Price Difference ??

[netux]

I just purchased a laptop off ebay a T42 with these stats

Product: ThinkPad T42 2379-RHU
Original description: P M 745(1.8GHz), 512MB RAM, 60GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1024x768 LCD, 64MB ATI Radeon 9600, CDRW/DVD, Intel 802.11abg wireless, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 6c Li-Ion batt, WinXP Pro

However I received
Product: ThinkPad T42 2373-PPU
Original description: P M 735(1.7GHz), 512MB RAM, 40GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1024x768 LCD, 64MB ATI Radeon 9600, CDRW/DVD, Intel 802.11bg wireless, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, 6c Li-Ion batt, WinXP Pro

So, the main differences which I see are the processing speed (not a huge difference but a difference), hard drive 20 GB difference, 802.11bg instead of abg, and the lack of a fingerprint reader.

To me the two biggies are the disk space and the fingerprint reader. I'm waiting to hear back from the seller to see how he would like to proceed, maybe he sent out the wrong one, I'm not sure. If however he didn't I'm trying to put a price tag on those two items especially in the event he would like to settle it with a partial refund.

So my question is what would be a reasonable amount of money to offset 20GB of space and no fingerprint reader? Because obviously I wouldn't have bid as much or actually at all.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[DennisGordon]

I had the same thing happen to me a few weeks ago on an Ebay buy. I paid for what was supposed to be a 2379-DXU with a 60G 7200rpm HD. What I received was a 2373-JXU. Identical EXCEPT for having a 40G 5400rpm drive. I contacted the seller and he said that they had upgraded the HD to the faster/larger drive, but I checked and they hadn't. I believed it to be an honest oversight, since the machine was otherwise in very good shape. I accepted his offer of another 512megs of memory, which he got to me in a coupla days. Since this machine was for a friend who could use the extra mem more than the faster drive, I considered it a fair enough resolution. Had it been for me, I probably would have held out for the drive that was listed to be with it.

[netux]

Well, I still haven't heard from the seller, however I did find a listing which looks like he copied and pasted the title and the contents. So I'm guessing that they didn't pay any attention to the actual stats on the computer.
Anyone have an idea how much the lack of 20 GB and fingerprint reader would be worth?
Thanks...

[Hotbrick]

It's a personal thing.
To me the fingerprint would be nothing more than a gadget, on my last TP I didn't use it once. But I know some people use it all the time....
The 20 gigs are different; I am very happy with the 20 GB extra on my 2nd TP.....
But "there's no such thing as too many GB's on a computer"...

So what it's worth? I can't say. It depends on what you really need.

[t20user]

If it were me I would want $100. More of that number has to do with my time wasted than the actual peice parts.

It can be a hassle to receive something other than what you bid on. Also you would be surprised what lengths some people on ebay will go to to keep from getting a negative feedback. Good luck.

[netux]

Well, it's been a couple of days and he/she hasn't replied to my email, so I'm going to go through Ebay's Item Not Received or Significantly Not as Described Process. Those of you that have needed to use this process was it resolved pretty quickly? I hope it doesn't take too long.
Thanks...

[DennisGordon]

I've used Ebay and or Paypal resolution half a dozen times. Usually works pretty good. Having them intervene is more effective and less embarassing. Of course, there's always the unpleasant possibility that the seller is just a jerk who'll deny everything or drop his membership, but in your case that seems unlikely.