Cheap Dell Laptop Inspiron 1.5 GHz 1300 £299 delivered. (merged) [CLOSED]

pmcx9

email i have just sent to angus hegarty......head honcho at dell

Dear Mr. Hegarty,

I am a long term customer of Dell and have bough many systems over the past few years.

Your company placed several adverts in National UK newspapers over this weekend claiming to offer an Inspiron1300 laptop for £299. I was suprised to note it was not referred to with an e-code unlike every other system I have seen Dell advertise. It was clear that this could not be purchased online and required a phonecall to Dell. I was suspicious immediately and noted an expensive 0870 number was the only way to order.

I have rung the advertised 0870 six times today to try to place an order and estimate I have wasted nearly three hours in the process. I have been cut off by your operators on every single occasion. It appears as though a hard upsale tactic is being adopted and should the customer not wish to accept any upgrades then the telesales operative has the power to terminate the call. This is disgraceful and I am forwarding a letter to trading standards to complain strongly.

I note from the hugely respected financial website https://www.moneysavingexpert.com that I am not alone in suspecting a extremely ill conceived and shoddily executed marketing tactic conducted by your company and feel you may have lost the long term custom of myself and thousands of others.

I welcome your earliest response.

Regards

Premier_2

From HUKD:

If you really want this laptop, and Dell won't sell it to you over the phone, go to the Dell home page, http://www.dell.co.uk, and insert the e-code (N02135) into the search at the top of the page. Then click on the third link down where it says Inspiron for £315. If you can use quidco for a further 4.5% discount then Robert's your father's brother!

You should really be an employee of a certain company, but maybe you miss that when you search the dell site, and are currently still partially blinded by the red mist from the Dell (non-)sales team in India

Premier_2

Mr_Squiddy wrote:

That's interesting as the chap I spoke to at Dell talked about 'sending the order to the production line' (not a verbatim quote) which rather contradicts the idea that they are kept in stock.

Isn't the 0870 number charged at national rate? At least, according to Skype my call cost around £2.40 for a 24 minute call, which would indicate 10p per minute. That might make you feel a little better!

Mr S.

You should have stuck with BT!

It would only have cost you 36p for that 24 minute call today

Amba_Gambla

Premier wrote:

From HUKD:

If you really want this laptop, and Dell won't sell it to you over the phone, go to the Dell home page, http://www.dell.co.uk, and insert the e-code (N02135) into the search at the top of the page. Then click on the third link down where it says Inspiron for £315. If you can use quidco for a further 4.5% discount then Robert's your father's brother!

You should really be an employee of a certain company, but maybe you miss that when you search the dell site, and are currently still partially blinded by the red mist from the Dell (non-)sales team in India

........................................

The page you requested may no longer exist on Dell.com

Premier_2

Amba_Gambla wrote:

........................................

It's still there, just click on the third link down

Chuffy

Premier wrote:

From HUKD:

If you really want this laptop, and Dell won't sell it to you over the phone, go to the Dell home page, http://www.dell.co.uk, and insert the e-code (N02135) into the search at the top of the page. Then click on the third link down where it says Inspiron for £315. If you can use quidco for a further 4.5% discount then Robert's your father's brother!

You should really be an employee of a certain company, but maybe you miss that when you search the dell site, and are currently still partially blinded by the red mist from the Dell (non-)sales team in India

Odd that as when you search by the evalue code, you only get the £339 one.

MarkR_2

An with NTL so not sure what they charge weekend on 0870, always had it in my mind that 0870 is about 10p a min, so a bonus if it isnt. ( wont loose any sleep over it, but just avoid 0870 numbers when ever i can) . Well spotted premier, I had found that earlier at £315 and assumed it wasnt with wireless card, but on scrolling down page and clicking on the pull down menu next to the "w" sign for wireless it does say included in price ) .
With cash back site its not gonna be a lot different price to advertised, not a member of quidco, topcashback giving 3% tho.
Be interesting what other stories people get as to why they wont sell one, they realy dont want to do they! could there be a different shelf for internet orders i wonder? You would at least think staff could all be briefed on same excuse rather than leeving them to read " 1001 techniques to not sell a £299 laptop" and letting them choose what ever one they like . Should publish that! would be a no1 seller in india if its not already out.

caverncity

Chuffy wrote:

Odd that as when you search by the evalue code, you only get the £339 one.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/inspn_1300?c=uk&cs=ukepp1&l=en&s=dhs

Ozymandias

Says "EMPLOYEE PURCHASE PROGRAM" at the top of the page on the Dell site ????

Chuffy

Is this compatible memory?

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0368814208.1140363977@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccfeaddhdeelmdlcflgceggdhhmdgmk.0&microsite_id=Component_Shop&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=452049&category_oid=-24794

If so it's a steal.