Issue #0428/3 - Dell is clearly absolutely serious about making a major impact on the imaging and printing market. But can the company get its act together with its pricing on the web site?
When buying a new piece of office equipment (or even groceries in a supermarket), most of us are used to the fact that if we shop around we can find lower prices in some outlets than others.
But, imagine a shop where the same product appears at several locations in the store, as sometimes happens when the store is trying to promote a particular line. Imagine that as you trawl round that store, you come across one of these additional stacks of the particular product you are interested in that is displaying a different price to the one you saw 10 minutes previously on a different shelf in the same store.
You’d be confused!
So was I when I visited the Dell UK web site and discovered three sets of web pages for the new 3000cn and 3100cn colour laser printers and their consumables, each displaying different prices for the two pieces of hardware themselves and also different prices for the consumables!
Hardware prices ranged from those that were published by Dell last week – £259 for the 3000cn and £319 for the 3100cn – through £314 and £384 respectively, right up to £322 and £392! These are 24%/23% above the published prices!
Furthermore, consumables prices seem to have a 118% variance from cheapest to most expensive for the 2000-page colour cartridges and nearly 70% variance on the 4000-page colour toners. Prices for the black toners were omitted on two of the web pages. Even the drum kit can be bought for as little as £99 or as much as £125.73 – take your pick!
Although the French appear to be consistent in the prices quoted on their web site, they appear not to be able to tell the difference between the new colour laser printers and a mono laser printer! The photos shown on the configuration pages for the 3000cn and 3100cn colour printers are actually the S2500 mono printer!
Dell staff in Spain also seem to be lacking visual recognition skills – the same colour/ mono error has occurred there also, as in France.
German efficiency looks to have pretty much got the situation under control – photos are correct and prices almost consistent. However, the German web site is quoting a different price (lower) for the black toner than the French Web site and the price list issued by Dell Europe.
Dell Italy hits the jackpot though, with a web site that is the best of the lot! All present and correct.
Dell Europe is taking the situation very seriously and is looking into the pricing inconsistencies. No response has been received at this early stage.
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