Dirty Dealings at Dell?

I got a call this evening from someone with an incredibly thick Indian accent and a terrible connection, who said he was from Dell. He wanted to know how everything was with my new computer and to tell me that they were running special deals today only on anything and everything from Dell.

"Do you want any flat screen TV," he asked, "digital camera, software, printer, ink cartridges?" Anything at all and he would give me "a really great price."

"Where are these deals listed," I asked. "These deals are only available today," he said, "and only over the phone." Yeah, right.

And then today, Slashdot reports, that:
"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."

I found the same thing when pricing my new system. Not to mention that the prices changed daily.

Buyer beware.

Comments

Posted by: ted demopoulos at February 9, 2005 12:56 AM

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