Newb question about education models (T42)

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MarcW · #1 Post by **MarcW** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 4:24 pm

My wife is going back to college full time and is interested in buying a T42. Her university has an agreement with IBM that offers a 34% discount on laptops. Now, my question is this. Is she limited to the designated education models to receive this discount ? I'm asking because if she enters a non-education model (i.e. 2373-CXU) on the IBM Quick-Buy the website still reflects the education discount. If the discount can be had with any model not just the education models then what exactly is the benefit to buy an education model ? Does it come with better warranty or other benefits ? Also, is it possible to customize an education model ? She likes the 2373-3XU but would like a bigger hard drive.

Thanks,

-MarcW

Leon · #2 Post by **Leon** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 4:45 pm

order any model... if it reflects the educational price on your wifes school site you're ok... same for customization.. if it lets you, do it! educational models are simply reccomended configurations... they ship with some "reader" software & ebooks, but are otherwise no different...

adr1974 · #3 Post by **adr1974** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 5:38 pm

not sure if this matters to you or not, but one other difference between educational models and the others is that, technically speaking, you're not allowed to resell an educational model....it's in the fine print in the ta book.

sktn77a · #4 Post by **sktn77a** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 6:09 pm

What University is this? The North Carolina universities offer pretty poor deals on thinkpads (5%-7% off list - and they don't sell express models). They do include an extra years warranty but it never struck me that they had negotiated a particularly good deal with IBM.

MarcW · #5 Post by **MarcW** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 7:24 pm

Wright State University in Ohio

schUsseln · #6 Post by **schUsseln** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 12:36 am

I work at one university, and just enrolled at another. Their discount programs vary.

When speccing systems (just bought a new T42), I found that I had to pick a particular model, then hunt down the best price.

For instance, University A offers a small discount on all models - which is the generic educational discount.

University B, who only sell through their bookstore, only offer discounts on educational models, but these models are MUCH less expensive here than at Univ. A.

For my DXU, which is an Express model (not educational,) Univesity A offered somthing like $300 off the retail price, where Univ. B was $200 more than retail!

However, for a similar educational model Univ. B was $500 or so less than Univ. A.

All this is to say - find out what models you get a deep discount on, get quotes for the models you're interested in, and compare everything to retail, the generic educational discounts (see link), which you should qualify for, and with Bill.

http://www-1.ibm.com/gold/portal/downlo ... 2/SLE.html

Cheers!

NightEye · #7 Post by **NightEye** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 8:11 am

If you go on the IBM web site and click on Education you can shop the educational prices for the notebooks. That's how I got my T41 - it was 23% off from IBM. But they only have select models with limited customizitation. But I found the model that I wanted; they continuously update the educational model selection.

sh5 · #8 Post by **sh5** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 9:03 pm

I just bought an express T42 model on an educational discount. Although this was an official purchase, I believe the same works for a personal academic purchase. You need to go through the education link on the website and can then ask for a quote on any model, including the express models. I got a discount of about $120 over the regular price of $2040 or so. Which is not much but hey, I got the configuration of my choice.

Good luck.

MarcW · #9 Post by **MarcW** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 11:19 pm

Thanks for all the replies guys. The IBM student discount link on Wright States website links directly to IBM. Since Wright State is in Ohio it is part of the Ohio Inter-University Council Purchasing Group which gets 34% off on laptops. It seems that we have found a winner with the 2373-CWU. At a whopping $1029 off of list it seems like a good deal.

Thanks again,

PS: Excuse my ignorance I'm still new here but who is Bill ?

-MarcW

schUsseln · #10 Post by **schUsseln** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 12:36 am

Bill runs this site...and seems to be able to get great deals from buying in quantity, and often.

But I'm not sure if he can match most of the Ohio educ. discounts. Worth a shot though...check the front page of the site for more info.

#11 Post by **JaneL** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 6:32 am

>PS: Excuse my ignorance I'm still new here but who is Bill ?
>

Bill Morrow is the owner of this forum. He is an IBM VAR (Value Added Reseller) who has been around for years.

I first ran across Bill in IBM's old ThinkPad support forum on CompuServe. When IBM closed that forum years ago and started their useless forum on their own web site, Bill opened this forum's predecessor so that ThinkPad users would have a alternate place to gather online for peer support.

Bill's web site, contact information and a link to the earlier forum are at http://thinkpads.com He has a solid reputation in the ThinkPad community for price and service.

Newb question about education models (T42)

Newb question about education models (T42)

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