your device..

But..

the names are a branding thing and Sony will not charge your device.

here is a quote from Wikipedia:

"Sony's implementation of the system is known as i.Link, and uses only the four signal pins, discarding the two pins that provide power to the device in favor of a separate power connector on Sony's i.Link products."

see this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FireWire

see the picture of the red Firewire cables at that link and the 4-pin is what Sony uses on its systems, then again I think most laptops use the 4-pin because they don't want you to power devices off the laptops motherboard.

 

The 800mhz RAM issue is not just a Sony issue. It is becuase the new Santa Rosa chipset does not support 800mhz RAM. It was build witha 800mhz FSB to increase speed, however the chipset will reduce 800mhz RAM to 667mhz. So really there is no reason to buy 800mhz RAM if you have a Santa Rosa chipset (which the Sony SZ6 is). There is a RAM sticky somewhere out there that explains this in full detail, but sorry I don't have the link

I would recommend that you use at least 2 gb of ram. I have an ASUS G1S with 2 gb RAM and Vista and the bloatware eat up almost 30% of the RAM after boot up and left to idel. The rumors are that there is not much improvement with 3+ gb of RAM over 2 gb. However, there of course is still is an improvemnt. Myself, would wait for the 2 gb RAM to drop in price. You probably don't really need beyond 2 gb at this time.

Anyways congrats on your purchase. I am still debating the SZ6 purchase. There just isn't enough alternatives in the 13.3 market!!

 

Thanks for your reply icer. Yea it really came down to the SZ, the 1330 from Dell, and the U305 from Toshiba. The U305 just didn't cut it in the weight/looks/customization options, and the 1330 has been plagued by problems and little annoyances/shipping delays. The Sony is also cheaper than the 1330 when specced out similarly.

In an ideal world there would be a 13.3 inch Vaio based on the TZ model. I love the looks of that little guy but it's just too small. Throw in a 128gig SSD and a bit faster video card and I'm sold. Sure we'll see that but not for 6+ months so I just had to go ahead and bite the bullet.

As far as Ram goes I'm just scouring Newegg for their best deal on a 667speed stick of 2gb Ram.

2.5 gigs of Ram will have to do.

Are there any downsides to running 512 megs ram in one slot and 2 gigs in the other? Would that create any funny latencies or anything?

 

Well I believe running a 2gb RAM with a 512 mb RAM should be just fine, however you can gain a wealth of information from this post:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=121363

You may also be able to find some good deals on RAM. If you read through the pages, it should be able to answer most questions about RAM.

Well hope this helps!


Here is an old posting about RAM.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=30282

 

Thanks Icer!!

EDIT: I just ordered a 2gb stick of Crucial Ram from that link with zipzoomfly that was in the RAM deals thread.

CRUCIAL TECHNOLOGY PC2-5300 667 MHz DDR2 SO-DIMM CT25664AC667 Memory Retail ***Free Shipping***

It was like 131 dollars but had a 30 dollar mail in rebate.

100 bucks for a 2g stick of Crucial Ram seems like a good deal. If I'm not satisfied with the performance I can order another stick and swap out the 512 with another 2 gigs.

I'm guessing I won't have to....

 

Update:

So the idea of getting 2 sticks of 512 megs of ram instead of 1 stick of 1gig ram was gnawing at my stomach and I was kicking myself for not spending the extra 20 bucks for the little upgrade. I just purchased a 2gig stick of Corsair ram for 101 dollars and was going to end up with 2.5 gigs instead of 3 gigs which just seemed so dumb to me when it would have only costed 20 bucks.

Therefore, I just got off the phone with Sony again and cancelled my order and re-ordered with the 1 stick of 1g ram. I had the reconfigured laptop already in my shopping cart and the tech could see that on his end so it made re-ordering very simple.

So AFTER purchasing the 1 gig stick of Corsair Ram from zipzoomfly my total is going to be $1,940 total with free 1 day shipping.

Not bad for:

Sony Vaio SZ680

160 GB Hard Disk Drive
3 Gigs High Speed Ram
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.20GHz)
Led Screen, Black everything
Slim and Sexy

Oh, I also ordered a wireless little mouse for like 18 bucks on Amazon but whatever

EDIT: Also the tech customer service guys can't give you the 100$ promotion. He was able to cancel my first order but had to transfer me over to Sales to give me the $100 promo. It also takes about a 10th the tim to get a sales person than a customer service person to talk about your previous orders. Big surprise

 

Your getting a great deal, are you even being charged tax by sonystyle?

 

Nope, I live in Oregon

Edit: And yea, after pricing out an extremely similar 1330, it would have cost me about 400$ more for the same system. Albeit the graphics card would have had 128 ram instead of 64 megs of ram. Worth $400? Probably not...

I also only have to wait a week for my laptop instead of two months.

 

I am among those guys who got m1330 delivered to the door and returned back to Dell. I suffered pain and anger throughout the whole process of canceling. For me the biggest draw-back of my ordered was not m1330 but Dell support. Freaking thing, my phone carrier charges 45cents a mint even for toll free (I was out of free minutes). You can imagine how much money I wasted over getting to speek to Dell buggers.
I am also a freelancer and I know how important customer support is for clients. Dell really need to learn here.

Anyways, ordered sz680 from P1, can't wait to drive it.

 

This thread is great it actually got me to call sonystyle instead of just ordering online. The girl I was speaking to was very nice and helpful she gave me $200 discount and free 1 day air shipping, I also decided to use the no interest no payments till 2009. I use a Dell XPS Gen 2 and carrying that thing around has just taken its toll on me its a great laptop and I still plan on using but its going to be a home desktop replacement now, I'm sick and tired of everyone making fun of me when I wear that thing especially with that big xps backpack it looks like I'm going mountain climbing. Here are my specs and pricing, but I have one question will I be able to play at least City of Heroes/City of Villains?

Component: No Integrated Wireless Wide Area Network
Component: Wireless LAN (802.11a\b\g\n)
Component: Microsoft Windows Vista Business
Component: MOTION EYE Camera
Component: 13.3" WXGA
Component: SuperMulti DVD±R DL / DVD±RW / DVD-RAM Drive
Component: 200 GB Hard Disk Drive (7200 RPM)
Component: 1 GB DDR-SDRAM (DDR2-667, 1 GBx1)
Component: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7700 (2.40GHz)
Component: Norton Internet Security 2007 (Trial)
Component: QuickBooks Basic
Component: Video Standard
Component: Photo Standard
Component: Music Plus
Component: Microsoft Works
Component: No Engraving
Component: Standard Capacity Lithium-ion Battery (BPS10)
Component: Keyboard (Black)
Component: Trusted Platform Module / Biometric Fingerprint Sensor
Per Unit Price: $2,249.99
Quantity: 1
Total Price: $2,249.99
Description: VGN-SZ680 Configure-to-Order
Ship Method: 1 Day Air
Estimated Ship Date: 09/07/2007

Tax: $123.05

Shipping Charges: $0.00

Order Total: $2,173.04

 

That looks like an awesome deal to me. How did you score $200 bucks off when I was only offered $100 off?

/jealousy

 

I'm also wondering why some people are getting $200 off while others may get $100 off.

 

Yea I thought the 200 bucks off was only for pre-configured models like the 650.

 

When I called I just asked if there was any special promotions for notebooks, she said theres $100 off instantly and free ground shipping, but after I told her the specs I wanted she gave me a total of $200 off and free 1 day air shipping.

 

What specs did you change from that made her give you $200 off?

 

I didn't change any specs, I just asked if there were any better deals after she offered me the $100 discount if I were to order with pretty high specs, and after I told her what I wanted she said she could give me $200 off with free 1 day air shipping. Could it be that the people that are getting $200 off are the ones that get charged sales tax?

 

I called Sonystyle yesterday about the SZ650. I checked locally at Best Buy and CompUSA, both had the notebook for $1899. I discussed it with the rep and he gave me the "$300" Campus special, three year on-site including accidental damage protection ($299.99) for "free". I had to buy a mouse and case and pay full list price ($2049). Free shipping was included (ended yesterday). With tax it was just about a wash buying directly from Sony compared to buying locally and ordering up the three year accidental damage plan from Sony (which I wanted). It was in stock so it shipped out today. With the long holiday weekend, it wasn't worth paying anything extra for 1-2 day delivery.

I have been lurking here for a long time trying to reach a decision. So, thanks to all of you who posted your experiences with the SZ series, mostly positive comments compared to Dell (XPS 1330). I wasn't interested in a gaming machine (or one to watch DVDs on) - I needed a business oriented machine that had relatively long battery life. The ability to chose between video hardware for stamina versus speed was also important to me.

I decided I could live with a 5400 RPM hard drive for longer battery life and cooler operation. Similarly, I was wasn't willing to wait for a build-your-own SZ680, even though a T7700 would have been a nice addition.

It was easy to chose Sony over Dell. I went to a Dell kiosk to look at the 1330; they didn't have one and didn't know when they would get one. They said they had to get them out to all of the people that were waiting before they would have a display model. I didn't feel I could wait any longer to buy a laptop replacement (Can you hear me now, Dell? ).

I also want to thank to all the Dell posters who posted about the XPS 1330. It made it an easy decision to go for the SZ650. Besides the delivery delay, the CPU whine and the discussion about fit and finish, or more specifically the lack thereof, concerned me, especially for a premium price. I had Dells in the past and the quality control wasn't the greatest, apparently they haven't improved over time.

I have also had Sony's in the past, so I know about bloatware. But, for me it is not a deal breaker. I haven't yet spent any time with Vista so I think I will do some house cleaning and see how I like Vista. If not, I'll reformat and do a clean install of XP. But reviewing the threads, it does seem to be a drag trying to accumulate all of the XP drivers and getting them installed.

Back to the thread topic - Once I was sure that I wanted the SZ650 going to Sonystyle and negotiating over the phone worked out well enough for me. I knew what I wanted and what I was willing to pay for a notebook that would ship out immediately. Based on my discussions with the rep, I don't think I could have done much better. Maybe if I had waited a couple of months, Sony might have some better deals, but I couldn't wait. . . after all time is money.

 

yea, if you tell them you found it somewhere else for a little cheaper they'll give you more off to 'beat' the price and have you buy from them

 

So how accurate is Sony with their build times? I have an estimated ship date of the 6th. Are they dead on with their estimates or more? Less? I'm trying to plan my going out of town on their ship dates haha.

 

yea, they're pretty dead on with the date they say it'll ship.

 

I want in sooner

I'm not good at waiting. I'd make a terrible Dell customer

 

Oh sad! Today is a holiday... I wonder if that pushes everyone's build dates back a day past the posted expected ship dates.

 

I hope I can get the same Deal TOO!!!