This article made by somebody who used to work for Dell shows us how to workaround Dell reps in giving you more discounts from what is advertised. An excerpt from the article:

"I no longer work for Dell, I quit my job there, but I worked in Nashville in the S&P Small business division - And boy oh boy do you guys have a lot to learn Later tonight, I'm going to make a very long post with a ton of inside info - I have intentions of teaching all of you the truth about Dell, how their coupon system and rebates work, and how to beat their system.

Heres a hint at the goodness to come, some of you may have known this from personal experience, but its time this gets out in the open....

When you call Dell - You can get amazing deals, Never buy online, always call in...........The 2005FPW deal? Hehe, the deal is not dead guys, it never will be....Coupons? Ha! its all BS, coupons don't matter at all. Can you say 2405FPW for around $671.44? Shipped, of course. What about a 2005FPW for $342.51, once again, shipped.....and what if I were to tell you, you can get that deal, all day long, anyday of the week

Oh yeah, and heres the real kicker....what if I told you, 20 to 30% off of the best price you can find on dells website for almost anything? And yes, that includes the Geforce 7800GTX Can you say $400? Hehe"

here is the LINK

This is great info,,,Man i'd love to have a 2405 Monitor

good post.

That post didn't tell me anything new. The dell rep I bought my XPS 2 from 5 months ago told me she made commission and that she could go lower than the website could using her discount. All this guy tells you is to use social engineering to get a lower price from a rep, no shit sherlock!

I can't believe people are still posting this.

He first posted this at [H]ard|Forums and it got EVERYONE excited. Then he asked the mods to remove his thread because he realized he would get himself in a lot of shit.

This thread also should be closed/removed, at the original posters request.

I agree. This thread and link to the article doesn't tell the members anything they don't already know.

I've socially engineered insulin from chronic diabetics, and even I couldn't get my rep to discount the price of an XPS Gen2 more than $75.00. Here is what you do. Wait for the 40% coupon. If the machine ships late, call and complain to get some free stuff. Before the 21 day return period is over, call and request to return the item - that'll earn you a $100.00 concession coupon at least - good for all sorts of stuff from Dell.

I'm sure the University of Tennessee would not appreciate you advocating unethical practices. There is nothing wrong with finding a good deal, but maliciously looking for freebies is what I consider questionable behavior.

I've been doing that with Dell for years now.

Business in itself is unethical...if you want to call someone out call out dell

For what it’s worth, on two different occasion Dell could not match a coupon(web only) price on the phone. Both reps told me to order online instead.

Ok Commi.

I would generally agree with this except when it comes to the 40% off coupons. The Dell reps can definitely give you a better deal on other stuff, but it is doubtful they can lower a price by 40%.

More consistantly cheaper: Call Dell and barter with the rep
Cheaper when BIG coupons come up: Buy online

then they raise the prices for everyone else, like stealing software...nice going glover
and your in College?

You all are taking this too far (maybe i am too lol)...Dell is capable of giving that money back to glover and they choose not to do this normally to gain more profit (well they cant give great discounts to everyone of course though)...Capitalism is dog eat dog...and why would you call me a Commi if you look at my sig (people are so quick to call people nazis and commis)...He's not stealing, Dell is the one's offering the coupons (and when you are about to return the laptop you don't even have to ask for discount they offer it to get more money in short-term and long-term)...Just see how much unethical activity actually goes on within big corporations and then talk...Glover and others have just made a spinoff on the old robin hood story (although there cause primarily benefits themselves)...Its negligible to the extent customers get these "sly" deals...you can get it too...but if its done too much it will be reflected in "legitimate" customers....which brings us back to capitalism