Sony '10% Campus discount' is a ripoff!

I'm about to buy a Vaio CS290, and it was $1,016.99
I noticed the 'Sony Campus' 10% discount for students, thought that was pretty sweet, so I signed up with a different account to register for the program. I went through the same process, chose the exact same upgrades, and noticed that the price was now $1,129.99

I thought that was weird, so I logged back into my first account and left the page open on the 'customization' page, then logged into the second to check. On the 'Sony campus discount' account, every upgrade became 10% more expensive!

So the final price with the Sony Campus discount ends up being 10% off $1,129.99. As luck would have it, that comes out to exactly $1,016.99

Thanks, Sony.

 

Did you check if the warranty is the same?

 

hahah but still, that's so weird. LOL.

 

Call up a service rep and configure your laptop with them

 

Yeah, there's no difference in warranty.

I'll post the exact details in a bit.

Edit: Here's the non-campus-discount version

Just an an example, for the processor costs:

Intel® Pentium® Processor T3400 (2.16GHz) [subtract $135.00]
Intel® Core® 2 Duo Processor T6400 (2.0GHz) [subtract $90.00]
Intel® Core® 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.40GHz)
Intel® Core® 2 Duo Processor P8700 (2.53GHz) [add $45.00]
Intel® Core® 2 Duo Processor T9550 (2.66GHz) [add $180.00]

vs.

Intel® Pentium® Processor T3400 (2.16GHz)
Intel® Core® 2 Duo Processor T6400 (2.0GHz) [subtract $100.00] (vs. 90)
Intel® Core® 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.40GHz)
Intel® Core® 2 Duo Processor P8700 (2.53GHz) [add $50.00] (vs. 45)
Intel® Core® 2 Duo Processor T9550 (2.66GHz) [add $200.00] (vs. 180)

And for the hard drive:

160 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm] [subtract $81.00]
250 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm] [subtract $54.00]
320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm] [subtract $27.00]
320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [7200 rpm]
400 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm] [add $18.00]

vs.

160 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm]
250 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm] [subtract $60.00] (vs. $54)
320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm] [subtract $30.00] (vs. $27)
320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [7200 rpm]
400 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm] [add $20.00] (vs. $18)

So my final order (regular account) was:

VGN-CS290 Configure-to-Order
VGN-CS290

Customization Details
Microsoft® Works
Intel® Core® 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.40GHz)
QuickBooks Simple Start
Windows Live OneCare 90-Day Trial
No Engraving
DVD±R DL / DVD±RW / DVD-RAM Drive
No Fresh Start™
320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [7200 rpm]
Standard Battery
WLAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth® technology
Glossy Black
LCD 14.1" WXGA (XBRITE-ECO™ with integrated video camera
Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit
4 GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 2GBx2)

Subtotal: $1,016.99
Tax: $50.85
Shipping: INCLUDED
Your Price: $1,067.84

Now here's the 'discount' version:

VGN-CS290 Configure-to-Order
VGN-CS290
Customization Details
Microsoft® Works
Intel® Core® 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.40GHz)
QuickBooks Simple Start
Windows Live OneCare 90-Day Trial
No Engraving
DVD±R DL / DVD±RW / DVD-RAM Drive
No Fresh Start™
320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [7200 rpm]
Standard Battery
WLAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth® technology
Glossy Black
LCD 14.1" WXGA (XBRITE-ECO™ with integrated video camera
Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit
4 GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 2GBx2)

Subtotal: $1,016.99 (after the discount - initial cost was $1,129.99)
Tax: $50.85
Shipping: INCLUDED
Your Price: $1,067.84

They end up being exactly identical, down to the last cent.

 

This is called 'marketing.'

 

You just realized that sony doesn't offer "deals"?

 

Well fair enough, but isn't anyone else at least a little bit taken aback that Sony is so blatantly misinforming us? I mean generally when I see 10% discount, I expect to pay 10% less, not to get a 10% discount on something that will end up having the exact same price!

 

You're right, it is pretty outrageous. If you really NEED to buy a vaio you should just talk to the service reps on the phone. There are always more discounts to be found that way, especially with a big company such as sony or dell.

 

dear friend. you are beating a dead horse. This is one of the reasons I got a Dell instead. I just got sick and tired of Sony BS pricing. Look at the prices at their outlet. They are a joke.

 

I compared a CTO Z690 with $300 off bundle + student discount vs $300 bundle, no student discount. Same exact config and options:

$1394 for the notebook
vs
$1575

$168 for the 3 year warranty
vs
$171

$34 for 2 bags
vs
$39

Total: $1596 vs $1785

 

HP has an academic pricing program that actually works. i got them to put me on it even though i'm not a student. i believe it's 10% off.

 

Yes, but HP (and most others) although they give you a discount, you can normally get just as much off if not more by using coupons.

 

Hey, thanks for the advice, I think I'll try that.

And I know it's sad, but I've been a Sony fanboy since I was a little kid, starting with the PS1 and moving up to the PS2, PS3, PSP.... and now, the Vaio. Stupid? Possibly, but they do have some really high quality products. And they sure look good.

 

the coupons are 100% stackable to the APP discount.

 

OK sorry, I've never order from HP and have just that they weren't somewhere. I probably just misread or mixed it up another brand.

 

Sorry, but I think you're mistaken.

For most models the campus promotions is only 5% (it was with my FW and it seems to be also the case for the CS). If you just select CS290CTO and hit next until you're at the shopping cart screen, you'll get $789.99 without an account, and $750 with a student account.

I did get 5% on my FW390 purchase (I checked both ways).

 

I actually tried it before and ended up with the same price for both - if I didn't make any modifications, then they were the same price.
Except now it keeps giving me an error when I try to add to the shopping cart.

I have screenshots - I'm going to check to see if I can upload to the forum itself. If not, I'll upload them to photobucket or something

Edit:

The images are a bit small, but if you look closely you'll notice that there are different prices for the same parts (and this is for identical laptops). The only difference is that one is a 'sony campus discount' account, and the other is a regular account.

 

You might want to check if you actually have the discount on BOTH accounts, and you just don't realize it. It is unmistakable that the discount works. I created 2 accounts for the sake of testing.

Without Discount


With Discount

 

That's strange... I'm pretty sure that only one of the accounts is signed up for Sony campus. But I got the same price even when not using any account...

Also, what about the fact that the prices are different for each account? A processor upgrade from 2.4GHz to 2.6GHz costs $45 in one case and $50 in the other.

 

Without any account, the prices I get are consistent with the non-discounted price. (Notice the empty login.)

http://www.cubeupload.com/files/f87600capture3.jpg

^Posting URL so it doesn't kill space in the thread.

What zip code are you ordering from?

 

Hm, I got the same price as well without an account - $1,129.99

I'm re-checking.

On the account that definitely has the discount, the price is originally $1,129.99 but when I add it to my shopping cart the price goes down to $1,016.99 (a 10% discount)

Note though, that the different in prices for component upgrades are only a 5% discount (e.g. $150 to $142.5 or $50 to $47.5)

Okay, something is strange here.

With no account, the price for an upgrade from 2.16Ghz to 2.4Ghz keep jumping!
It was initially $142.5 to upgrade from 2.16GHz to 2.4GHz then it changed without me changing anything to $150. I refreshed the page and it was back to $142.5.

Is this happening to anyone else? I'm using Google Chrome, maybe that's affecting it?

Just for the sake of consistency, how much does it cost you - with no account - to upgrade from the initial 2.16GHz to 2.4GHz? I've seen it be both $142.5 and $150.

 

If there's a bug on the page, ultimately it doesn't matter because the shopping cart will always be correct regardless of the upgrade incosistencies. The long load time while adding to cart assures this.

 

Sorry please delete, accident.

 

Are you doing this from all from the same browser? I think you're better off using two completely different browsers, i.e. IE and FireFox. It could be the Sony site doesn't handle tabbed browsing in concurrent sessions.

 

I make sure to log out and close tabs before re-opening.

Gah, I think maybe I was wrong to begin with. I've tried a bunch of times, and I get the $1,129.99 price for no account and then $1,016.99 for accounts.
I guess both were signed up for Sony campus or something... what really threw me off was the different pricing for the same parts... that's what made me suspect that they were misleading people...

 

I initially thought the same thing when I configured my Z690. I signed up for the Campus Discount and the price in the configuration screen came out to be exactly the same as when I configured it without logging in first.

After chatting with a Sony rep, I discovered that in some cases the discount is listed at the outset with a crossed out and replaced price, and in other cases like mine the discount only shows up in the Shopping cart. At first I didn't believe her, until I tried it. And there it was, my 10% discount, nearly hidden on the checkout page.

I told her it seems like Sony seems to be trying to hid the fact that they're giving a discount when other companies advertise their discount everywhere they can. She said she'd pass that feedback along.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=361973&page=3

read my comments in that thread all will be clear about good ol sony