Buying a Dell Notebook / PC from an eBay seller? Click!

There are a lot of sellers on eBay that are selling "New" Dell laptops or PCs for a lot cheaper prices then Dell's website.  How do they do it?

First off, most of the sellers purchased the Dell products in BULK through an Employee Purchase Program (Dell EPP).  Normally, the Dell EPP gives an 10% discount for computer orders such as notebooks and PCs; however, depending on the size of the business, the discounts will be greater.  An example is this.  Suppose someone works for UPS and they want to purchase a Dell product.  Usually, Dell will offer better deals (more discounts) for a larger company then a company in the EPP program with only 10 employees. 

Some sellers take advantage of the "perks" that their company offers by purchasing numerous notebooks / PCs and selling it on ebay (It's actually against Dell's terms of service because the products are heavily discounted).  So often time, they will say "ONE YEAR WARRANTY, Two years, etc etc"  Here's the catch:  Dell's warranty are based off when the product is shipped from Dell's warehouse. 

It's very important to ask the seller for the system's service tag number so you can check on the validity of the auction claims and when the actual warranty expires.  By going to this website (Dell's website): http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/my_systems_info/en/details?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

You can input the product's service tag number on the above link and it will show and verify everything you need to know about the notebook or PC.  So if the seller states "One year warranty", if the product has been in the seller's possession for two months before you purchased the item from the seller, then essentially, the warranty is only TEN MONTHS! 

Before making a purchase, always ask for the system's service tag number.  If the seller isn't willing to give that out, I wouldn't purchase it from that seller because it means either the seller doesn't have the product on hand, or the seller is hiding something.  Most of the time a shoddy seller will claim the service tag is sensitive information.  That is NOT TRUE.  Sensitive information is if you were to ask for the service tag AND the original order number.  But here, you're only asking for the service tag number (Serial number) to verify the warranty and specifications of the product you are purchasing!

Bid safely!