QVC's Dubious Dell Deal

According to PCWorld.com, if you just bought one of the much hyped Dell Inspiron Mini 10 notebooks from QVC, you got a "raw deal."

QVC started selling the Mini 10 about a week ago for $559, claiming that the retail value was $688.

However, if you checkout Dell's website, the a Mini 10 with the exact same configuration (1.6GHz Intel Atom processor Z530) plus shipping is only $487--$72 less than the QVC price and a whopping $201 less than what QVC claims is the retail price.

QVC's President and CEO, Mike George (AKA King George) came from Dell and has built up what appears to be a mutually beneficial relationship between the Q and Dell--much to the dismay of loyal viewers tired of being inundated with all the hour-long Dell shows. Why wouldn't he get the best price for his customers?

Was QVC or Dell preying on naïve shoppers?

Today's Blue Plate Specials ... Buckle Up!

The HSN TS is a Victoria Wieck Crystal "Buckle" Leather Cuff Bracelet Watch. I love Victoria! This particular piece is a little much for me personally, but she still totally rocks. By the time I'm done watching her presentations, I'm pretty sure that all the moms at the PTA meeting are all wearing very tasteful, understated 5-carat diamond rings--give or take a carat or two.


The QVC TSV is an HP P7350 Intel Core2Duo 4GB RAM 320GBHD & 17.0" Diag. LCD laptop. Walmart has the same thing for a little more money--there wouldn't be any shipping, but no Easy Pay either. This is definitely the type of purchase where Easy Pay comes in handy!!!


The ShopNBC OTV is an Invicta Men's 100 Meter Sport Diver Quartz Chronograph Watch. I love the pink color pictured for a lady to wear. It's that big, boyfriend watch style, but it's still feminine.

Today's Blue Plate Specials ... Shocking!

The QVC TSV is a Kodak 12x Zoom 8.0 Megapixel Digital Camera with Optical IS. Other then the fact that I love to zoom, I have no idea if this is a good camera or not. I checked out the reviews online and they seem to be pretty good overall--basically a good camera for the price. Also the QVC price seems to be slightly less than other site I looked at (although with shipping and tax it's about the same). But there was an issue with the power button of all things:

For some stupid reason they've integrated power button with flash ejector.So to turn camera on, you have to eject flash first then turn camera on. It makes process of taking pictures so much longer.And on top of that, that same button doesn't latch properly sometimes. So you have to repeat process twice before the camera turns on.


The HSN TS is a Professor Amos Shock It Clean 16-piece Anniversary Kit. I love cleaning products! I'm a sucker for anything new that I see at the store. My latest favorite is Swiffer--the Wet Jet and the 360 Duster. Love! Love! Love! Anyway, back to the Professor ... the reviews for his products are mixed. Those who love it, really love it and those who hate it, despise the stuff.

I love watching Professor Amos. First, he's bald like Mr. Queen Bea (solar panel of love as he likes to say). Plus, he's so energetic and positive that I would love to believe that the products work as they show on HSN. Maybe some people don't mix the concentrate correctly? I don't know. Although I can't get this today, it's on my list to try.


The ShopNBC OTV is an Acer Aspire 17" Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz Blu-ray Notebook with $100 Rebate. I hate rebates. I'm always pretty sure that there are rooms of bitter, poorly paid cube rats whose entire job is to go through all my rebate paperwork looking for any reason to not honor it. If they wanted to give you $100 dollars off, they'd just give you $100 off. Why do a rebate?

Check out the $1.99 shipping on all Isomers here.

Today's Blue Plate Specials ... Shopping in High Def

The HSN TS is a Gateway 22" HD LCD Dual Core, 1GB RAM, 160GB HD Desktop Computer with TV Tuner. Does this mean I can watch TV on my computer? Will my Tivo hook up to it too? Queen Bea loooves her Tivo! I'm guessing that there will be lots of high definition deals on HSN since they are launching HSN HD in 2009 (and they've spent "multimillions" on the necessary upgrades).

As to Gateway ... well, I've heard that they brought all their customer service jobs back to America, which it great, but I've also heard terrible things about dealing with that very customer service. I don't know, chickadees!

The ShopNBC OTV is ... guess what? Another watch! Again. What's with all the watches ShopNBC Powers That Be??? That being said, I actually kinda like the Invicta Women's Limited Edition Glitter Glam Baby Lupah Watch Set. For $80, you're getting a decent quality watch with four different leather straps, which are supposed to be easy change.

The QVC TSV is a Haier 19" Widescreen High-Definition LCD TV w/ DVD Player. Since QVC HD launched earlier this year, be expecting many, many HDTV's being pushed on us. This TV seems fine enough, but I don't see how it's a TSV. I found it cheaper here and here and here and here (the first two had much cheaper shipping too!

The point being is that the Q needs to pay attention to their name and offer a little extra Value--like including that 2-year Premium Product Protection for free instead of charging $46.84 or maybe not charging $22 for shipping.


And don't forget to vote for your favorite jewelry design at Jewelry Television. Today's the last day. Vote here.

Today's Blue Plate Specials ... Land of the Free Shipping

The HSN TS is a Vivitar 5MP Digital Video Camera with 1GB SD Card and Case. This seems like one of those cameras that are good for the family vacation at Dollywood, but not much else. It does have free shipping though! Free! HSN is having all kinds of sales, specials, and coupon codes this holiday weekend. Check out Queen Bea's coupon code page here.

The ShopNBC OTV is an Acer 15.4" AMD Athlon 64 X2 1.8GHz Notebook, iPod nano & Skinits with Rebate. Queen Bea uses an Acer laptop! I can't say that our relationship hasn't had it's ups and downs, but we're making it work. And there's free shipping! Like HSN, they've got all kinds of sales and specials, so check out the coupon page.

QVC's TSV is a Sport Savvy Stretch Jacket, Tank & Crop Pants with Mini Check Trim.It's cute and looks comfy, but I can get something similar down at Target for waaay less than $40 (plus s&h).

And don't forget, Fenton is back today! I've heard that they are having to make some pieces out of the country, but the items I saw on the Q's website were all Made in the USA. Of course, as usual, QVC doesn't have any specials, sales, or coupon codes going on for the holiday. They couldn't even offer free shipping.

Home Shopping Bloopers

Typical man ... but, at least he's honest!