i7 vs. i5 Looking at both

[Telstar1948]

So, I went to my local Best Buy yesterday and milled around the Microsoft area there, but the few blue shirts were tied up. I couldn't wait long enough for them to get free to ask if they had SB's in stock. Went to a couple of appointments and called them while on the road. The person I talked to looked up their stock (on the computer of course since she didn't actually work in the MS area - these days they won't just ring the computer dept if you have a question but want to help you themselves). Anyway, told her what I was looking for and she said, yes, they had one in stock. I told her I wanted the i5/8/256/dGPU. She said that was the one they had.

Off to Best Buy I went. Found someone not busy this time in the Microsoft area and asked about the SB they had in stock. They checked...and none in stock. I asked them to look again since I'd been told, after someone supposedly looked it up, that there was one in stock. Several looked into it, but there were none in stock.

Oh well...I'll check back with them. They said they're getting them in in dribs and drabs, one here and a couple there. Of course they have a waiting list too.

I'll live vicariously through all of you (Surface Book-wise) until then

 

[flar]

The way I got mine from Best Buy was to check their stock online (web site and/or the BB mobile app will search a 250 mile radius). One evening a model I was considering showed up at a BB about a half hour from me and so I did an online purchase of the model, with pickup at the store that had it in stock. They then do the legwork to find it and set it aside and send you an email when it is ready to pick up. If they can't find it they should cancel the order, or you can cancel it yourself when you get the "not here but we'll let you know when it is in stock" notification. I'm going to guess that your CC company will get annoyed with you if you have too many of these authorizations and cancellations so hopefully it works out the first or second time that you try.

In my case, the order went into a little bit of a limbo and it was getting late and the store would close before too long. I did call the store and they confirmed that one was showing in their system but they hadn't gotten the notice to set it aside yet. I headed over anyway, figuring that I could always go to the computer counter and find it if I beat the order to the store. It turns out that it was a case of someone prematurely entering the item into the stock database as it came off the truck and so it was there, but it was in the back area waiting to be sorted from the truck delivery and none of the employees at the computer counter were even aware that they had stock yet. They found it easily enough and brought it out and we completed the transaction the old fashioned way (canceled the online order and just paid for it), but my online order was there to make sure I didn't miss out.

Before all of that, I had found two in stock late at night (after hours) at 2 closer stores and debated doing the online order thing, but decided to sleep on the idea first and both were gone by lunchtime the next day. A few days more of no stock and I ended up jumping the next time I found one in stock that met my configuration needs. Best times to check stock are evenings and late night when they might be unloading a truck and people wouldn't have had time to come in for it yet. If it is there in the morning then someone is likely to get to the store and grab it first thing in the morning, but hopefully if you've done a late night online purchase of it then it will be on hold for you by the time the store opens.