help with haggling over a laptop?

we_are_always_skint

does anyone have any advice for me, im not very good at haggling

i want to buy a specific laptop for my dd in the next week or so and pc world only have the refurbished ones left which is totally fine by me as you still get the warranty etc, but what isn't fine is that the price is £250 and my friend bought the exact same one brand new last january for £200 on promotion, i phoned them and he said there is no way they will budge on the price so i just said ok i will look elsewhere and that was that. i would ideally like to get her the pcworld one but i know its not worth being ripped off for

any advice or shall i just leave it?

Trune

you may not be being ripped off, their buy price may have gone up, and they wont sell it for a loss. Well they wont even want to sell it without profit.

Try face to face, speak to manager, or try a couple of times. If you get no where... give up.

Babboon

Maybe you could post up what you are looking for or the model that you wanted to buy and see if anyone has any ideas of suitable alternatives.

penrhyn

Indeed good advise.
Mine would be never shop at PC Dixon's Curry World.

On a practical note I bought a decent dell laptop of big pockets recently for around £200, or you could try the Dell outlet store.

MattLFC

penrhyn wrote: »

Indeed good advise.
Mine would be never shop at PC Dixon's Curry World.

Why not? Where else do you shop on the high street?

Apart from the staff being salespersons as opposed to experts, and their crappy "extended warrantys", oh and some of the pricing still being a touch high, there isnt too much wrong with them.

In the past 5 years, DSGi have had a reality check in the face of stiff competition from online, and their pricing strategy has improved considerably, to the point that is often just as cheap, if not even cheaper, to purchase a product from PC World as it is online, especially after delivery charges.

When buying online, you have tedious and time wasting RMA procedures if you have a problem, it can take upto 2 weeks to get a faulty item replaced, upto 4 weeks for a refund to be processed etc, delivery companies can cause you no end of grief from time to time, and if you want they item that day, its simply not going to happen.

I admit I buy the majority of my electrical stuff online and have done since about 2003, but it's mainly based on price. There is very online stores that have "impeccable" customer service reputations, half are every bit as bad as PC World, at least with PC World, you can talk to someone face to face, not an Indian on the other end of a phoneline. Ive been buying more and more stuff on the high street in the past 18 months or so, and had some amazing bargains from the likes of PC World.

Of course there are independent computer shops, but 90% of the staff in these places are completely untrained and got to 40 and took an "interest" in computers, or just did their ECDL and think they know it all, and they all talk down to you as if you are a dim consumer, until you have correct most points they say because they are chatting bollox and you know more than them lol, a bit like PC World salespeople.

Every person has a preference, but to simply write off PC World, is basically writing off the high street, because Comet customer service is a lot worse, and they are crap for computer stuff. If you need something today, do you wait until tomorrow or maybe, if its a Friday, do you wait until Monday or Tuesday, and pay an extortionate delivery charge? Personally, dependent on the level of saving to be had by purchasing online, if I need something today that is sold by PC World, I drive to the local store and buy it.

Goods in PC World are no more likely to be faulty than anywhere else, in fact in a lot of cases they are less likely, from the eBay sellers selling fake and cheap chinese goods, to the delivery people who have no care for the item they are delivering and throwing that box with your hard drive in, around in the back of the van as they look for the item they want.

I bought a Logitech mouse from PC World about 2 months ago, it was no different and no lower in quality, than one from online, although it was at least £5.00 cheaper than the best price I could find online (PC World had it on offer, reduced from £34.99 to £19.99, eBuyer was the cheapest online supplier at £26 odd), and that was with either a 5 day delivery time for free delivery or pay for quicker delivery... And if it had been faulty, it would go straight back to the store with PC World, online would have been another week RMA process.

fonzy8

PC World sometimes are not too bad for the big stuff (eg. PCs, laptops etc.) as the previous poster said they have to compete with the online dealers now.

There are provisos though. I got an Acer 5633 laptop and compared prices online and realised not all Acer 5633 laptops were the same. A similarly priced one to the PC World one was in Tesco but had extra memory and better graphics card. Only way I found out was asking Tescos to show me what was in the box and I got the actual model number off the back of the machine - it wasnt on the box. After looking at the spec online it became obvious it was better than PC Worlds offer at the same price - but I wasnt sure Tesco knew as it looked like they were price matching!

Bear in mind PC World has an online arm where you can pick up in store. I've previously had bargains by booking something online to pickup (eg. at one point a while ago now Adobe Photoshop and Adobe premiere together was £49 using PC-World online pickup and £89 in-store). When I took the booking code down they go to the shelf and get it and charge you the lower cost!

In my experience thus far, cables are far cheaper using online retailers - even with the postage. Memory cards and peripherals can change depending on what the PC World offers are at the time and what the online delivery charges are (ie. the delivery charge+lower cost of item can be more than PC World)

My advice is go to PC World or your closest computer selling place, find out what you want with the model number, look at the online stores for the item (ebuyer I usually use, but check the online price comparison sites too) and go back if you cant find cheaper.

KxMx

I'd go into the store and haggle face-to-face. Offer to pay in cash if possible and ask if instead of a discount, they'll throw in a few extras so you don't walk out and go somewhere else.

we_are_always_skint

wow thanks for all the great advice, the laptop i am trying to get is the advent k1301 - a childrens specific laptop in pink. due to such short stock its home delivery only now so i think i am just going to have to bite my lip and pay what they are asking, i may offer to take out their extra warranty and see if that lowers the price, nothing stopping me cancelling it down the line i suppose?

if anyone knows any other retailer that has these i would be most greatful, dd's 8th birthday is in 10 days now so i really need to organise myself and order one

thanks again, much appreciated

MattLFC

Sometimes, a retailer will give you a discount if they can, if you pay cash or debit card. Credit card is a no-no for a discount.

My father managed to get a good deal from Currys on a Toshiba 40" LCD, Blu-ray player and surround system. All in all, he saved about £200 on the price of all the items seperate (it was his own made package, not a pre-listed one). He took it to the wire though, they were not having any of it, in the end he said, ive got this much to spend on my debit card, ive told you what I want, and how much I want to pay for it, heres my number, if you still want the sale, give me a call.

20 minutes later, he got the call he had been waiting for. He actually still paid a bit more than online pricing, about £25 iirc, but he had the items there and then, and any problems with them, he would not have had any arsing about with returns etc...

I would always buy anything electrical and expensive on a credit card, for the added protection, but my father does not "do" credit cards, and he walked away with a pretty good bargain imho.

we_are_always_skint

just wanted to update, i am no further forward. well i phoned up to order one monday and the lady said delivery was only a few days so i agreed to call back today and order as i didn't want it hanging around the house for her to find, called up and they are gone, the girl said they have been taken off sale due to being so old, so i asked to speak to a manager to get it put back on sale and he said he 'thinks' they have been sold. i am so angry - if theyd said there was only one left or they were going off stock i would of ordered it there and then!!
so now ive found it on dixons but its £70 dearer :O i thought they were the same company? so how can they sell it loads dearer

well just my luck really, i try to save money and end up spending loads more