What is the best way to place an order?

[lawgirl]

Not sure if I should order online, or with a representative. I have been in contact with one for the past two weeks, but I dont know if hes in the office today --- i called at 9am and he has not returned by call (its almost 2pm). Should I wait until 5pm, and if not call Lenovo and order from someone else? I wanted to place the order today -- plus he was going to give me the mini dock for $49 (in lieu of the free battery or port replicator). And yes this is for a T42

[dansu]

From my experiences, I consider it better to call them and buy from a sales rep. Sometimes, the websites are slow to update, or don't reflect complete product availability. For example, the 2378FVU that I currently own was not listed on the website. I was looking to use a Visa, MC, or student discount and the model didn't appear on any of those sites. This was a surprise to me since I saw posts on this forum regarding the FVU with student discounts. When I called them, my sales rep informed me that they did have the model, but it would take a month for it to ship. After a week or so after the order, my brand new thinkpad was shipped to my door!

[hoolaw]

Just curious, do the sales reps ever give better deals than otherwise available? I guess I am asking if you can haggle with them.

[eric530]

I like calling them, they try to keep the same sales rep with you during the whole order process too which is pretty nice.

Haggle with them? I don't think that would work too well, I asked about the free thinkpad offers on the normal thinkpad site, with my epp purchase. hrm.. didn't work.

[gentoo]

Has Lenovo changed over any of its sale staff since the IBM transfer? The sales rep I spoke with today could barely speak any English at all, and I had a hell of a time getting my order placed properly. I had to spell my name (Michael) and address more than once. Is Lenovo outsourcing its sales phone division or did I just get unlucky?

[GomJabbar]

I ordered my T-42 from costcentral.com on 01/13/05. They had the best price at the time. Order went smoothly, but when I asked some technical questions pre-order, their technical support dept. didn't know anything about the particular model I was interested in. I had to call IBM directly to get answers (I didn't know about this forum then). I found cost central from a search on pricegrabber.com. If I recall, I saved about $200.

Bottom line: You probably can find some better prices than on the IBM Lenovo website (if your a bottom feeder like I was). But you better know exactly what you want and what you are getting.

[Henry]

From my experiences, I consider it better to call them and buy from a sales rep. Sometimes, the websites are slow to update, or don't reflect complete product availability. For example, the 2378FVU that I currently own was not listed on the website. I was looking to use a Visa, MC, or student discount and the model didn't appear on any of those sites. This was a surprise to me since I saw posts on this forum regarding the FVU with student discounts. When I called them, my sales rep informed me that they did have the model, but it would take a month for it to ship. After a week or so after the order, my brand new thinkpad was shipped to my door!

Just in case you don't know, if you want to see ALL the models (not just the ones that are ready to ship) then you have to select that option on the top of the page (for the student discount site). Instead of 2 pages of results, there are like 20 or so, or about 600-700 models to choose from.