Dell Inspiron 1300 £299 Inc VAT & Delivery (merged)

wildbri

Im using my dell 1300 now and its great! I had a lot of agro to get it but its worth it I complain about the Indian call center and they sent me a spare battery. I payed £335.43 I took the 15.4 screen upgrade , its the same as the 6000 note book which cost a lot more. todays add dos not mention the wifi card which was in the old add, just check the spec when the email quote arrives. good luck..keep trying

boyohboy

babiebeany wrote:

Hi - Just tried to buy 2 of those 299 pound laptops. You are put through to an Indian call centre and I don't actually think they want to sell them at that price.

I was told that we needed a better system to go use for the internet, that the system is actually aimed at children, that no sound card is include and that the system is only guaranteed for 90 days. Absolute rubbish in my opinion as our current desktop is absolutely fine for the internet and has is of a lower spec and isn't everything we buy in the UK guaranteed by law for a year??

The guy would not let me buy the system he kept trying to sell me either a higher spec or wanted to include extra items for extra costs.

I asked him why I couldn't buy what I wanted and he said he wanted to check and call me back?? I don't expect to hear from him.

Has anyone been able to buy one.

Just had the same conversation ...... Held my ground just kept saying I want the basic machine. They will call me back within 10 mins !!!! Took her name .(Thanks for that marlowtech) Will let you know.........babiebeany did you get a call ?

adrian2000

Can You Please Advise Waht Is The Telephone Number And Also Is There A Reference Code To Quote?

Thanks

Adrian

dauphin

Managed to get away with just a screen upgrade to 15" (which I wanted anyway). I explained it was a birthday present for somebody and the guy said anyone given this as a present would "hate" it and it wouldn't last more than 12 months so I would have to buy another machine for their next birthday! He reckoned it was little more than a glorified electronic calculator. I have never experienced a vendor running down their own product like this.

Personally I think it will do just fine!

@adrian2000: Phone number in the ad is 0870 353 3307 - no ref code, just say you are interested in the £299 Inspiron

johndhuk

Does anybody have the spec that they send when they email you?

Got a family function tonight and will no doubt have a few family members asking my advice on what they should buy! It would be useful to know if it still includes wifi card.

Very suprised at their desperation not to sell it - you would think they would make sure they didn't advertise it at that price if they didn't want to sell it!

Thanks.

Doublespresso

dauphin wrote:

He reckoned it was little more than a glorified electronic calculator. I have never experienced a vendor running down their own product like this.

:rotfl:

Is this a case of "Doing a Ratner"? [after the Gerald Ratner's gaffe, when he said jewellery they sell was c**p! Soon after he had to resign and the comapny had to change name!]
I wonder if Dell would suffer the same fate?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doing_a_Ratner

Ok they are call centre operators, but these are not isolated cases and surely management are aware of what is going on - we already know that they monitor this forum closely!

dauphin

I was told wifi is not included and machine could not be upgraded to wifi afterwards - but I am sure there will be no problem about attaching a wireless dongle to a USB port.
Their purpose in advertising it at that price is, I am sure, to sell a lot of overpriced add-ons. I accept that it probably will need a bit of upgrading, but this can be done far more economically than by buying Dell's offerings.

gibbajabba

I'm not even gonna bother to try and order one of these this time around,last time they were £299 i made about 10 calls over 3 days and still didn't get one.On the last call i made i asked for the guys name and number because of the hassle he was giving me and his reply was no,i replied what do you mean no! to which there was a complete silence,then i hung up on them for a change,i hope dell lose many customers though their indian call center,they are complete muppets.

babiebeany

I didn't get a phone call back - I could tell that the man on the phone had no intention of selling to me without selling me extras.

But my OH rang, spoke to a much more user friendly saleswoman and got a lot further. He wasn't able to pay using his card over the phone, she had to send him a sales quote, he then phoned back but she wasn't available. She did phone him back though but we were out. She did say she would ring back at 2.30, still waiting on that call at the moment.

I will let you know if we do manage to buy one.

Mr_Squiddy

dauphin wrote:

I was told wifi is not included and machine could not be upgraded to wifi afterwards - but I am sure there will be no problem about attaching a wireless dongle to a USB port.
Their purpose in advertising it at that price is, I am sure, to sell a lot of overpriced add-ons. I accept that it probably will need a bit of upgrading, but this can be done far more economically than by buying Dell's offerings.

Dell's comments about wi-fi on this machine are indeed rubbish. If the machine on offer is that same as the one I bought a couple of weeks ago, then wi-fi is definitely included (I am connect to teh interweb by it as I type.) In any case there is a PCMCIA slot which can take a wireless card and, as you rightly say, you could install a USB wireless dongle.

P.