More on Dell and licenses

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: "Marcel (Free Thinker at Large) Gagne" <mggagne-oUREY1nl/XXQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org>

Thanks for posting your experiences.

| The implications of the word FREE here are a powder keg waiting for a
| match.

Yes!

I wonder what they actually pay for Windows.  Rumours suggest ~$20 but
I doubt that that is correct.  My guess that it is much less than the
~$150 that mom & pop stores have to pay.  This may be an important edge
that Dell has over the white box stores.  This may explain why they
want to encourage people to consider Windows a basic part of a system.

| I chose not to persue it any further and told her I would think about it.   
| The PC is $499 for a 2.2 Gig Celeron with 128 meg RAM, 40 Gig HD, a 17 inch 
| monitor, integrated ethernet and sound -- still a good deal.

You've fallen into their trap.

Their quoted price does not include the considerable shipping fee.

Why do I call this apparently-reasonable charge a trap?

- all their quoted prices exclude it, with a tiny footnote to warn you

- You cannot avoid paying the shipping.  I offered to pick up from
  their office and they refused.

- I would guess that they charge a fixed amount for shipping a
  particular package to the Toronto area so it would be easy to
  quote it in the Toronto-area ads.

- their main competitors (stores) don't charge shipping.

- I suspect that the charges are excessive given the volume they must
  ship here.

See if they'll trade the Windows license for shipping :-)

Do you know what they wanted to charge for shipping of the box and
monitor to the GTA?  They wanted something like $150 when I checked
some time ago.

Factory Direct will sell you a refurbished computer (looks like a
debranded HP) that seems like a better deal:
	Athlon XP2000, 256M, 40G, CD-RW: $377.77
A week or so ago they'd sell something similar (lower specs: XP1800,
128M) for $299.

See page 1 of paper flyer or upper right of page 2 of
	http://www.factorydirect.ca/WEB-COUPONS/flyer/flyer-082803.pdf


Windows XP Home and a 17" monitor makes it $599 (but might be a
different brand -- listed as Compaq).

Hugh Redelmeier
hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org  voice: +1 416 482-8253

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