ORIGINALLY POSETED MAY 12, 2005

Ok, I warned you in the original post that occasionally I might talk about things other than Intellectual Property and here it is…

I recently decided that I needed (OK, wanted) a ultraportable laptop that would be easier to carry than my 7.5 pound laptop. I researched a number of brands and came to settle on a nice, relatively inexpensive AVERATEC laptop that weighed in a a respectable 4.5 pounds and offered about a 4.5-5.5 hour battery life.

It so happened that CompUSA had the best price anywhere, $1050 after rebate. So I want to my local store by Park Meadows and informed the salesman of my decision.

The salesman questioned my decision. To paraphrase, he said that Averatec is a low end product like Emachines and that I would be better off with a higher end notebook. What I heard was: Some of the products CompUSA sells are junk and we only carry them so that we can get you in the door and convince you to buy a higher margin product.

I stuck to my guns and affirmed my desire for the Averatec laptop. I know that computers have largely become a commodity item wherein the components comprising the laptop are all relatively similar. Averatecs are not less expensive because they are junk but rather because the company is new and is trying to built brand recognition. There is one large downside to this brand in my opinion however, their customer service needs improvement. But since I almost never use customer service, I was not too concerned.

Next, the salesman strongly suggested I get the extended warranty which would cover damage for three years even if I dropped or damaged the computer. The price was $195 or was it $295. What the consumer should always keep in mind is that the reason electronics stores push these warranties so hard is that that are HUGE money makers for them. Simply, they hate to have a product leave the store without one. The fact of the matter is that only a very small percentage will ever need or use the extended warranty. In fact during the first year warranty issues are covered by the manufacturer, so in essence you are paying for the second and third year of ownership. With computers, most problems occur early on in the first few months and if they do not present themselves then they likely never will. For the most part, extended warranties are nearly pure profit for the store. Anyway, I said NO to the extended warranty.

Finally after what seemed a very long time with the salesperson, he retrieved the computer. It should have taken all of two or three minutes but instead it took about 15 minutes. To be honest, I almost walked out on several occasions. I paid for the the computer and left.

Normally, this would be the end of the story, but then my post would be of a reasonable length and those of you who may become devotees of this blog will soon learn brevity will probably not be a strong suit of mine when it comes to posts. Sorry. Back to the story: When I got home I opened the box and proceeded to charge the battery. I didn’t start up the machine. I started thinking perhaps I should take another look at Dell. Perhaps the salesman’s words resonated with me afterall.

To make things short, I found the Dell 700m fit my requirements if I ordered it with the extended battery. It was about the same weight of the Averatec with the extended battery and it had a better screen. Then I remembered about the large number of Dell Coupon Codes that are regularly floating around the internet. I typed Dell coupon code into Google and found a site that listed a Dell code for $750 off a laptop with a prediscount price of $1999. So I customized, the 700m adding 1gb of memory instead of the acceptable 512mb. I went for the 80gb hard drive instead of 40gb. I added the 1.8 ghz Intel Centrino instead of 1.6. I added the DVD writer instead of the CD writer. I added a second battery. Finally, my price was $2015 and with the coupon applied at checkout a mere $1265 with no sales tax and free shipping. The Dell cost about $150 more than the Averatec in the end but I got much more in terms of the memory, the hard drive, the batteries and the processor.

So the moral of this story, be wary of salesman at big box computer stores and before making a decision be sure to check out the specials online at places like Dell and Gateway. Here is a URL for the site where I got the coupon code: www.techbargains.com. Now, I am just waiting for the Dell to be configured and shipped. I hope it does not take too long…