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icky_boo t1_jbpfflz wrote

These laptops are NOT meant for consumers. They are aimed at businesses that can afford it because of the warranty. We use them at work because there's a 3 year onsite warranty which means someone will come with either a replacement machine or to repair it within 4hrs of us logging a issue. This is what you are paying for.

Businesses also can afford it because it's a tax write off and they replace the machines after warranty expires anyways.

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hellcat_uk t1_jbpi3iu wrote

Also to factor in is that they won't suddenly start shipping with different hardware. If I build a OS image for one model, I can order that model all around the world and deploy the same image without finding the NIC has changed and the drivers I've bundled don't work. They also will provide updates for bug fixes and security vulnerabilities in drivers and firmware. You're lucky to see more than a couple of bios updates with consumer level laptops.

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icky_boo t1_jbpovjd wrote

This is EXACTLY right.. companies have images for this exact reason , downtime costs our company around $10k a system a day on each laptop we have (we've got around 1000 end users and around 1300 machines). This is why we have 100 spare Dell's in storage and just re-image them as soon as we have a issue then deal with the broken one later then put that one into storage.

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etzel1200 t1_jbru3jg wrote

What do you do that your employees generate 2 million a year in revenue? Or at least avoid that much in costs?

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darkfm t1_jbt769h wrote

If you provide support contracts, failing to resolve issues in the stipulated time could very well become a 10k fine.

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WF1LK t1_jc6evq2 wrote

That amount would be like a failed business for this many employees.

Guarantee you their revenue will be one or more magnitudes of order over 2 million per year.

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_Dreamer_Deceiver_ t1_jbpzur1 wrote

And they provide drivers for longer, different oses and provide cab files for deployment services

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dc456 t1_jbs589z wrote

> without finding the NIC has changed and the drivers I’ve bundled don’t work.

Man, I wish that was true. Sure, they’re not going to change it without saying, but finding that your exact model number is no longer available, and now they can only supply one with slightly different internals due to parts shortages, is not as rare as I would like.

Luckily we’ve moved on from imaging devices, so it’s no longer a problem.

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Initial_E t1_jbt2wk2 wrote

There’s a whole fiasco with windows 10 updates and buggy drivers or hardware with HP elitebooks. It’s either the graphics or network or sound that bugs out, and it’s always fixed in firmware somehow.

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datavizzard t1_jc752zo wrote

Well that different hardware was a real problem during the pandemic. Dell wasn't able to pack the latitude drivers for all the hardware the build in and shipped out.

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Iz-kan-reddit t1_jbrlt5m wrote

>Businesses also can afford it because it's a tax write off

That's not how tax write-offs work.

As you noted above, businesses buy them because they're rock-solid and come with top-notch service for the rare times they aren't.

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vtrx2000 t1_jbsf7aa wrote

Wait why wouldn’t that work? I always thought that was exactly how that worked

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FreakSquad t1_jbsx9le wrote

Whether it’s a self-employment situation or a mega-corporation, the same thing holds - it is never worth making a purchase you don’t need in order to “save on taxes”.

For ease of math - let’s say revenue of $10,000, expenses of $5,000, 20% taxes. In that situation, you’ll pay $1,000 in taxes on your $5,000 of net income because yes, you can deduct legit expenses from your taxable business income.

If you decided during that year to spend $1,000 on a computer you don’t need, now you have expenses of $6,000, so you’ll pay taxes instead on $4,000 of net income - 20% of that would lead to a $800 tax liability.

So you spent $1,000 to save $200 - purchasing that computer still cost $800.

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VTCEngineers t1_jbt8pb1 wrote

Not trying to argue here,

But are you factoring in a depreciation schedule on the laptop? This is where it really starts to have an impact on tax liability.

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Meduvs t1_jbt98wt wrote

No it doesn’t. Depreciating means you spread out the expense over multiple years. For example instead of the expense being 1000 in year one, you will have 200 for 5 years. Total tax saved still 200 over this time period

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VTCEngineers t1_jbta752 wrote

For a single purchase sure it doesn't make much of a difference.

however if say you have a $1000 tax liability, and having say 5 laptops that $200 x 5 now made you have $0 liability ( honestly the numbers really only make sense when we are talking 100s or thousands of machines).

Is how I have come to understand how it can help with taxes. but honestly no one single thing helps but many different types of deductions combined together.

Again not trying to argue, but get a better understanding.

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Meduvs t1_jbtahsq wrote

It’s still the same, ofcourse if you need them it helps you lower your taxes. But if you are buying them just to write off the tax then you are spending more than you’re saving. As said, when you spend 1000 to save 200 on taxes you’re just losing 800. Unless as I said you need them, but that was not the point made.

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VTCEngineers t1_jbtau7j wrote

Ah yeah ok i understand what the point is now, yeah doesn't make sense to buy 5 pcs if they aren't being used financially speaking.

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ReneDeGames t1_jbskwh8 wrote

What would make it a tax write off? Its just a regular business expense.

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chipt4 t1_jbqbnme wrote

Did you mean 48 hours? Or actually 4 hours.. that's impressive if so

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WTMike24 t1_jbqh8vv wrote

As someone who’s worked with Dell’s enterprise servers and support. Yes it is 4 hours. It’s insane but so incredibly valuable when you’ve got production workloads on the line.

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chipt4 t1_jbqkcre wrote

That's wild! I can definitely see the need to increase the cost of the product in that instance

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dc456 t1_jbs4i5v wrote

That’s not included in the price, though - it’s an additional service on top with certain products, and you only pay for it if you really need it.

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dc456 t1_jbs4usy wrote

> We use them at work because there’s a 3 year onsite warranty[…]. This is what you are paying for.

That’s misleading. That warranty does not come as standard in the price. You’re paying for a laptop that can have that warranty, if you’re also willing to pay extra for it on top.

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BigCommieMachine t1_jbslfme wrote

Business laptops are like Business class plane tickets or Marriot hotels. only exist because some corporate black hole is paying for it where $1000 vs. $200 is a rounding error.

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refik252 t1_jbqzjgo wrote

I don’t think you know what a tax write off is…because buying laptops for your business is not it

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IntoAMuteCrypt t1_jbr72rl wrote

In most places, you are able to use computers to decrease the profits used to calculate your tax if you're a business. The relevant law in the US is MACRS which allows you to claim depreciation of certain assets (which includes computers) as a deduction. This may be spread over a set period (5-6 years for computers) or potentially claimed all at once (via a section 179 deduction). Generally speaking, the amount you'll be able to deduct is approximately equal to the cost, if it's solely for business use.

In many contexts, "tax write-off" and "tax deduction" are used as synonyms. The IRS calls this sort of thing a deduction, so I'd say it's fair to call it a write-off too.

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Iz-kan-reddit t1_jbrm219 wrote

>In most places, you are able to use computers to decrease the profits used to calculate your tax if you're a business.

Spending a buck you don't need to spend simply to save paying twenty-eight cents in taxes is a horrible financial idea.

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IntoAMuteCrypt t1_jbrvxxz wrote

Yes, but it means that the quoted price is 28% higher than the cost you actually pay. If they say a laptop will cost 1000, the actual cost is something like 750 for you. That means that higher prices on business laptops aren't entirely felt by the business customer - and if you are getting other stuff in the deal like on-site service, it's worth it.

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JC-Dude t1_jbsd912 wrote

What a dumb argument. They can expense both a $1000 laptop and a $2000 laptop. The relative difference is still going to be the same. Just because that $2000 effectively becomes $1500 doesn’t mean it’s less than the $1000, which effectively becomes $750. The $2k one is still twice as expensive.

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dc456 t1_jbs4otx wrote

> if you are getting other stuff in the deal like on-site service,

You’re not. It’s an additional paid service. They only offer it on certain ranges of laptops, though.

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refik252 t1_jbryjmm wrote

No one calls that a tax write off. That’s just normal operating expense, of course you can deduct depreciation expenses from taxes but as a business you don’t make decisions based on depreciation expenses and buying computers to save money on taxes. You’re buying assets to help you produce more and grow your profits at the end of the day which is the primary goal of the business. So I would argue those computers will make your employees more productive which will raise profits and taxes at the end of the day, which is perfectly normal.

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ThatDinosaucerLife t1_jbpo8r5 wrote

Businesses are consumers.

The prices shouldn't be jacked up "because it's a tax write off", because the money is still coming from somewhere. It doesn't just disappear because you "wrote it off". The prices are this high because it's a grift, and "businesses" are run by dummies who don't know how to fight back against consumer exploitation.

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icky_boo t1_jbppasy wrote

We don't care about the price jack up because what we are paying for is the warranty and quality of the machines, consumer grade machines simply DO NOT LAST in the office work place, We consider the tax write off as a bonus.

You stick to your idea that everyone is in it to scam etc but until you actually work in a office that has to deal with 1000+ business machines you'll never understand. I used to be a naive end user consumer like you til I got into the business world.

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pseudocultist t1_jbqc4ng wrote

Also consumer laptops come with Win 10 home and these Dells come with 10 pro.

I am switching a small business over right now to Dells enterprise line. They thought the cost was steep too, but I pointed to the stack of a dozen physically broken consumer grade laptops they’ve gone through, and the cost to relicense their machines Windows, and the warranty. And now they see the light.

Worth noting you can get last years models for like 60% off through Dell Premier so really they’re not that much more at all. And their sticker price is like 2x what things actually cost through Premier. So a $6k laptop might be $1500 to the company.

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FalloutNano t1_jbqy68f wrote

I do wonder how people break so many laptops.

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JC-Dude t1_jbsd23d wrote

Employess don’t take care of company property because it’s not their property. Hell, some people can’t even take care of their own shit, let alone something lent to them.

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Swastik496 t1_jbrkhys wrote

The prices are high because sending a tech within 4 hours to wherever the hell you happen to be when something gets fucked is expensive.

The prices are high because confining to use obsolete parts that have to be sourced from “sketchy yeti manufacturing company” because the enterprises imaged for them is expensive.

The prices are high because these machines are paying for themselves every hour with the amount of value produced for the company and most business would happily pay many times their cost for them. Supply & Demand

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