Today in my student-email inbox, I was forwarded a promotional email advertising cheap laptops. Let’s not get into how annoying it is that the head of the college students’ association spends her time forwarding every little thing to “ALL STUDENTS URGENT!!!” and move straight on to the dodgy business practices, shall we? Mmkay.
The text of the email was thus:
LAPTOP COMPANY SPRING SPECIALS
Open Wide & Say
Ahhhhhhh!
Just open up the screen on the new Toshiba A100 and wait for all the Ooohs & Ahhh’s
Its stunning 15.4” WideScreen with high gloss finish will draw acclaim from even the most avid desktop user.
Wireless ready to work with you wherever you choose.
High performance without the price the Toshiba A100-OMY010 features the advanced new Intel® Core™ Solo processor. It’s a feature-rich, full-size desktop replacement that delivers high end performance at an affordable price.
Highlights
Intel® Core™ Solo Processor T1300 1.66GHz. This is one of Intel’s new generation of processors – powerful, capable and able to handle demanding applications.
15.4” TruBrite™ widescreen 1280 x 800 (WXGA) gives you lots of space to work in and produces bright, high quality pictures. Ideal for presentations with superb clarity and a wide viewing angle
Windows XP Pro operating system – essential if like most businesses you are likely to link into a network at any time.
Only $1799 + gst
Kind Regards
Prue Gibbons
Sales Manager
(note the new Ddi number)
161 Kilmore St
PO Box 13694
Christchurch, NZ
Ddi +64 3 964 9476
Phone- +64 3 366 7647
Fax - +64 3 366 1003
Cell - +64 0275 294 664
Don’t you love how I saved all that nifty HTML formatting so you could truly appreciate the beauty? Anyway. I googled “The Laptop Company” and found their website, here. But…there is no Toshiba A100 on their website. Buh? Huh.
Then I googled “Toshiba A100-OMY010″. There is only one place on the internet selling that particular Toshiba, and here it is. LaptopHQ has the same contact phone number as The Laptop Company, which is also the same contact phone number in the email, so presumably the two companies are actually one and the same, targeting two different markets.
Here’s the confusing (or perhaps evil) part: The above deal is for the Toshiba A100 laptop for $1700 plus GST. That adds up to…uh…carry the one…$1,912.50. The LaptopHQ website advertises the same laptop for $1,999 including GST.
So for a savings of less than $90 on a two-thousand-dollar laptop, how many students will be suckered into blowing their student loans on an overpriced chunk of hardware? And is $90 still a special as the salesperson claims? I rest my case.
Meh, bored now.
