The recommended retail price for an Asus EEE PC ultraportable laptop is $479 (June 2008). I just bought one from Officeworks for $303, and here’s how:
Do you know that Officeworks claim to offer the lowest prices?
Do you know that if you can find someone else offering a lower price for a stocked item, then Officeworks will beat that price by 5%?
Do you know that this deal applies to online prices as well?
With this information, I present to you a step-by-step guide to getting the cheapest price on your gadget of choice:
1. Go to an Officeworks store and confirm they stock the item
2. Go online to http://www.staticice.com.au and find the retailer that offers the absolute cheapest price.
In my case, I found a website called www.itestate.com.au which offered the Asus EEE laptop for $319 (plus delivery).
3. Take this information back into the Officeworks store and present the website to employee
4.They will then confirm that not only will they match that price, but they will beat it by 5%.
In my case, that meant $319 x 5% = an additional saving of $15.95 i.e. total cost $303.05 PLUS I saved having to pay shipping costs!
5. Purchase your heavily discounted item. Well done – be content that you have got yourself a real good deal.
Note: even bargain basement sites like Catch of the Day have only gone as low as $319.95 plus $14.95 postage for GREEN Asus EEE machines. And they only offer limited numbers of the product for a 24hr period.
aaaah super cool!
trent and i were looking at them ages ago in myer and they are soooo tiny! i might have got one perhaps if they had come out when i started uni, or even in high school to save my back from carrying a mac G3 with a metal casing!
what are you using yours for?
Dunno what I will actually use it for. Just figuring it out now. I’m sure Trent would have some suggestions..
when i told him you got one the first thing he asked was what model it was, then i asked him what you were using it for, and he said work? so there you go, you can use it for work! general documents and perhaps manipulating small images and not any power hungry design work.
hope it’s working well! i’m using my 4/5? year old ibook atm and it’s still going strong!
I can confirm that the officeworks price match suggestion works for any stocked item. However I have some extra tips if you happen to come across a “stubborn” manager that won’t match prices.
1. After checking staticice etc download and check this list from MSY to make sure you are getting the cheapest price. http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf. Decide your best price and print out the evidence.
2. Find the youngest fresh faced looking kid in there. Preferably one that hates his boss. Tell them that you need help but warn them (jokingly) that they may get fired. Show the kid the price and tell them to match it. He will go off to the boss…..
3. When the kid comes back and says the boss wont do it for that price but he will do it for the cheap price + whatever the delivery is send him away to ask the boss why last time you brought here there was no problem….
4. When the kid comes back with the reply that its the best the boss can do and that they would only match that price without the delivery charge if it was in a surrounding suburb say….
“It doesnt say that on the TV commercial I have recorded at home. Can you go get your boss as I need to see him and tell him to bring the contact details of the officeworks legal department as I’ll be needing those.”
5 The kid will come back and say “The boss said he’ll do it for that price now”
Ive never had the boss come to see me yet. I can’t wait for the day one does decide to try to explain to me why they refuse to follow company policies.
In the unlikely event that the manager comes back and withdraws the item for sale (they can do this under current legislation) I would wait around until they took them off the floor.
FYI I did this yesterday on a Canon MP540 printer. Officeworks Low Price was $179 (Which actually is Canons Suggested RRP) MSY price was $137…..got it for $131.15.
LOLZ, just saved over $200 off RRP on a printer.
RRP: $649
Officeworks: $598
My store: $492
which means i get a total of $130.60 off the Officeworks store price!
=major pwnage!!!
P.S. I also get a discount of 5% for being a team member (Kmart) which gives a grand discount total of $153.97, and I only payed the poor soul who served me $444.03 for a $598 printer ($649 RRP).
Just to tell you, for even more pawnage, I originally bought another printer (from Officeworks) for $349 with $100 cashback. The printer stuffed up under warranty, but after the cashback, so we traded it in for the above printer, which means that the TOTAL DISCOUNT was actually $253.97.
Officeworks is like that good, dumb, rich friend, who you always take advantage of.
Officeworks must be getting hammered with this as they have become very stubborn.
I bought a monitor for price match less 5% last december no problems.
Rang Officeworks today for a pricematch on a canon MX860 printer & they refused, claiming that MSY don’t offer the same warranty as them & MSY sell rebuilt units as new and other rubbish.