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

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
> 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=productlistin
> g.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 <ksjung@tsw.berkeley.edu>
website <http://calcomputers.berkeley.edu>
showroom hours: 9am-4pm Monday-Thursday; 9am-12noon Friday

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Received on Wed Feb 22 15:11:45 2006