frankly, if I'm buying them for 50% off, I'll buy a spare for every 50
units I buy. failure rate on moto's is about 1 in 100
Travis Johnson wrote:
And, the other issue is the purchase will be made in the "group" name,
so how do you handle warranty issues?
Travis
Microserv
Charles Wu wrote:
<snip>
You would think it would work that way, but Volume Buying ends up
eating the organization and the organization becomes caught up in
being a volume club.
</snip>
We all know that there's more to a WISP than just putting up an AP and
getting a T1 line
Having run both a WISP and a distribution company, I can personally
attest
to the fact that there's more to distribution (which is what your
proposing)
than breaking up a 500 pack amongst WISP
Have you considered all the risks / implications that the buying group
faces? For starters, there's the question of payment -- given that the
buying group has no / limited credit, chances are that any vendor will
require cash up front for the purchase
So, for example, say Motorola Canopy is the product WISPA chooses
Then WISPA / Buying Group needs to come up w/ $100k to purchase that 500
pack (at say, $200 / unit for simplicity's sake)
Then, WISPA / Buying Group needs to come up w/ a warehouse to store
stuff
Then, WISPA / Buying Group needs to come up w/ a shipper/logistics
guy to
repackage / ship stuff
On top of that, chances are, 50% of the WISPs who committed to
purchasing
the packs will renege and/or delay their deliveries due to unforseen
things
that always happen in deployments (e.g., lightning, customers don't
sign
on, interference from competitor, DSL coming to town)
So now, WISPA / Buying Group needs to hire a sales guy to sell excess
units
Now, you've added overhead (and you need to add an administrative fee /
margin to compensate)
In the meantime, either
1. Motorola to announce a 50% price reduction in their Canopy line,
and all
WISPA members now wanting the new lower price (therefore causing a huge
loss)
2. Trango (or some other company) to come out w/ the new "flavor of the
month" and no one wanting the inventory anymore, sticking WISPA w/ $100k
worth of boat anchors
-Charles
-------------------------------------------
CWLab
Technology Architects
http://www.cwlab.com
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