🚀 go-pugleaf

In <7887@tank.uchicago.edu> gft_robert@gsbacd.uchicago.edu writes:
> One of the new Apple tenets seems to be a better dealer network, cutting
> out the dealers who "just move boxes".  [...] BTW, anybody know how these
> people sell for so little?  Are they just cutting their own margin?

	The prices under discussion are from Computer Era, who are indeed a
"box mover".  Their service department, in my opinion, is pretty poor.
They have a neato phone mail system with multiple levels of menus, which
eventually lets you leave a message, but it can be days of persistant
calling until you get to talk to anybody.

	One way CE has the lowest prices in town is that they only take
certified checks or cash (and you have to put down a 25% deposit when you
order your machine, the rest when you pick it up a few days later).  They
will, if you convince them you are a big customer willing to do a lot of
repeat business, allow you to use plain (i.e. non-certified) corporate
checks, but they don't take credit cards, or purchase orders, or personal
checks (unless certified).  A saleman there told me that CE is privately
owned by two guys who give a whole new definition to the term "fiscal
conservitism".  They have a grand total of one customer from whom they
accept POs.  A small company called Citibank.

	We do a lot of business with ComputerLand (which does take our
POs).  I once got them to match CE's prices on a $15k order by twisting our
salesman's arm a lot, and offering a check with the order instead of
issuing a PO and paying against an invoice 30 days later.  Since then, CE
has dropped their prices another few $100 (the latest prices represent a
$150 drop for the c[xi] compared to the past couple of months, plus the
1-year service sweetner, which is nothing to sneeze at).  CL now says that
they can no longer match CE's prices, since they would loose money on it.
Who knows?  CE certainly moves a lot more Macs than CL, so maybe they get a
better deal on wholesale from Apple.  CE sells only Macs, I think.  CL (and
most of the other NY stores) sell everything.  Our local CL branch now has
their Mac stuff on display closer to the front window than their PC stuff,
so maybe that's an indication of how things are going?  Again, who knows?

	CL sells peripherals for less than CE does, so the total system
price remains about the same.  On the other hand, CE is perfectly happy to
sell you a bare CPU and let you integrate your own stuff from the ads in
the back of MacWeek.  CL tries to talk you out of this, but I've got my
salesman well trained in this respect.  I tell him honestly what the best
price I've seen on disks, memory, or monitors is and give him a chance to
match it.  If he can't, we shake hands and he sells me the bare CPU.  I
tend to go with CL, as long as he can get close to CE's price, because I
know we have a long-term relationship with the same salesman.  They
occasionally throw us favors when they can (I've had a couple of repairs
done freebee).

	Now, if you're thinking of opening a business, and need a lesson
in the long-term advantages of good customer relations, pay close attention
to this story.  4 or 5 years ago, somebody here had a PC with a bad memory
chip.  I didn't know anything about fixing PCs, so I brought it over to the
then-brand-new CL a few blocks from here.  They fixed it in one day, and
when I went to pick it up, the manager said it was a $3 part (i.e. one
memory chip) and 10 minutes worth of labor.  If he wrote up a bill, it
would be a minimum charge of at least $100, but that didn't seem right to
him, so he just did it for free.  A good first impression, that has lasted
for years.  I doubt a box-mover like CE would have done that for me.
--
Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy
"My karma ran over my dogma"