Re: Scholars Workstation Prices Still Not Good (e.g. Dell LCD monitor)

SUPERB!!!

April

At 3:08 PM -0800 2/22/06, Kin Jung wrote:
>Micronetters,
>
>If you find price discrepancies we encourage you to bring them to
>the attention of The Scholar's Workstation so we can address the
>issue with the appropriate vendor and/or distributor. For 21
>years, TSW has worked very hard to negotiate some of the best
>pricing for equipment brought into the campus. The Scholar's
>Workstation offers the campus community-- the institution as well as
>students, faculty and staff thousands of deals on technology
>products and services. We strive to not only provide great
>pricing, but also great service to the campus community and we do
>that on a consistent basis. From time to time our customers do find
>pricing discrepancies and when brought to our attention, we take
>action which ultimately benefits the entire campus community. The
>best way to bring this to our attention is to communicate with TSW
>management directly, sometimes it takes longer for us to find out
>through indirect means; i.e., the bulletin board in your
>department's coffee room.
>
>So why the discrepancy in price on the 1905FP monitor that Jon
>Forrest has discovered?
>While I have not heard this directly from Dell, I believe there are
>a number of possible reasons:
>
>The 1905FP is being replaced by the newly introduced 1907FP (which
>was on Dell's Premier last week but is absent this week, but was
>found in the Hong Kong Dell store-- supply issues?). I speculate:
>perhaps Dell's supply of the 1905s is dwindling and they are blowing
>them out to individuals as opposed
>to not being able to satisfy the demand of their larger
>Institutional customers? Perhaps Dell's Home store is using its
>marketing budget to offer the 1905FP as a "Loss Leader"? Not
>familiar with that term? It means that a company will sell one
>product at a loss in order to lead the consumer into buying another
>more profitable product. The Dell Home store is notorious for
>selling products at a loss in order to "capture" a customer. My
>understanding is that Dell's Higher Education division is never able
>to sell "loss leaders" because the pricing Dell offers the campus is
>always, on average, better than can be obtained via Dell's other
>channels-- Home, Small Business, Corporate, Government, Education,
>Medicine and Catalog. Dell's Higher Ed division doesn't have a
>marketing budget-- they put that money towards consistent day-to-day
>savings for their Higher Ed customers.
>
>I know it can be frustrating to see a lower price available to Jon
>or Jane Q. Public. Over the years we have consistently asked Dell
>if they could just give the campus a straight discount off the Home
>store to avoid confusion and to ensure that their Enterprise and
>Higher Ed customers could be assured of getting the best pricing
>when comparing to the Dell Home Store/ Catalog. Then answer we
>receive is that the web systems and back end databases between
>Dell's various divisions are separate and that these systems do not
>communicate with each other; therefore Dell's Higher Ed pricing is
>not connected to the same pricing database as Dell's Home site. When
>we asked what to do when we found discrepancies, we were told to
>call them and Dell would do it's best to meet or beat the other
>price. In every single case, Dell's Higher Ed team has always
>addressed our concerns and those of our customers. . So Jon, can
>TSW get you the price you're seeing on the Dell home store? I f you
>so desire, please let me know directly (3-6181 or via email) and we
>would be happy to check for you.
>
>Other things to note: Dell has always used a dynamic pricing
>model-- based on supply, demand and various market factors. For
>some products I have seen prices fluctuate on an intraday basis--
>including the 1905FP monitor that you seek. The week before last I
>saw that monitor go from $313 to $398 in the same day on the same
>Home site. The price on Dell's Premier site for U.C. Berkeley
>remained static at $369. Many Home site deals require that you
>"buy today." Individual consumers *usually* can "buy today" but
>*often* have to jump through hoops, apply discount coupons available
>to individuals only. The pricing offered to U.C. Berkeley is quoted
>and valid for 30-days-- an advantage to the U.C. Berkeley campus as
>opposed to spending hours or days checking the site's dynamic price
>hoping to get the best price. I believe that, when taking Dell's
>dynamic pricing model into account, the average price paid by the
>University is less than the average price paid by the individual
>consumer or people shopping through other Dell channels.
>
>I'm thankful to the many Micronetter's that brought Jon's ire and
>umbrage to my attention over the holiday weekend. Again, to
>EVERYONE that we serve: we work for you-- not against you-- please
>let us know if something doesn't seem or feel right. We enjoy
>working for you and we are happy to look into it on your behalf.
>
>All the best,
>
>Kin
>
>On Feb 17, 2006, at 5:54 PM, Jon Forrest wrote:
>
>>Last year at around this time I started a thread
>>discussing the fact that the prices for Dell stuff
>>at TSW were higher than the prices that the general
>>public would have to pay for the same stuff.
>>
>>Just now I checked the price of a Dell 1905FP 19"
>>LCD monitor (a very nice monitor, by the way).
>>Guess what! The price at TSW (ID# 1905FP) is $369.
>>But, the price at Dell off their web site is $313.65
>>with free shipping (see below for URL)!!
>>
>>Once again, with all due respect, I have to question
>>whether TSW is providing the prices that the
>>UCB community would expect from its official
>>campus computer purchasing site. (This is
>>the only price I checked so this isn't a scientific
>>survey).
>>
>>Cordially,
>>
>>--
>>Jon Forrest
>><mailto:forrest@ce.berkeley.edu>forrest@ce.berkeley.edu
>>Computer Resources Manager
>>Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept.
>>305 Davis Hall
>>Univ. of Calif., Berkeley
>>Berkeley, CA 94720-1710
>>510-642-0904
>>
>>The URL at the Dell web site for this monitor is
>><http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?sku=19053YR&c=us&cat=snp&category_id=211&cs=19&l=en&Page=productlisting.aspx>http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?sku=19053YR&c=us&cat=snp&category_id=211&cs=19&l=en&Page=productlisting.aspx
>>
>>
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>>
>
>Kin Jung
>
>Sales Manager, The Scholar's Workstation, U.C. Berkeley
>
>2200 University Avenue, Room 41, Berkeley, California 94720-3808
>
>tel. 510 643 6181 fax. 510 643 6201 email
><<mailto:ksjung@tsw.berkeley.edu>ksjung@tsw.berkeley.edu>
>
>website <<http://calcomputers.berkeley.edu>http://calcomputers.berkeley.edu>
>
>showroom hours: 9am-4pm Monday-Thursday; 9am-12noon Friday

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Received on Wed Feb 22 15:50:15 2006