xps m1710:ebay?

With a little search in this forum you will see MANY opinions on wether or not to buy a laptop on eBay.

With that out of the way, I bought my M1710 in my sig for $2700 in June. I also bought a M170 on ebay around the same times. I then went to buy yet another M1710 and it was a stolen laptop and after some work and a little research I got the seller to take it back and give me my money.

Its all about the money in my household. You are seriously debating the fact of spending $1300 MORE!!! ..............Is there seriously anyone out there that does this? I would rather pay a Dell resller for their due diligence and reap some of their benefits with fatwallet, sales, stackable coupons, etc. Let them AND me get a piece!

The one that I purchases was also NIB, all of them that I got were NIB. The one that was stolen was purchased under someone’s business account and was not authorized. The account holder told Dell and all laptops were now stolen to Dell. The guy claimed he got it at a flea market for a good price (this was after I knew it was stolen in my possession). I then uncovered some tags off the box by using my scanner and I found out just about everyone that the laptop passed trough and all kinds of other info. I ended up knowing so much that dell put me in contact with their personal detective and I gave him all of the information I uncovered and he was amazed. I then called the seller and basically threatened him. He eventually did a COD and I got all my money, plus a little more, back. Don’t get me wrong, I doubt this will happen to you but it can happen. There is always a way to handle it if it does happen but this is just a warning. I still go back to eBay for everything. I will buy my next computer on there. Just be careful. Buy from a seller that has sold a lot. The guy I bought mine off of had 6 sold and all had positive feedback so I didn’t think much of it. His feedback was 60 100% positive. Also, contact the seller and maybe even see if you can call him first.

I love eBay but like I said just be careful. Make sure the feedbacks good and the more the better. If the deal seems too good to be true (I don’t think $2300 is to low since I paid $2700). Hope this helps a little.

Well said cstradling24.

hi,
I've bought m1710 with great specs from a seller that I've found on this forum. It has 2.33 cpu, 2gigs of ram, 100gb (7200rpm), gf 7900 Gtx
i've payed 2300

I'm a Dell reseller and I can guarantee that NO 'legit' reseller gets that kind of margin on XPS laptops. In fact, most of the time, resellers do not get ANY discounts on the XPS laptops.

I would recommend asking the seller for the service tag so you can verify it is a legit machine. You can also see the exact shipping specs with the service tag. Make sure there is a good/valid warranty on the unit.

Binky, I sent you a PM with a link to someone who I think could help you out.

Of course you can always try the Dell outlet

Well, you need to understand that all of these deals are happening in a legal grey-zone. That the gentlemen offering these deals are "power sellers" on eBay means exactly nothing. As somebody has said before, there are no "Dell resellers" that would be authorized to sell computers to consumers at the kind of prices you are talking about. Think about it: Dell's business model is direct marketing. They are selling the computers to the consumer. Why in the world would they put "authorized resellers" out there cannibalizing their own business? The answer is, of course, they don't. So, none of the machines offered this way are fully legitimate, and all of those sales are in violation of Dell's Terms of Service. What the exact legal implications of this are is not entirely clear. What seems to be clear, though, is that Dell is free at any point to void their warranty on any such machine, although they do not seem to do this right now. Remember: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't...

That was probably the guy that was banned from this forum, for good reasons...

I wonder what is it you think was not a good reason. Rest assured that in the case I have in mind, there were good reasons. But that's neither here nor there in any case. The only point is, if you get a great deal from the guy standing at the corner having those Rolex watches displayed on the inside of his trenchcoat, you may or may not get stiffed. It's up to you to decide if you want to take the risk.