Price wins again.

My father's Toshiba notebook died so he sent it off for repairs against my best advice that it would cost him as much to fix it as to replace it. The system was over 3 years old and needed a new screen and hard drive at the minimum. When he was given the estimate he decided that maybe I was correct and we started shopping. He looked over my son's new Lenovo Ideapad and really liked it but felt that it was too expensive even though it was on sale for less than I had paid.

I checked Dell's website and found a system for $499 but it had a Celeron processor and windows basic so I talked him out of it. I then checked a few of the local stores for systems and found a Dell on sale at Best Buy for $499 with a Dual core processor and Vista Premium. Even though the Lenovo was only $100 more and came with better sound and features he decided he would run out and get the Dell based on price and instant availability. I wasn't available to go out with him today so I printed out a copy of the Best buy system and made sure my cell phone was charged because I knew he would be calling me.

Sure enough at about 10:10 my cell phone rang and my dad said he couldn't find the system but they had a Gateway in stock for $499. I explained the specifications were not as good as the Dell and stayed on the phone as he looked around the store reading off the information of each system. After I convinced him to ask a sales person to help him, they were able to locate the advertised Dell system. Unfortunately they did not have one set up so he bought it sight unseen and took it home. A few hours later came the next call I was expecting, "so, whatcha doin right now?". I was still busy and asked what the problem was, seems dad can't get the wireless working so I'll have to go over this weekend and set it up for him. I wonder if I can bill Dell for the referral and service call?