Forget about EPP and corporate discounts :)

Just got off the phone with Thinkpad rep. I placed an order on Wed using corporate discount and compared that to AMEX and EPP discounts which turned out to be a best deal. Last night I went to Lenovo on-line just to build a same system, and it came out to exactly the same price (actually $15 cheaper) with only difference of wi-fi card without "N" and 3-year warranty being "depot" instead of "on-site". I called them back today hoping that I can take a webprice and apply corporate discount to get it even lower, but to my surprise I was told that either/or could be used. Lenovo is doing a very agressive on-line pricing right now which is as good as any other corporate discounts.

Take advantage of the next 10 days to get good on-line prices!!!

 

I just did the same thing. I asked them whether I can use the EPP on the on-line sale. The answer was NO. The sale is much better than the EPP right now.

The est. ship date is 12/25. Just wish everything will be fine.

Good Luck!

 

Hmm, they quoted you 3 1/2 weeks before shipping? They told me 2-3 weeks, but I'm wondering if due to holiday traffic it might be longer I actually ended up keeping my original order since it was already put into the system and I'm going to get new Intel a/b/g/n card and on-site warranty. Still can not understand WHY with on-line orders you can configure T60 with C2D up to 2.33GHz but without "n" card, while through other corporate discounts you can get "n" card but only 2GHz cpu?!?!? This inconsistency makes no sense to me

 

It really depends on the model. I just bought a Z61T from the EPP site for $1377. The identically configured model from the main Lenovo site is $1713. I did make numerous upgrades and customizations, though, so maybe that has something to do with it.

 

I wonder if choosing Z vs T can make a difference in this case...

 

I configured a T5500 model with 3-year warranty under EPP pricing and it was a better deal than on the main site. However, if I chose instead T7200 (I don't care about the clock speed), it would be a worse deal.
It is case-by-case, I suppose.

 

A few months ago, the top-of-the-line models X60s 170469U and X60 170997u were featured for $1101 on epp... these are around $2300 still on the lenovo site still.
Mine is a free loaner from IBM.

BTW right now thinkpad prices are higher right now, as they always are this time of year, because it's by far the busiest time for thinkpad sales - both consumer and especially corporate sales (the bread and butter for thinkpads)

heck even ram prices are higher now than a while ago.

this is, simply put, the worst time of year to buy a thinkpad.
The best time is during the summer back-to-school sales (when corporate sales are at a snail's pace and discounting peaks)

 

How low have you seen a mid-range spec' T60? (Duo Core, discrete graphics)

 

I disagree about the timing. The Holiday Sale and the EPP (for everyone else!) deals right now are awesome. Go to Fatwallet and see how many people jumped now, compared to summer time. Those people smell deals.

 

However, now building and shipping is super slow. I am not sure it is caused by sales volume, or their logistics just suck. They should learn something from Dell and Amazon.

 

Well it is the busiest time of the year. I can just imagine how busy UPS is (Lenovo carrier right?).

That Fatwallet deal, is that legit? Will they send you a cheque for that amount? 7% wasn't it? Is there one for Lenovo Canada?

 

The EPP price of my configuration went up. The barebone machine was $432 and is $532, while the add-ons (HDDs, etc.) cost the same.

 

What comes with the barebones? Just a display, keyboard and shell?

 

It doesn't matter, since the barebone alone is not for sale. It has to ship with the add-ons. The barebone could be priced at $1 and the cost could be shifted to other components (a $500 HDD?).

An example:

CONFIGURATION CODE FOR 2613HDU
SYS.2613HD
10 Days $1,184.50 $1,184.50 Edit Configuration
Remove
1 TOPSLR T60 T5500 14XSGA+ BT FPR 1YR DEPOT WARRANTY
2613HDU $532.80
1 CTO TP 6 CELL BATTERY 2.4 AH
40Y6800 $79.20
1 CTO 1GB DDR2 MEMORY PC2-5300 667MHZ
40Y7738 $99.00
1 CTO TP XP HOME MICROSOFT
40Y8497 $90.00
1 CTO TP WIFI WIRELESS ABG
41A4070 $24.00
1 CONSTKPL TP 3YR 9X5 DEPOT 3 YRS DEPOT REPAIR 9X5
41C9241 $104.30
1 CTO TP 60GB HDD 5400RPM SATA
41N8351 $136.00
1 CTO 24X/24X/24X/8X CD-RW/DVD COMBO ULTRABAY SLIM DRIVE
41N8357 $119.20

 

Ah I see. It would probably cost the end user more to purchase all the pieces and put the machine together themself.

 

Funny how they play around with the prices for the individual components...

Code:

Qty  	Component  	   Description  	                                                   Cost  	 
 1  	 2613LPU  	   LENOVO THINKPAD T60P 2613 - CORE 2 DUO T7400 2.16 GHZ - 14.1" TFT 	 $795.00
 1   	 40Y6798   	   CTO TP 9 CELL BATTERY 2.6 AH  	                                 $149.00  	
 1   	 40Y7737   	   LENOVO THINKPAD MEMORY - 512 MB - SO DIMM 200-PIN - DDR II  	          $90.00  	
 1   	 40Y7738   	   LENOVO THINKPAD MEMORY - 1 GB - SO DIMM 200-PIN - DDR II  	         $180.00 
 1   	 40Y8496   	   MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL - LICENSE  	                 $170.00
 1   	 41A4070   	   CTO TP WIFI WIRELESS ABG  	                                          $30.00  
 1   	 41N8353   	   LENOVO THINKPAD HARD DRIVE - 80 GB - SATA-150  	                 $200.00  
 1   	 41N8357   	   LENOVO THINKPAD COMBO ULTRABAY SLIM DRIVE - CD-RW / DVD-ROM   	 $149.00  			 	

In my experience, it's been a long time since one could build a desktop PC more cheaply than one can be purchased prebuilt from most vendors, unless you're talking about a server class machine. That said, I still vastly prefer to know exactly what went into the thing, so I spend the extra dough and build them myself.

Tempo, was that through the EPP site?

 

the prics indeed went up.

 

Lucky people were buying better T60p's for less in august using their educational discounts (in the U.S.) during back to school (search here and see).
Also the very top-of-line X60s and X60 were $1101 apiece (with base and multiburner and extra ram)
It's when ibm gave me mine

They will all be even better for less next august... Always has been, and probably always will be.

 

More importantly, can you return it if it's defective? Lenovo uses a small freaky courier in canada, not UPS... some young oriental girl drives your laptop to your house in her her 15-year-old rustbucket, lol. Who cares, it's free delivery.

 

My friend bought a back-to-school T60 2623d6u for $1,299 -- now it is $1,1xx. Of course you have to consider as time goes on, the price always goes down. But the normal educational discounts are not that great.

 

There was a $1279 and then $1199 price for the 2623D6U available to everyone in august during back-to-school (you didn't even have to be in education). That was nothing special, and they threw in some extra software.

The good educational deals in Aug/Sept are available only via the educational institutions to registered students. Limited to one per person per year. Believe me, those are phenomonal deals. Some students use their purchase just to flip it on ebay for many hundreds of dolllars in profit. I cannot qualify for these prices, I just see what they are and drool, they're much better than EPP prices.

If you're a US college student, you may want to check with your institutation and/or campus bookstore in August.