As they are individually franchised, each store will differ slightley in pricing, and enormously in service. Harvey Norman in Fountain Gate have always priced match and BEATEN every item I have purchased, and for computers, they do part matching even from cpl/msy/dell. eg:2.66c2duoE8200 on dell, and Harveys matched everything else, but put in the 2.8 gHz e8200 series core 2 duo for me (more expensive cpu). The helpful staff member knew exactly what he was talking about. I even thought i would push it further and see what the reaction would be if i allowed him to think i was ignorant. I asked what the differance was between the new e8000 series c2duo(core 2 duo) and the old 4000. Well to my suprise he went into a lot of detail. The staff there work on minimum wage plus their commission, at the store i go to, only four or five of about 24 staff members dont have kids. Google your products. get a rough idea, go to your local harveys and haggle the price down. If your claiming it on tax, then lease it through flexirent on a TWO YEARS lease only. Flexirent may work out more expensive before tax- based on raw figures, but keep in mind FOUR majour factors.
1.if it breaks down, they deliver equivelant loaner equipment to your front door within 24 hours of making a claim (free).
2.Lost-Damaged-Stolen and they will replace your laptop for $120(lappy under a g) or $220(lappy worth over a g). The insurance cover is not extra anymore, there is no premium, and u don't have any limit on your insurance claims, as far as im aware.
3. Price- Flexirent does cost a lot more. After tax, it will work out 3% more expensive than an outrite purchase (roughly)....but that is based on you getting the same price for interest free. You will get charged more on interest free, the sales person will ask you how your paying for the goods-before offering a price, and once they know GE interest free, you incure at least 10% more than a quote for cash/credit. i know this as i have spoken with a guy who used to work at harvey norm fg a few years back. if u agree to a flexirent with Harvey norman u will be able to get them to reduce the invoice price. on $2700 worth of goods, i got it for an invoice price of $2150 on flexirent, which then only equated to $3195 in payments over 2 years. and an extra 1 month of payment to get the pc for 2 more years for free. Also at the end, if ya pay all your bills on time, and want to buy it, flexirent will usually sell it for $30-$50 to you, and i know people who didnt have to pay a dime extra for their old equipment when they started a new contract!
just research your pc, research how your paying for it, and google is your friend. You wouldn't buy a certain pc based on what ONE computer enthusiast/nerd says, so don't take flexirent sales people at face value. Also ensure that info you get about it is current within the last 6 months, as flexirent was a totally differant offer, prior to that, not offering anything other than a rent agreement, no extras. if you have any questions about how to ensure a good deal from them or bout my experiences with flexirent email me on [email protected].
Also one other thing, these sales people do work on comission, so if your planning on letting them spend 15 minutes explaining the features of all their routers then dont pull out some internet price which is lower than their cost. These people are supporting families, if u want service, pay for it, the only reason u get great prices at cpl/msy/ebay ect is because they buy more bulk than individual harvey norman stores, and they dont give you any service info!!
I watched a sales person go in depth with a customer showing them routers, the differance between things like wireless internet which is useable anywhere being like a mobile phone, and cordless being like a home cordless phone, but an ethernet connected adsl modem being like a corded home phone. then after a good twenty minutes the customer goes, well i just came over from dick smith and they had it at half price, but nobody came and helped me, can you do it at that price? The poor guy was so cut, but didnt show it, he had to put it under the stores house number...

Approximate cost: $2100