Question:
Advice needed on buying a NEW laptop privately
On the local craigslist I found a local seller with the laptop I've been jonesing for: a new Dell 1210M, at a price about $500 below Dell's best.
The seller says he bought two from a Dell rep and is now selling one.
The seller is a teacher at a reputable local school and put his office number in the ad. I have contacted him and he's bringing the unit to my office for me to inspect. I spoke to him at length on the phone; he's not a kid, he seems reputable. I suspect he got the deal through the IT guy at his school. The teacher's name is on the school's website and he holds a fairly high position there.
So I know that deals that seem too good should be avoided, but I'm moving ahead and will look at this one.
When he comes by with the unit what should I check for? I'm sorry if there are FAQs on this, but all the FAQs I've seen covered used laptops. This is one brand spanking new.
He says I can verify the warranty information online.
Answer:
Re: Advice needed on buying a NEW laptop privately
If you mean "Dell's best sans coupons" that becomes a lot more believable. For a while some of their high end laptops had coupons available with as much as $750 off.
Anyways, check to make sure everything works, first off. Make sure it turns on, browse a couple web pages with it, burn a dvd if it's got a dvd burner.. make sure there's sound. The usual stuff. Diagnostic programs like memtest take a long time to run, but if you can run a program that's SMART-data aware, such as speedfan, you can get a quick glance at the health of the hard drive.
Answer:
Re: Advice needed on buying a NEW laptop privately
If you mean "Dell's best sans coupons" that becomes a lot more believable.
Its $2200 hundred on line inc. tax and shipping; I could get it for about $2000 through EPP. He wants $1500.
Thanks for the tips.
Answer:
Re: Advice needed on buying a NEW laptop privately
I'd be concerned that this one is a refurbished unit. Even if it is, it doesn't mean it's a bad deal--but you might be able to get the same price or better on your own through the Dell outlet.
I'd check it over thoroughly before buying it even if the guy seems to be on the up and up. You never know. I mean, why would somebody buy 2 notebooks if they only needed one? He had to have got it for a better price than he's selling this one for and that would slow me down right there.
Hopefully he didn't buy it with school funds to turn around and sell this one for profit.