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

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
forrestce.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=pro
ductlisting.aspx


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Hi Jon,

Jon Forrest wrote:

> campus computer purchasing site. (This is
> the only price I checked so this isn't a scientific
> survey).

I just checked the price for a 30" monitor (Dell
UltraSharp Widescreen 
3007WFP):

   TSW (via the Dell Premier Online link): 2155.72
   Dell (via the Home and Home Office link): 2199.00

Note that both prices are Dell prices, just the first one is
the 
contract price we get via TSW/Dell Premier, which probably
targets 
certain items for deeper discounts than others. YMMV.

--Karl

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We just ordered a $4000 Dell server and saved about $400 by
ordering  
through TSW rather than through the usual Dell Higher
Education Store.

-Lane

On Feb 17, 2006, at 9:21 PM, Karl R. Grose wrote:

> Hi Jon,
>
> Jon Forrest wrote:
>
>> campus computer purchasing site. (This is
>> the only price I checked so this isn't a
scientific
>> survey).
>
> I just checked the price for a 30" monitor (Dell
UltraSharp  
> Widescreen 3007WFP):
>
>   TSW (via the Dell Premier Online link): 2155.72
>   Dell (via the Home and Home Office link): 2199.00
>
> Note that both prices are Dell prices, just the first
one is the  
> contract price we get via TSW/Dell Premier, which
probably targets  
> certain items for deeper discounts than others. YMMV.
>
> --Karl


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Karl R. Grose wrote:

> I just checked the price for a 30" monitor (Dell
UltraSharp Widescreen 
> 3007WFP):
> 
>   TSW (via the Dell Premier Online link): 2155.72
>   Dell (via the Home and Home Office link): 2199.00

So that's 2% in favor of TSW in this case vs. 15% against
them in mine.

For another data point I just looked at the 2005FPW, which
was $499 at TSW and $439 at Dell's Home and Home Office
page, which is 12% in favor of Dell.

Lane Rettig mentioned that he saved $400 buying from TSW
when buying a server. That wasn't my experience when I
bought
~20 Optiplex GX620s last year. The local Dell salesguy was
very helpful in meeting Dell's own price but it makes
no sense for Dell to be competing against Dell.

My point is that there should be a clear, consistent, and
considerable
advantage when buying from TSW. There clearly isn't.

Jon

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Jon Forrest wrote:

> My point is that there should be a clear, consistent,
and considerable
> advantage when buying from TSW. There clearly isn't.

So it would seem if price comparisons were the only factor
to consider. 
However, I remember an ITAC meeting a while back where there
was mention 
of other benefits from the Dell contract to the campus as
whole beyond 
what could be gleaned from just the item price comparisons.
If that 
indeed is the case, then doing price comparisons alone would
be misleading.

--Karl

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At 11:56 AM -0800 2/18/06, Jon Forrest wrote:
>
>My point is that there should be a clear, consistent,
and considerable
>advantage when buying from TSW. There clearly isn't.
>

That presupposes that there is something clear and
consistent about 
Dell pricing at all.  I rarely get the same price twice and
never if 
there are more than a couple of days between checks. I treat
checking 
Dell pricing as a guess only, a rough estimate of what the
actual 
cost will be once we do a purchase order.

Unless TSW gets a very large discount on everything, there
are bound 
to be individual fluctuations which are lower than TSW
prices.  The 
real question is whether the average prices for most items
are lower 
or higher at TSW than they are at Dell.

Randall

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Thanks for the thoughtful commentary and description of
the issues you're facing. However, I'd like to politely
suggest that these are irrelevant to those of us in
the UCB community when we're looking for the best
deal. After all, I suspect that CostCo, Target, WalMart,
and all the other retailers face similar issues
but, as consumers, we don't care or need to know about
them.

In fact, TSW needs to do better than a normal retail
store because they have a favored position on campus.
I suspect, but can't prove, that many people buy from
TSW because it is assumed that TSW gives better prices
than are available elsewhere. If TSW's prices aren't
better
then this is a problem. Although it's very nice that you
(and in this case, the Dell salesperson for UCB) are eager
to find out when this happens and to do something about it,
the fundamental problem remains.

I don't doubt that the easier paperwork that
results in dealing with TSW makes a big difference
to some people and departments, and I don't mean
to discount this. But, in general, buying computers
and computing accessories is like buying pork bellies -
they're all commodities.

Jon

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On Feb 22 at 15:08, "Kin Jung" wrote:

[snip]

> 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. .

When it comes to judging vendor behavior, one has to leave
out perceived
intentions and look at it purely from the area-51 conspiracy
perspective:
The fact that Dell's systems are inexorably disconnected
isn't a
coincidence or a blunder:  The fable is a tool to get us to
overlook their
basic vendor reflex of disguising information that would
allow their
customer to pay less.  If people have to look harder to get
the best
price, the average person won't bother, the cheapos will,
and Dell will
maximize their profit.  Even a midwestern-educated person
such as myself
can figure that out 

Mike

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