When is a bargain laptop not a bargain?
Two different prices for the Gateway P-6831FX.
Update [2/11/08]: We've heard from Best Buy, and the company tells us this laptop will be available for $1,199 starting Sunday, February 17. That represents an excellent value, and mitigates our disappointment over the original jump from the MSRP of $1,350 to the current $1,699.
Late last year, Gateway told us about its plans to bring a low-cost, high-quality gaming laptop to Best Buy stores as a retail-only exclusive. The system has arrived, and we were initially impressed with its price and performance, but now there seems to be some funny stuff going on with its pricing. Here's the deal:
The recently released Gateway P-6831FX has Nvidia's new 8800 GTS graphics card, a generous 3GB of RAM, and HDMI and eSATA ports. Our only initial concern looking at the specs was the system's somewhat stodgy Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 CPU. But all in all we thought we were looking at pretty damn good deal at $1,350. Apparently, so did a lot of other people, because the system's so hot Best Buy decided to raise the price on it.
While writing our review, we saw that Best Buy had changed the price on its Web site from $1,350 to $1,699. Confused, we did a little Web searching and found the P-6831FX still listed on Gateway's Web site with a suggested retail price of $1,350. We also found several message board threads complaining about the same issue.
We called Gateway and they laid the blame directly at Best Buy's feet, saying the P-6831FX was "selling like gangbusters," prompting the retail giant to raise the price by $350. We asked Best Buy about the price discrepancy late Wednesday, and the retail giant said they would get back to us. While Gateway offers a series of similar laptops online, called the P-171 series, the P-6831 is available only though Best Buy.
We'll update this post as new information comes in, but the upshot for right now is a laptop that we were very excited about is suddenly looking a lot less appealing. Look for our full review of the Gateway P-6831 later this week.
New York native Dan Ackerman, a former radio DJ turned journalist, has written about technology and music for publications including Spin, Blender, The Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today. He hosts the weekly Digital City podcast and the New York edition of Editors' Office Hours. Dan's new album, Tales Out of Night School, is available now. E-mail Dan.
want, and what do you think you'll get? Well, for one you get a shinning
example of why we have a free market economy! Go buy a different laptop and
let "Best" Buy sit on their inventory.
Scarier still... you can get the 171S FX direct from Gateway for $100 less ($1599). The difference? It has the Intel C2D T7250 CPU. I.e., it is a step up from the more expensive Best Buy exclusive P-6831FX.
Buying from Best Buy means you're purchasing from a retailer. The glory of buying from a retailer is one, you can get it immediately; two, sometimes the prices may be better; and three, instead of relying on the manufacturer's warranty, you can purchase accidental damage plans from Best Buy to add value to your investment.
I also read on this thread that some people are seeing that Gateway raised its price of the same laptop. So... there you go.
It's still a better deal than other laptops with similar configurations available at retail: majority of them are either still packing an 8600M GT and cost up to $2000. When the Macbook Pros first came out with the 8600M GT, they were the first ones with it available at both retail and online outlets--and they started at $1999.99.
If you think about it, even with the 8800 in the laptop, it wouldn't be able to play some higher end games at 1920x1080 with higher quality settings comfortably. You could tune down some settings to make use of the theoretical 1920x1080 screen, but that would defeat the purpose of outputting to 1080--for quality.
The drawback for this laptop would be 1080p content playback. If I remember correctly, it didn't have a high definition media drive (blu-ray/HD-DVD), so your only lost would be playing back media at that resolution... Which isn't so mainstream yet.
One bigger drawback to others would be the lost of screen real estate--higher resolutions would give you more room to put your icons and how much of your spreadsheet/how many pages of your document you'd be able to view on the screen at once, but that's more user-preference, as most people don't even realize that or consider the practicalities of monitor resolution relative to their screen size when purchasing laptops.
While not everyone can jump on the band wagon one can certainly decide if needed now and or else where look for sales.
Oh my older hp laptop i recently updated with new ram and a viore usb tv tuner and it does tv just fine without me paying the inflated extra price of a card installed.
consumers at every turn - legendary Best Buy business practices. At the least, Best
Buy has artifically jacked up the price so they can promote a much bigger "savings"
when they drop it down to $1,200.. This is almost transparent when you consider
that they have a pricing guarantee of at least 2 weeks. So anyone who was
suckered at the new high price will get back the money Best Buy shafted them.
And it also protects Best Buy from having to refund the $150 to anyone who
bought it at the old price two weeks ago.
And which Best Buy does xZero2007x work in? (To use his construction...) One -
How do you get something immediately when Best Buy won't order enough to keep
it in stock? IAnd if that price cut is just a sale, Best Buy will not offer rain checks.
Two - prices are almost universally better direct from the manufacturer. I guess
xZero2007x must have missed that whole 'bricks and mortar vs. Internet"
discussion back in 1996. And three - never - NEVER - buy an extended warranty
from a retailer! They're bigger rip-offs than the usual Best Buy rip-offs. If you
want an extended warranty, use a good credit card (Amex is one of the better) that
double the manufacturer's warranty FOR FREE. It's much better than that bogus
retailer warranty - often an immediate replacement, not a month-long repair.
Buying from Best Buy can be like shopping for a car. Carefully investigated
products can be found at a good price from Best Buy. But if it looks like a great
bargain, do the extra homework. Bring any documents or printouts you'll need to
back up your expected price/model purchase. Otherwise you can be sure the Best
Buy deal will have magically changed or disappeared. And if you shop in
Connecticut just keep keep asking if they're still having problems with the Attorney
General...
Consumers need to practice Caveat Emptor (buyer beware), because Best Buy
seems to practice Veni, Vidi, Imponi (I came, I saw, I screwed the sucker!)
As I was mentioning earlier, there's a difference between an online outlet and a retail store. I'm not going to repeat myself, so just scroll down to look at my initial comment. But you look at every other retail store out there, Best Buy does offer a ton of good deals. The only thing that intimidates me as someone who sells things at Best Buy is the power of whole sale outlets like Costco. They don't carry the same products as us, and most of the time carry cheaper items, but it's still scary to imagine what can happen.
And if you looked carefully, Gateway also changed their online price. I don't work up in management or cooperate, so I don't know the details, but I can say this much--there is the possibility that we changed our price because Gateway did. If it were the other way around, I doubt it, primarily because Gateway doesn't attend to Best Buy's every will. Or at least, I see a lower possibility in that than my initial thought.
I work at the Honolulu Best Buy part time (store 763). One- Like everything else that's a deal, don't expect to get it half way into the week or late into the week. These guys do a lot of statistical work to see what would the demand be--of course they're not going to fill their entire warehouse with the item because that'd be bad business if BBY were to have a surplus of a particular item. My store didn't sell out, but we did sell a lot. I think the initial count on it was nearly 3-4 times the amount we had on other laptops, but I also think that's due to us having less frequent updated shipments on it. AND excuse me since you know so much about our policies, BBY can ONLY give out rainchecks on items in the ad... which it was in during it's price-drop. The only time we can't take a rain check is if it specifically says so in the ad, which is actually very rare to find.
TWO- Yeah of course they are. I enjoy using my discount more than buying it at the retail price. But you have to look at the huge picture-- I tell people when on the floor to buy things online just because it's cheaper (if it really seems like they're on a budget). But you just stand at the door at any best buy, and I will guarantee you that majority of those people will say its too much humbug. Online shopping's a blast--don't get me wrong. But there are people who just don't like the fact of paying a shipping and handling fee, and actually dealing with the customer service from manufacturers. And I mentioned it earlier, Best Buy is a retailer--not an online outlet. So for the convenience of getting out of the house and going "shopping," there is a small price to pay, but that's all attributed to the very bold line that separates online shopping from retail shopping.
Which brings me to my last point: THREE- I didn't mention anything about an extended warranty. If you would actually be a little more open minded, you'd notice our plans overlap the manufacturer's warranty. The main reason why BBY offers it is because one of the glories of shopping at retail is that you don't have to deal with the manufacturer. You look and try comparing the business models between a manufacturer and a retailer--which one would have more contact with customers and know their needs better, thus designing their business to meet those needs better than the other? It would be the retailer, since the manufacturer is only responsible for making the product. There are times where the manufacturer's warranty suffices, but taking the law of large numbers into account from statistical studies, along with just plain thinking about it... a lot of people are unsatisfied with it, primarily because a closer look at the manufacturer's warranty shows that it's actually very easy to void.
BBY doesn't force our plans onto everyone-- we simply ask and explain if people are interested. AND it differs from credit card warranties as well (though I must admit that they do come in handy as a last resort of an option, since you need a lot of documentation for larger purchases). It's free, but it only covers you if both the manufacturer or retailer (whomever you did the transaction with) REFUSES to help you with your claim. This only works if you're actually in the warranty of the manufacturer, and usually, you're on your own after the 14/30 day period from the retailer (meaning, go to the manufacturer).
And it does take a long time going through manufacturer's warranties. Normally, you'd have to ship it to their service centers (which are quite scarce, and more so in Hawaii), and wait for them to take a look at it, determine the costs or if it's within warranty, then talk to you. Normally, if you can drive there, it'd probably take about a week to two weeks to finish the analysis--it's longer if it's shipped or if the damage complicates things.
Best Buy's "warranty," or better put it, service plans cover MORE than the manufacturer's warranty, most often covering the main things that void a manufacturer's warranty-- heat, humidity, dust, power surging, AND the manufacturer's warranty's disclosure. Instead of having to go to the manufacturer, deal with their customer service over the phone, and most often times, ship your product and pay one way (some actually waive this fee, but most don't), you can just drive to your local Best Buy and let us take care of it, OR even call us and we'll go to you.
Also, the accidental damage plans are different-- they cover our service plans PLUS accidental damage. When I said you can purchase one to add value to your purchase, I'm not kidding. It's actually quite easy to get a new laptop out of your initial purchase about two years down the line by "accidentally" breaking it. You'll get something of equivalent value, or have it credited to a gift card. Most times, newer models that replace older ones from the same price range will be sporting newer and better goods. THAT'S what I meant by adding value to your investment. And no, we don't void the plan unless it's obvious you damaged it intentionally (but it's possible to take advantage of this), or if the product were fully submerged in water (dropping it in water but getting it out ASAP is OK).
Hell, even with Reward Zone points, you get back from us with your purchases (2% normally, 4% max, plus various ways to earn the points with everyday spending).
There's a lot of good in Best Buy. I only work there part time and am a full time student running his own business and trading stocks otherwise. I value my time a lot, and I wouldn't put it into a company that was total trash. There is a reason why Best Buy's stock is up in the upper 40's right now, compared to Circuit's sub-10 dollar value. We do things well, but not perfect. But we do get the job done, and offer (not force) useful things for the customer.
Just come in, talk story, shop for what you need and may possibly want, and go home happy without having things forced on you. That's the shopping experience we wish to give--not a hollow online shopping experience direct from the manufacturer. I try to, and the company as well, offer the convenience and experience at Best Buy, while providing the best prices you can find at retail, plus many other reasons to shop with us. There are the occasional outliers, where it's total hell, but overall as a company, and majority of the time, it's great at BBY. It's totally your choice, and I, as a person and an employee at Best Buy, totally respect that.
- Best Buy Are you EVER going to get more????
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by ap900333
March 4, 2008 2:30 PM PST
- I got the P6831FX at $1250. BUT it had a defective screen, I was told to send it back and they would have a BRAND NEW one within a week. GUESS WHAT now they have changed their tune and said its on back order and they have NO IDEA if they will ever get anymore or not. What kind of crap is that. I told them I want this laptop if they get more or if a new model from Gateway comes in (with equal or better specs of course) I will ask for that. The last thing I want is the money back. Geez what a pain....
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