Dave, > > I don't recall stating what I believe. I fully understand there has to be > markup. > I believe I've also stated that I don't know how much it should be. I don't > know what's reasonable. I've just related the revelation of discovering what > retail is on the commodity compared to what we're being charged by the > vendor. If it were for my own personal use, I'd find another vendor. This is > for > an enterprise storage solution. I don't have enough information to make a > valid > comparison there. [Ron Hawkins] Kewl. That's put's your original question in context, and my answer is that I don't think it is price gouging.
> > And yes, I would argue that charging more than 20 cents for a David Bowie CD > is price gouging, but do we really want to go there ???? [Ron Hawkins] Now you've done it! Attacking the thin, white duke. I hope Ozzie and Iggy become your neighbors - and if they do can I buy your house? > > No, I wouldn't. This is what it is. When we negotiate for these solutions, we > get the best price we can get for both hardware and support at the time. > When we go shopping for an upgrade or replacement, we use past > experiences, desired capabilities and industry research to guide our > decisions. > > I absolutely understand your point(s). You have to be able to recover your > costs, fund future projects and earn a profit. What markup does that > require ??? I have no idea. > > My only point in joining this discussion was to share the fact that it is now > easier to make a comparison (or judgement, if you prefer) since they're > loading > these arrays with commodity disk. I believe it was you who floated the idea > that disk prices don't change between host platform. This really doesn't > address that observation, but it does point out disk prices do fluctuate. > Maybe not by host, but certainly by the cabinet you plug them in to. > [Ron Hawkins] Thank you. You make a point that I should have made instead getting side tracked. Back to charm school for me. Fluctuations in the cost of materials, exchange rates, shipping and finance can all affect the end price of the product. It should not be surprising to find that two identical boxes purchased two months apart are not the same price. Then there is always the customer's ability to drive a bargain and the salesperson's predisposition to provide a loss leader. Hard bargaining is what I indirectly meant by my reference to Shylock. Ron ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
