Oh Paul's Mom
We needed a new computer like woah. Hey! According to the twitter-verse, Microsoft is giving away X-Boxes to students who buy a brand new PC for at least $699. As we require EVERYTHING on the new computer, I knew that price would not be a problem to reach. I grab my student ID and we make our way to Best Buy.
Please keep in mind, I'm a Sony guy (yes, even AFTER this load-o-crap that just transpired. #SonyFail). But hey, if you're going to just hand me a $200 piece of equipment for buying something we were going to get anyway, I'm not going to say no.
Turns out, the internet was wrong. The X-Box "PC" promotion is for laptops only. I was under the impression a desktop counted as a PC. Apparently so did a lot of people, as an additional sign was tacked onto the original poster underneath the slew of X-Boxes parked next to the computers.
As aforementioned, we needed it anyway, so I was forced to grin and bear it. All the while, my hatred for the X-Box rose. Sony earned bonus points by proxy, which is great since I'm still waiting for the PSN bonuses and store to return.
We peruse the computers and find one that fits our life style very well. We grab an employee to talk us through what we think we're looking at. It's confirmed that the machine has what we need, and now we're eyeballing the extras (Microsoft Office, installation fees, virus protection, etc.). After reading the price card, we asked the employee to walk us through again, as the math just wasn't adding up. Getting MORE bonuses appeared to be significantly less $ than none. Turns out, the card was a misprint. The employee recognized this and did a lot of BS talking to convince us NOT to make the purchase. To cut a very lengthy and convoluted story (3 days in the making) short, we purchased a very nice computer for a fraction of what it should have cost us. It's pretty cool to read the receipt and see a "$0" next to installation fees, program fees, etc.
The part that makes this REALLY worth it is the fact that, were they to honor the X-Box deal for us, we didn't spend enough to qualify us for the free system. Therefore, we never really lost it by technicality anyway. This is the part that makes me smile the most.
No. Scratch that. The part that makes me smile the most is that I click "open" on any random document on the new computer, and it actually opens. Yes, this is what I approve of.
Now we need a name for it... Hmm.
Please keep in mind, I'm a Sony guy (yes, even AFTER this load-o-crap that just transpired. #SonyFail). But hey, if you're going to just hand me a $200 piece of equipment for buying something we were going to get anyway, I'm not going to say no.
Turns out, the internet was wrong. The X-Box "PC" promotion is for laptops only. I was under the impression a desktop counted as a PC. Apparently so did a lot of people, as an additional sign was tacked onto the original poster underneath the slew of X-Boxes parked next to the computers.
As aforementioned, we needed it anyway, so I was forced to grin and bear it. All the while, my hatred for the X-Box rose. Sony earned bonus points by proxy, which is great since I'm still waiting for the PSN bonuses and store to return.
We peruse the computers and find one that fits our life style very well. We grab an employee to talk us through what we think we're looking at. It's confirmed that the machine has what we need, and now we're eyeballing the extras (Microsoft Office, installation fees, virus protection, etc.). After reading the price card, we asked the employee to walk us through again, as the math just wasn't adding up. Getting MORE bonuses appeared to be significantly less $ than none. Turns out, the card was a misprint. The employee recognized this and did a lot of BS talking to convince us NOT to make the purchase. To cut a very lengthy and convoluted story (3 days in the making) short, we purchased a very nice computer for a fraction of what it should have cost us. It's pretty cool to read the receipt and see a "$0" next to installation fees, program fees, etc.
The part that makes this REALLY worth it is the fact that, were they to honor the X-Box deal for us, we didn't spend enough to qualify us for the free system. Therefore, we never really lost it by technicality anyway. This is the part that makes me smile the most.
No. Scratch that. The part that makes me smile the most is that I click "open" on any random document on the new computer, and it actually opens. Yes, this is what I approve of.
Now we need a name for it... Hmm.