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Same Part, Same Supplier, Different Prices

Posted by timothy on from the guess-which-way-they'd-go-if-equal dept.

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."

31 of 412 comments (clear)

  1. Marketing vs IT by fembots · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Marketing vs IT by Rei · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's actually smart marketting. They can make a profit on the low end cost, but if they feel they can make more off of certain customers, they will.

      My contacts, for example, are marketted as daily wear. However, they're the exact same contacts that the manufacturer sells as their multi-use contacts, just in a different box. For people willing to pay for the "multi-use" contacts, the company simply makes extra money. It doesn't hurt them any.

      --
      Dear Lord: One of your creatures may be hurt tonight. Please let it be the other creature.
    2. Re:Marketing vs IT by siliconjunkie · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My contacts, for example, are marketted as daily wear. However, they're the exact same contacts that the manufacturer sells as their multi-use contacts, just in a different box. For people willing to pay for the "multi-use" contacts, the company simply makes extra money. It doesn't hurt them any.

      The thing you need to be careful of is the "invisible stuff" you buy when purchasing a product. like: licences, warranties, etc...

      For example, if I buy a processor from Intel in the Intel branded box, I get a warranty. If I buy the *same* processor in an "OEM" box at a discounted rate, no warranty.

      This is just one example, but also consider this: You buy these "daily wear" contacts, and they have their usage guidelines printed on the side of the box. The "Multi-use" contacts may allow for the contacts to be worn under certain circumstances that differ from the "daily wear". Now, you, as consumer, save a few bucks on the "same" contacts, but use the "daily wear" in a manner than is inconsistent with their labeling and you go blind one day. You can bet your ass that the contact lens maker is going to claim that you were indeed "using their product in a manner that is inconsistent with the packaging" when you attempt to be compensated for damage to your eyes due to their product.

      Just some food for thought (IANAL, however).

  2. Gotta love Dell! by chris09876 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's just hilarious. I can't say I'm surprised... I've never liked Dell. They have a lot of shady practices, and it doesn't seem like they're convinced with offering the best value on hardware. Their support plans might be nice (and I'd assume that's why lots of schools/gov'ts use Dell), but that's not what I need. Heh.. dell...

    --
    I store my recipes online (the way nature intended)
    1. Re:Gotta love Dell! by iLL_L0gic · · Score: 4, Informative

      Support plans might be nice? I don't know if you've had any experience from Dell, but unless your school has a few teachers from Bangalore India, I don't think you'll love the support options. For those of you that get frustrated with waiting for a half hour to talk to some grabass from India that wants you to reformat your computer, here's a few catch phrases you can study up on while you wait. chuutya = asshole tum chuutya ho = you're an asshole. gaand = ass hijda = transvestite kuttiya = bitch lund = dick lund choos = suck my dick Have fun, and keep it safe! :)

    2. Re:Gotta love Dell! by the+unbeliever · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you buy a gold support plan or higher, you get an American call center. At least for small business customers.

    3. Re:Gotta love Dell! by clymere · · Score: 3, Funny

      Do you realize how insane it sounds that you have to pay them extra to get tech support from someone who actually speaks the same langauge as you? and I _work_ in tech support.

      --
      once you go slack, you never go back
    4. Re:Gotta love Dell! by the+unbeliever · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sure it does, because at one point I had to travel to India to train my replacements. ;p

    5. Re:Gotta love Dell! by 1u3hr · · Score: 3, Insightful
      . For those of you that get frustrated with waiting for a half hour to talk to some grabass from India that wants you to reformat your computer, here's a few catch phrases you can study up

      What a racist rant, modded informative by likeminded rednecks. How about you ponder who is hiring these Indians and firing Americans? It's the white-as-the-driven-snow WASP CEOs. The Indians didn't invade and conquer the American call centers, the American companies chose to outsource to bump up their bottom line.

  3. My Life is Dilbert by RicJohnson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is nothing. Dell always has sold to the business market for more.
    I found this out years ago when I had to upgrade 300+ computers. I went on to their site, found the best price for the most power, and then called up for the best bulk price
    The system I picked was the Dimension, with the latest tech. But the salesman wanted me to buy the 'business optimized' OptiPlex. I pointed out that each unit was MUCH more expensive for the same power, he tried to sell me that new technology was not good for business - I should use 'proven' hardware (i.e. 1 year old chips at top prices).
    I told him no thanks, please give me a price on 300+ Dimensions as I specified them.
    He did give me a price, but when I went to my boss to get the check, I found out that the salesguy called him and told him to but the OptiPlex! Then my PHB believed the vendor, and I eventually got fired cuz I would not support them. (The drivers for the network card would not support the latest Windows)

    1. Re:My Life is Dilbert by AviLazar · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well sorry about the loss of your job...but if your boss disagrees with you and decides to go the other route ---telling him that you will not support his choice is a surefire way to get yourself fired.

      Your former boss may have made a bad call - but as his employee you gotta deal with it and when shit hits the fan, he will get in trouble for making the bad call....but by not being a "team player" you open yourself to a world of hurtin (i.e. losing your job)...unless that is what you wanted.

      --

      I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
    2. Re:My Life is Dilbert by NigelJohnstone · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You can see his point though, if the drivers for the Network card don't work, no amount of pandering to the PHB will undo that bad decision.

    3. Re:My Life is Dilbert by riptide_dot · · Score: 5, Informative

      The system I picked was the Dimension, with the latest tech. But the salesman wanted me to buy the 'business optimized' OptiPlex. I pointed out that each unit was MUCH more expensive for the same power, he tried to sell me that new technology was not good for business - I should use 'proven' hardware (i.e. 1 year old chips at top prices).

      First, let me say that I'm not a Dell rep and I couldn't care less where people buy their computers.

      However, there is such a thing as a "business optimized" PC, and I can see the value in a business paying a premium for them. Speaking as as a person who has been charge of those who support the hardware on these things, a "business optimized" PC means a PC line whose hardware components don't change very often. I wouldn't necessarily buy into the argument that I need "proven" hardware, but having a line of PCs that don't change their overall component structure can be a very good thing in terms of supportability.

      --
      I was in the park the other day wondering why frisbees get bigger and bigger the closer they get - and then it hit me.
    4. Re:My Life is Dilbert by Didion+Sprague · · Score: 3, Insightful

      but by not being a "team player" you open yourself to a world of hurtin (i.e. losing your job)...unless that is what you wanted.

      Teamwork on jobsites is vastly overrated. Most of the time, your teammates are assholes. And if your temmates aren't assholes, you are.

      Either way, it never works.

    5. Re:My Life is Dilbert by Rinikusu · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It really does depend on the situation as a whole. If my boss told me to procure new units based on whatever criteria set by whomever, and that I was responsible for said purchase, and then the boss OVERRIDES my decision without prior discussion with me (but is more than glad to discuss it with the vendor...), then I'd say you've got more serious problems at hand. You're being set-up for failure, you can't make the right decisions because someone else is going to change your decision, but ultimately they'll make the blame stick on you if the shit hits the fan. You can't be a "team player" if the coach doesn't put you in the game unless he needs someone to blame...

      --
      If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
    6. Re:My Life is Dilbert by riptide_dot · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "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.
    7. Re:My Life is Dilbert by JoeShmoe · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Actually, I can give you a very concrete example of the difference between buying "home" and "business" lines of computer.

      When I was contracting for a major corporation, they wanted to rollout new software to 4000+ PCs. Since there were only two or three different models of machines I recommended using a little known utility by Binary Research called Ghost.

      One model used in one division was Compaq Presario. The wise ass IT manager of that division decided to save a little money by getting the cheaper home units instead of the Deskpro 2000 units everyone else had.

      Well, come time for rollout and about 75% of the hard drives in the Presario units died after being ghosted (obviously, not the one unit we had tested on). After a couple weeks of panicked calling with 3rd level engineers at Compaq, the bottom line was that they couldn't help us with the problem. They had a room full of engineering documents on the Deskpro line and could literally follow the path of electrons if that was what was needed to fix the problem. If we wanted that kind of help with the Presario line, we would have to go find the random Taiwanese board maker who had slapped together the motherboard and see if they could figure it out.

      Well, smart ass IT manager decided to secretly have a few of the now-broken hard drives put in Deskpro units then send them in to engineering. Compaq took one look at the barcodes and realized they had been swapped. Ironically, having the bad drive in the Deskpro they were able to discover there was a bug in Matrox's firmware that caused the drive to report it as having 16 heads when it only had 15 heads. Compaq theorized that the Ghost program was operating at a low enough level that the Maxtor drive was trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole and breaking itself.

      Anyway, bottom line is...if the computers work out of the box, it doesn't matter what's in them. But if you ever plan to use computers to something other than what they current doing, then you need to know that the vendor will actually stand behind them and not tell you that you are SOL. Companies may pay more of a premium for that kind of guarantee, but if you looked at the cost involved in swapping out a few thousand machines because you can't get a problem conclusively solved, that premium might not be so bad after all.

      - JoeShmoe
      .

      --
      -- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
    8. Re:My Life is Dilbert by DrCode · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My experience is that teamwork is great; but the people who talk the most about being a "team player" are usually the ones you don't want to work with.

    9. Re:My Life is Dilbert by ak3ldama · · Score: 3, Funny

      But this is the new Dell/Windows universe where such things are not necessary since Wintel solutions always work perfectly, and the habits of old Unix administrators are just not necessary, so shave that beard, and sit down.

      --
      "but money is the God of Algiers & Mahomet their prophet." - Rich. O'Bryen June 8th 1786
  4. And so? by YankeeInExile · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's called Channel Marketing/Pricing and it's been around for years.

    If it takes me an hour of research to save $10 I have lost much more than I've gained.

    --
    How does the Slashdot Effect happen given that no slashdotters ever RTFA?
    1. Re:And so? by Tenebrious1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If it takes me an hour of research to save $10 I have lost much more than I've gained.

      If you save $10 after an hour of searching, you're in the hole. If you're buying 20 of them for your office, then you've saved your company $2000. That's certainly worth your time (unless you're Bill Gates).

      I have two accounts, one at Dell Business and one at Dell Home. I buy from whichever suits my needs at the best price. I've been doing that for several years now, I can't believe this is really news...

      --
      -- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
  5. Hmmm... by mikeophile · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe internal competition will drive down their own prices.

  6. Does it affect warranty and support? by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I am wondering if it is like the extended warranty model the computer companies are using. You buy the consumer version of a computer, and you get 90 days or a year, small businesses maybe two years and large corporations a full three years. Parts bought through the corporate division might have a cross-ship arrangtement, but the consumer division might have a delay, where they wait to see the defective part before sending a replacement.

    This is all speculative though.

  7. Priceless by Dr.+Zed · · Score: 5, Funny

    a 512MB memory module ... $289.99
    a 512MB memory module ... $266.21
    a 512MB memory module ... $275.49
    a 512MB memory module ... $246.49
    Not buying from Dell .... priceless.

    But seriously, it always pays to shop around. You just wouldn't expect to be shopping around from the same suppiler. :)

  8. In other news... by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Can of pop from machine in front of supermarket = $1.00.

    Same can of pop from aisle inside the supermarket = 20 cents.

  9. No Kidding Shipping by purduephotog · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is old hat to those lurk in deal forums. Dell Small Business has the best deals... but then they smack you with shipping. The same computer over in Dell Home has a higher price... and the coupon codes don't work.

    Accordingly FedEx apparently only charges Dell about 20$ to ship a computer. Ones that are damaged go to the dump. Dell charges 99$ shipping.

  10. Pricing strategy for nerds. by shark72 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'll join the chorus of folks who've pointed out that Dell has done this for, like, ever and that it's quite common in the industry. Best Buy, CompUSA and Circuit City each pay different prices to manufacturers and distributors for the same parts, too.

    By the way, Dell's pricing strategy is primarily the reason that the first question you're asked on the Dell home page when you begin shopping is not "how much do you want to spend?" but "where will you be using it?".

    At the large company for which I work, whenever we buy Dells, we simply have somebody buy them on a personal credit card and have them shipped to a home address.

    --
    Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
  11. The article talks about 256MB not 512MB by Zed2K · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unless I'm looking in the wrong place the article actually talks about 256MB modules not 512, but anyways:

    "Depending on the link he followed, the 256MB SIMM cost either $88 (Small Business), $99 (Home & Home Office), or $110 (Medium & Large Business)."

    Why in the world anyone would ever buy memory from dell continues to confuse me. A 256MB dimm from crucial for a dimension 4600 runs 42.99. A 512 one runs 76.99.

    Why pay more than double from dell???

  12. "scuse me sir by way2trivial · · Score: 5, Funny

    which dump? I have some vacation time saved up..

    --
    every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
  13. This isn't shady at all by gte910h · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is called "Market Segmentation".

    This is a good thing for companies to practice from a profit point of view. Its the process that makes the most money. It also means that people who can not afford to pay a higher price (e.g. students, the elderly) can get software/movie tickets at something they can afford.

    Joel Spolsky wrote about it here.

    --
    Want to see every step I took to start my company? http://www.rowdylabs.com/blogs/pitchtothegods
  14. I work in education.. by Sime208 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ..and found this out recently.

    The guy that deals with buying equipment called Dell up wanting some machines like what he'd bought his kids.

    For his kids, Dell charged 300gbp per box.

    For the school, they wanted around 30% more!

    Dell's excuse was really laughable. Something about "For schools, the computers can be further upgraded before purchasing so it gives you the option of upgrading at the point of sale.". They could be upgraded for home use too, so that didn't really wash.