How would you approach this situation?

[Steve]

I'm considering buying a used laptop. Yesterday I made an offer of $600, for the specs provided at the time of the initial interest check, which included two 100GB hard drives.

I emailed the seller yesterday with my offer, he replied saying it is still available, but he has replaced the primary 100GB with a 7GB drive. Yes, an old IBM 6.7GB OS drive.

Obviously I'm not crazy about that, so the way I see it I have three options (see poll):

1) Stick with my offer of $600, it's still a good deal
2) Ask for a few bucks knocked off since I'm losing out on a lot of GBs
3) Just walk away and let him find another buyer

Please, give me your opinions.

 

[pontifex]

discount for the drive or walk away.

what are the specs anyway?

you can get a pretty decent dell vostro laptop for about $600. even if not the dell, there are plenty of laptops for $600.

 

[purbeast0]

walk away.

 

[Anubis]

walk away

 

[Platypus]

sounds kinda sketch, I'd bail

 

[SlickSnake]

Walk away before he replaces the laptop with a phone book.

Unless you need a $600 phone book or a broken laptop.

If the seller is now screwing you on the deal and it isn't even done yet, why risk it?

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: pontifex
discount for the drive or walk away.

what are the specs anyway?

you can get a pretty decent dell vostro laptop for about $600. even if not the dell, there are plenty of laptops for $600.

http://tinyurl.com/28f9rc

On top of that he says the Fry's warranty is non-transferrable.

 

[Kelemvor]

Find out how much a replacement drive would cost and deduct that amount form your offer. Then pay by CC so if it's a scam, you can just dispute the charge.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: Kelemvor
Find out how much a replacement drive would cost and deduct that amount form your offer. Then pay by CC so if it's a scam, you can just dispute the charge.

The CC is a good idea. A comparable drive goes for about $50, but he did have someone before me offering $550.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: SlickSnake
Walk away before he replaces the laptop with a phone book.

Unless you need a $600 phone book or a broken laptop.

If the seller is now screwing you on the deal and it isn't even done yet, why risk it?

good point. walk away.

 

[TwiceOver]

You can get a pretty decent laptop new for $600 these days. Probably not a gaming monster, but still really nice. Might want to check around new for that price.

 

[blackdogdeek]

my spidey sense is tingling.

i'd walk away.