A Saving Success Story
I decided to purchase my first printer. I wanted a laser printer because the printed page would not smear when wet, as if I was planning on taking my pages in the pool. After doing a bit of research, I decided to get the HP 5LXtra. This was an inexpensive 4ppm laser printer with a small footprint and a relatively direct sheet-fed paper path.
After checking all of the big box stores in town (Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Office Max, Office Depot, I found that Office Max had the printer on sale for $299 (from $399). it also turns out that there was a $50 rebate being offered by HP, so my final cost was going to be $249. I grabbed a rebate coupon, paid for the printer, and left the store.
When I got back to the office, I read the rebate details. It turns out that the rebate was expired. I was very upset. I really could not afford to pay $299 for the printer, but by moving some things around, I could afford to pay that now, as long as I was going to get the $50 back down the road. Things were tough for us back then (but not so tough that I couldn’t get a laser printer).
After work, I decided to return the printer. On my way back to the store, something was telling me to call HP and see if they had another rebate (probably the aliens). I arrived in the store’s parking lot, but before going inside, I made the call. As it turns out, the rebate that I thought was expired, had been extended, and was still good. No need to go inside the store, but since I was there, I decided to look around for a while.
just inside the store, I saw a sign that read “We will meet or beat competitor prices by 10%…”. I remembered that Best buy had the same printer on sale for the same price, so I thought i might be able to get a little more money off the printer. I asked the clerk at the Customer Service counter about this and she indicated that I could receive the difference + 10%.
Here is how everything worked out:
Original Price: $399.00
Sale Discount: -$100.00
Sale Price: =$299.00
Competitor Disc.: -$ 29.00
HP Rebate: -$ 50.00
Final Price: =$220.00
TOTAL SAVINGS: $179.00
I can say that saving on this printer was a success. I kept that printer for at least 10 years. In all of that time, I had to spend a little money on fixing a known problem, but after that, the thing was a workhorse. It is still running, according to my neighbor across the street. He has the printer now and I have an HP 2600N Color Laser.