My father was looking to buy a notebook computer. I convinced him that he really doesn’t need a Pentium or a Centrino. All he needed was a machine where he can surf the net, create webpages, do email and some other simple stuff. So we decided to go for a Celeron 2.0 GHz. We didn’t even need a CD/RW, bcz the desktop has that and to transfer data from the Notebook to the Desktop, we can either set up a network or use one of those pen-sized flash devices.
After spending hours searching for the proverbial “best” deal, I found Dell to offer the best deal. A brand new 2.0 GHz Celeron at $699 (after $100 rebate) with free shipment. Gateway, HP and IBM were all more expensive or had more features which I didn’t want. Stores were not offering such a low price for a new notebook, and I didn’t want a refurbished or a used one.
I placed an online order at Dell on August 6th. Their email informed me that they will ship the computer by August 21! Hmmm… ok, since we are in no partiuclar hurry, so no problem. Then yesterday (August 11th) they sent an email to say that they have already shipped the computer and I will get it in 3-5 business days. Ok, so thats end of the week, if we are lucky. This morning, knock on the door and the computer is delivered.
I agree, Dell offers best value for the money and in my experience they offer very stable products. Our company's hardware is all Dell ranging from servers, desktops and notebooks, that comes with good technical support in case you need it.
Even though they give you a longer delivery time at the time of order, in my experience I have received equipment from them much sooner than that.
I had a similar story when ordering with Dell, but in my case my pc was bundled with my dad's office's order. Dell's rep initially said the order of 11desktops (1 mine) and 7 laptops would be done in 3 weeks. To my surprise I got it in 9 days (and I live in Toronto).
The Dell your dad got is a great deal, and I hope you upgraded your warranty option. Their customer service is great, & useful for people too lazy to troubleshoot alone. You wont need the warranty for the hardware, but instead for how to's and general questions.
On vacation in Pakistan these days and was curious as to the notebook prices in Pakistan.
I checked the price from Hafeez center in Lahore. Thought you would like to know ... rought idea of the prices
Toshiba 2435
PIV 2.4
512 DDR RAM
40GB HDD
DVD-CD COMBO
nvidia Graphics card
and the other wirless lan and stuff
Rps 98,000
This is price i was told, I did not haggle on the price so i do not know how much could be reduced....
Actually most companies are like that ... For example, buy.com or bookpool.com ... send you an email telling you their worst case scenario for shipment, but usually you get your stuff within a week.