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Same Part, Same Supplier, Different Prices
linuxwrangler writes "Infoworld's "Notes From The Field column this week includes a comment from a reader who found that Dell listed several different prices for the same part. Intrigued, I grabbed the first part number I found (a 512MB memory module #A0193405) and found that the list price is $289.99 which the price offered to "large businesses". Meanwhile, the GSA/DOD contract price is $266.21 while "home users" find the list-price discounted to $275.49 and "small businesses" fare even better with a $246.49 price. InfoWorld contacted Dell who responded, "Each segment sets its own pricing, and consumers are free to pick the one that's cheapest." Buyer beware."
Different pricing strategy is not wrong, but allowing anyone to buy from any section is not so smart. And I can't believe they are actually expecting customers to help themselves, instead of building a site that is smart enough to provide useful information.
I wonder why isn't Dell doing something to control the purchase upon "Add To Cart"? Something like:
"This item is only available to our spend-like-no-tomorrow customers, please enter SLNT code now to add to cart, or select an alternative item from the following..."
Maybe it's a miscommunication between marketing and IT department?
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
Same can of pop from aisle inside the supermarket = 20 cents.
"Complete and utter bullshit."
What a way to inspire thoughtful and enlightened discussion...
"...I ran a small office's network (3-13 employees)..."
"...Now, while I can understand a large company's situation is definately a bit different..."
Normally I wouldn't have even responded to this, but your points are ironic, because they actually help make my case. First, a business of 3-13 employees doesn't need standardization like a large organization does - it needs dependable, easy to use, somewhat powerful PCs for competitive prices. "Business optimized" PCs don't make much sense to really small organizations.
When you get into the larger support realm however, power and individual PC price don't weigh as much in the overall support equation, but STANDARDS do. When you are deploying a new piece of software/OS/etc to 1000+ workstations, it is of TREMENDOUS benefit to the support staff to not have to worry about every one of those thousand plus workstations having different hardware configurations. So, like I said before, "business optimized" PCs are by definition:
- not supposed to be top of the line
- not necessarily the cheapest option
- usually leased and not bought (so they are replaced every so often)
- static in terms of their component configuration
and
- more easily supportable because of their static nature.
I was in the park the other day wondering why frisbees get bigger and bigger the closer they get - and then it hit me.