You snooze, you lose

[pipspeak]

Yesterday I saved a shopping cart on the Lenovo website containing a Visa-discounted T43, 2686DGU, for $1420 plus the free 512MB upgrade, which for the specs (DVD-RW, 7K60, 1GB etc.) was a bargain, and was as good as the EPP price on the machine ($1335 without RAM upgrade).

Today I went to check out and buy it (had to sleep on it) and the price had shot up $200. So I contacted Lenovo and sent them a PDF of the saved cart with the lower price from yesterday and they refused to honor the lower price. Said it was a pricing error. Bah.

You snooze, you lose.

Did anyone manage to jump on this great deal?

[c333]

Its still a nice price. Couple of things about that configuration though:

1) Only has one year warranty, I would recommend a config w/ three years

2) If you can find a better deal with only a CD-RW, get it. How many times are you going to burn a DVD? If you really need it, get a drive and enclosure for $50. It wil be faster too, and probably double layer.

3) If you can find a better deal with a 5400 drive, get it. You can always upgrade to a 100gig 7200 next year when prices come down.


3) It has the old Intel 2200 b/g card. Not the new 2915 a/b/g card. Even if you don't need wifi a, it is still a better card. Or upgrade to the Atheros. Its about $50 either way.

[boilermakerinatl]

I'm not so sure it was a pricing error. It's was on "sale", 20% off. There are still several other models that are 20% off as well. I don't know why they won't honor the lower price, one day after it changed.

[pipspeak]

I had a three-year upgrade in my cart as well ($112ish).

You're right about the DVD... though I figured I'd use it to burn backsups of photos because I'm burning my way through way too many CDRs at the moment. And if it can be had for such a good price, why not?!

Same for the 7K drive... 60GB is really all I need because I use a 160GB external drive for longer-term storage and backup so I'm unlikely to want a bigger drive before I upgrade again in 2-3 years.

Interesting note about the Intel card. My T40 has the old Intel b card and despite its bad rap I've had no problems with it at all, whcih is why I didn't bother adding the IBM card to the config.

I'm currently working my network to try and get it through the EPP. It's really the only model I've seen that has the combination of DVD-R and 7K60. The DFU model comes with the CD-RW but only has the 60GB 5400 drive for some reason, and it's only about $50 cheaper. To me, $50 is worth paying for DVD-R and 7K60.

I've never really understood IBM's pricing.

[pipspeak]

I'm not so sure it was a pricing error. It's was on "sale", 20% off. There are still several other models that are 20% off as well. I don't know why they won't honor the lower price, one day after it changed.

I might give it another try. The pricing error excuse sounded a bit strange.

Anyone know a good Lenovo sales manager I could contact?!

[pipspeak]

Just called another IBM sales number and as soon as I mentioned "20% discount" and "Visa" the guy said it was an error, and that all the current 20% discount prices on the Visa page were also errors.

They seem very error-prone at Lenovo

[leo221]

error or not, I got it. ordered online on 7-31. i chose the free replicator II. it's coming. replacing my current T41 which have a bad 1024*768 screen.

it stopped by korea too. now at alaska, hope no custom delay this time.
port replicator II coming from NC in another shipment


Date/
Time Location Activity
Aug 3, 2005
10:06 P.M. INCHEON, KR DEPARTURE SCAN
8:37 P.M. INCHEON, KR ARRIVAL SCAN
4:26 P.M. CHEK LAP KOK, HK DEPARTURE SCAN
1:18 P.M. ANCHORAGE, AK, US ARRIVAL SCAN
1:18 P.M. ANCHORAGE, AK, US ARRIVAL SCAN
3:12 A.M. HK BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED
Aug 2, 2005
7:35 P.M. KOWLOON BAY, HK PICKUP SCAN

[leo221]

Just called another IBM sales number and as soon as I mentioned "20% discount" and "Visa" the guy said it was an error, and that all the current 20% discount prices on the Visa page were also errors.

They seem very error-prone at Lenovo

last Sat, i called to asked for additional student discount over the visa discount deal online. they said online price is not right. they can only sell for $1779. so, i said thank you and hung up. ordered it online. now, it's being shipped to me.

[pipspeak]

Darn it. There are still a bunch of other models online with the 20% discount, others have only a 5% discount. I really missed a good deal.

The 2686DGU that had a 20% discount yesterday now only has a 5% discount on the website, though a sales rep told me this morning via email that the Visa discount on this model today is 10%. Go figure. They seem to have no clue what's going on (or aren't letting on).

[boilermakerinatl]

I don't see how they claim the 20% discount is a pricing "error". Right on the front page of the Visa discout page it says save 5% to 20%.

[Wholesomer]

I don't see how they claim the 20% discount is a pricing "error". Right on the front page of the Visa discout page it says save 5% to 20%.

save 5% to 20%, not 20% for every model. According to pipspeak, the Rep told him the discount for this model is only 10%; therefore, it was a price error.

FWIW, EPP still have the 25% discount for this model.

[leo221]

I don't see how they claim the 20% discount is a pricing "error". Right on the front page of the Visa discout page it says save 5% to 20%.

save 5% to 20%, not 20% for every model. According to pipspeak, the Rep told him the discount for this model is only 10%; therefore, it was a price error.

FWIW, EPP still have the 25% discount for this model.

how to get epp price?

[Wholesomer]

Find a friendly IBM employee

[pipspeak]

Throw in the free RAM offer on top of the 20% Visa discount (error or not) and the price of the 2686DGU pretty much matched the EPP + 512MB price AFIK. That's quite a bargain for us mere mortals.

Now if only I could find a friendly IBM employee...

[pipspeak]

I don't see how they claim the 20% discount is a pricing "error". Right on the front page of the Visa discout page it says save 5% to 20%.

I'm beginning to think "pricing error" is actually shorthand for "sorry buddy, you missed your chance and we're not about to give you that deal again".

They probably pull the 20% deals when orders hit a certain number. Not sure why it went down to 5% when the rep told me 10% though. All messed up IMO.