Pricing, Open to Competition or Dictated by Corporate?

[JamesLam]

So I have reached out to get a few estimates on an new Epson printer and inks. I received two separate quotes and they both came back with exactly the same prices to the penny.

Is this collusion or is Epson telling their resellers that this is the price and that's that?

I will be reaching out for a third estimate but my spidey-sense tells me I'm wasting time.

 

[Signstein]

I would guess the pricing is set by Epson. I just spoke with my Grimco rep yesterday about the bump in cost of HP inks and he said that he can't do any better, and that HP sets all their pricing...

 

[JamesLam]

So, do we buy directly from Espon, HP, Canon, etc.? Or do we buy from the reseller?

Is this the most effective and competitive means of commerce or is this in affect a complete deterrent to negotiation?

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but this really does seem to open the door for offshore manufacturers and new tech to get a foot hold in the market both for equipment and consumables.

 

[Humble PM]

If you buy from a good local dealer, then they become your first line of support, and can badger the manufacturer, when corporate says no...

 

[StarSign]

Maybe a good dealer can't budge too much on the machine price, however you can always squeeze some other free stuff out of them.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Theoretically, the idea is to improve the quality of the dealers and not artificially lower the value of the product. When dealers can't sell it for less than a mandated minimum, it forces them to sell you on their technical and customer service instead. It also prevents two dealers for the same product getting into bidding wars which end up leaving nothing on the table for dealers. I can say form experience as a dealer who's manufacturers don't enforce minimums, there is no money in selling machines. There's always a dealer willing to sell it at cost or even below just to get the sale and hope for consumables later on. So companies like Epson and HP try to fix that problem with this business model. Of course the major drawback for the customer is it absolutely stifles negotiation. The major benefit is that your dealer should be high quality since they only compete on service quality and they're making a good enough margin selling printers that there's much more incentive to do a quality install. I can't tell you how many times I've heard the story, that dealer gave me a killer price! But they dropped it off at my door and left.

 

[swordguy3222]

So, do we buy directly from Espon, HP, Canon, etc.? Or do we buy from the reseller?

Is this the most effective and competitive means of commerce or is this in affect a complete deterrent to negotiation?

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but this really does seem to open the door for offshore manufacturers and new tech to get a foot hold in the market both for equipment and consumables.

We buy our inks from Spicers, and they stock inks here so when I order I get them same day.

 

[JamesLam]

Thanks everyone, your feedback is always appreciated.