Used Machines for Students

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Used Machines for Students

340 points posted to Education, Sales Strategies by dgillam Mar 15

I read a blog here somewhere in which the person made a great suggestion. Letting DELL owners get a $100 trade in value on their old machines to purchase new DELL machines. The blogger suggested the old machines be donated to overseas. I have a better idea. Resell the cleaned machines to American junior and senior high school students for $100. This will not only encourage DELL users to remain DELL users. It also encourages new customers as the students come to like DELL machines and tend to have brand loyalty. DELL could dedicate an entire online site to official used machines for students in much the same way Toyota has certified used previously owned vehicles. DELL could even offer affordable upgrade packages to go with the certified used machines.

As a highschool Algebra teacher, I enjoy giving my students access to on-line support and homework help. The students who are able to take advantage of this are making great strides. Unfortunately, many of my students cannot pay even $500 for a machine. They could scrape together $100 and the monthly service fee though.

sugarbear Mar 15	You still are looking at $357 to $538 for refurbished notebooks on the outlet.
winoffice Mar 15	This is ALREADY (at least partially) OFFERED. (I might not be the correct person to be saying this, but it seems to me as if it is true nevertheless.) Check out the Dell Outlet. They have already built, refurbished and used Dell products.
kenjennings Mar 15	The idea isn't talking about students buying a refurbished machine from the Dell outlet. It asks Dell to essentially "donate" a used system to students (in exchange for the same nominal $100 Dell paid for it). It becomes a donation, because Dell would still have to sanitize it, run diagnostics on it, and reinstall a clean OS on it -- all costs that Dell would have to absorb.
dgillam Mar 16	Thank you for the link to the Dell Outlet. However, I checked the prices on the base model refurbished machines and they still ran around six hundred. The beautiful part about my plan is that Dell will gain instant, nationwide, positive exposure for their gesture and they can recoup the loss of money on time spent on cleaning the machines by spending less on advirtising - since every kid in America will already be talking about how great Dell is for selling them a computer for $100!
jackie_c Mar 17	@dgillman: Interesting idea for sure, but I would like to throw out a few points, or give my opinion....even though I cannot vote :) Just skimming over a few at the Outlet, I see where one can get a tower and monitor for about $400. I have not bought a new computer in years. I always buy from the Outlet and they have worked out fine for me. I even have an old monitor that I have had for many years. I just upgrade the tower every few years. Last time I purchased a system, I got it from the Outlet and it was $240 total. I just keep using the same monitor. If it ain't broke, don't fix it..... All of the machines at the Outlet are "certified." They go through testing when they are refurbished.
aikiwolfie Mar 17	I hope that's not an old CRT Jackie. You'll go blind! Them thing mess with your peppers. LCD is much kinder! Just one point on the Dell outlet. I always found it a little confusing and annoying. And I know what I'm looking for. For students that know nothing about PCs, something a little easier to use might help.
kenjennings Mar 17	Some don't. Actually, quite a few college graduates with computer science degrees don't know squat about computers, too.
aikiwolfie Mar 17	I've been on computing courses where fellow students who apparently already had other computing qualifications didn't even know the basics. Some of these people were database administrators and programmers. On paper anyway. But most are a bit ignorant when it comes to searching for systems based on raw specs.
sugarbear Mar 18	aikiwolfie, they are taught theory, not practicality.
undead999 Mar 18	I worked in a school district I.T. dept, the highschools had I.T. classes. a better choice here might be making an arrangement with the high school if they have I.T (or maybe a local community college). classes as the cost for dell to refurb used stuff is high especially system that at least a few year old. Also Dell would need to dedicate additional space for this or build new facilities. For dell to refurnb a working system would involve at lease an hour of time for testing and operating system reinstall. in addition buyers would want a waranty, this also increases costs.
aikiwolfie Mar 18	Theory is useless without practical ability SB.
sugarbear Mar 18	You are absolutely correct aikiwolfie.
pranavtrehun007 Mar 19	this may do more damage to Dell in terms of the goodwill created. thats because if some1 pays $100 for an old comp, its only a matter of time before the comp runs into problems. and it will be difficult to get the obsolete parts and uneconomical to repair. and every1 will think that Dell comps are no good. donating working Dells in AS/IS condition for free may be better.
aikiwolfie Mar 19	Well jackie_c posted ^ up there ^ that all outlet systems are check and certified to be working. People buy second hand kit all the time. I doubt it'd be that big a problem if Dell outlet is still running.
lxixtbird Mar 19	http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/topics/global.aspx/arb/online/en/ The Dell Outlet ships out new//undelivered, delivered but returned (Certified Refurbished) and Scratch & Dent Systems (these may or may not have made it out of the factory). I'll assume that a "refurb" was well within the 1 yr warrenty period before being returned if not within weeks (depending on how much the customer pushed for a "NEW" system. Once you consider the shipping costs that Dell would have to incur plus the time and expense of the "refurb", trying to get the prices down to $100 would be impossible.

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