Dell "registered deals" - interested in feedback from schools and suppliers

[AngryTechnician]

First off before I start: I like Dell, I like their kit, and I intend to buy more of it. However, their direct sales team leave a lot to be desired at times so I've tended to go through a reseller the last couple of years.

 

This year my Bursar encouraged me to tender to more suppliers than in the past, and I started doing so last week. This morning, I got a phone call from one of the potential suppliers that explained a somewhat irritating situation to me.

 

It seems that when Dell resellers want to negotiate a bulk discount, they "register the deal" with Dell. Through some machinations that I don't fully understand, it seems that whichever reseller "registers the deal" first gets preferential pricing over all the other resellers.

 

This is something I never knew until today, and it seems like a really bad deal for both schools and suppliers; it makes it very difficult for me to get truly competitive quotes, and makes it harder for resellers to compete.

 

Basically, is there something I'm missing here, or are we all getting shafted by this? Do other manufacturers work this way, or is it just Dell?

[Dom_]

It is rubbish - they've only just changed the way it works to get special pricing...

 

If your resellers knew what they were doing they could just register it for a made-up company and get the special pricing anyway...

 

It works better than HP - if you register a deal with them and don't close in a few days they call the client and undercut you!!!

[AngryTechnician]

It is rubbish - they've only just changed the way it works to get special pricing...

 

Ah, so is this a new thing then? That might explain why no-one mentioned it to me before.

 

It works better than HP - if you register a deal with them and don't close in a few days they call the client and undercut you!!!

Cute.

[Soulfish]

I've had this with a number of suppliers - Dell, HP, Netapp, Brocade, Compellent, Appsense etc. Essentially the first person to bring them the business tends to get the best pricing. Shame really but seems to be how things work with a lot of large companies that operate through reseller channels.

 

I have had HP phone me before and ask if I had a preferred supplier when they had 5+ contacting them for pricing. I said no, to which they said they'd offer the same pricing support to everyone then.