Issue #0902/1 – Now that Dell printers are available from a variety of outlets in the UK other than Dell, buyers can do very well if they can find one of the exceptionally low, discounted, prices. But, they will have to be very careful as there are some extraordinarily high prices also. In addition, Dell users should be VERY wary of buying toner cartridges through the channel rather than direct from Dell.
One might be forgiven for reckoning that the release of Dell printer hardware and supplies to the channel might have resulted in a price war developing. However, that looks to be the last thing that is happening – maybe Dell is not giving the channel any discount?!
In just a brief investigation covering one colour laser printer model (Dell 1320c) and one MFP (Dell 3115cn) we have found discounts from the Dell full price of 52% but overcharging of up to 54% as well. And … as the printer in question is currently being discounted by Dell itself to the tune of 15%, the 54% over-pricing actually represents a real overcharging of 81%!
In the following table we have summarised current pricing on Dell’s 1320c network laser printer, showing a discount from Dell of 25% and the 52% discount available by shopping around. In addition there are several stores offering discounts around the 44% mark on this hardware.
Even bearing in mind that Dell is offering a heavy discount on this printer itself, the lowest street price found is still an exceptionally good deal, with a further discount of 36%.
Dell 1320c network colour laser printer – Dell pricing vs street pricing
| Printer |
Dell Standard Black Toner |
Dell Standard Colour Toners |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Dell price – Full | £144.00 | £25.00 | £36.00 |
| Dell price – Discounted | £108.00 | ||
| Street price – Lowest | £69.10 | £25.06 | £34.18 |
| Street price – Median | £99.00 | £28.20 | £38.77 |
| Street price – Highest | £159.65 | £34.22 | £45.97 |
All prices are exclusive of tax
Looking in the opposite direction, the highest price found is 11% above Dell’s full price, meaning that it is an alarming 48% above Dell’s discounted price. Bearing this in mind it is rather unexpected to find that nearly 70% of the stores are selling the printer at less than the Dell discounted price.
Not so the toners for the printer though!
Every price quoted for the standard black toner for the 1320c through the channel is above the Dell price! Indeed the highest price found was a rather significant 31% higher.
Not quite as alarming, 63% of price quotes for the colour toners were above the Dell price, while the highest price was 28% above Dell’s price. The biggest discount on the colour toners was a mere 5%.
Just to move sideways for a moment, there is now an increasingly wide array of refill kits available for Dell printers as well as all the other brands.
It is possible to buy a refill kit for the high capacity black toner cartridge for £18.99 – including a reset chip. On a Dell price of £28.00 for the high capacity toner this represents a 32% saving (but a potentially messy job to undertake the refill). Colour refills cost £19.99, also including a reset chip, representing a 55% saving on the high capacity cartridge.
For the best value of all, however, a rainbow refill kit containing a high capacity volume of toner for each of the four cartridges can be purchased for just £49.99. In this instance, the reset chips are sold separately at £19.50. Therefore the total price for a rainbow refill kit is £69.49 – a saving of 57% on the cost of buying new high capacity cartridges from Dell.
Dell’s 3115cn MFP is the other device chosen for investigation because it also is being discounted by Dell itself –15% below Dell’s normal full price.
In this instance, the heaviest discounting is a relatively low 32% from the full price and only 20% off Dell’s discounted price. Moving the other way though, it is possible to find stores selling the 3115cn at a price as high as 54% above Dell’s full price and 81% above the discounted price – note that these high-price percentages are identical to the percentages seen on the 1320c.
Dell 3115cn network colour MFP – Dell pricing vs street pricing
| Printer |
Dell Standard Black Toner |
Dell Standard Colour Toners |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Dell price - Full | £439.00 | £45.00 | £62.00 |
| Dell price – Discounted | £373.00 | ||
| Street price – Lowest | £299.00 | £37.00 | £39.50 |
| Street price – Median | £480.08 | £54.26 | £68.01 |
| Street price – Highest | £676.96 | £85.50 | £117.80 |
All prices are exclusive of tax
When we come to the purchase of supplies for this device, we again find very few resellers willing to discount on Dell’s price. In the case of the standard black cartridge, only 7% of stores were selling at a price below the Dell price, a figure that drops to only 5.7% for the colour cartridges.
Within the spectrum of resellers selling these cartridges above the Dell price, there was a fairly constant spread up the price range. It is only at the very high end that there is a bit of a jump, with one store selling at grossly inflated prices.
While the second most expensive black toner was £73.50 (63% higher than Dell’s price), the highest price found was £85.50 (90% higher than Dell’s price). What makes this so extraordinary – and outrageously misleading and untruthful – is that this store claims that the buyer will be benefiting from a 23% discount from a full price of the toner that it claims is £111.15. The same percentages apply to the colour toners with the colour toners claimed by this reseller to have a full price of £153.14 each!
TCPglobal has contacted the reseller concerned to see if a rational explanation can be presented for this outrageous claim. No response had been received by the time of publication.
Leaving a couple of outriders off the following chart shows how selling prices found in the channel are distributed in relation to Dell’s own selling price – Dell’s price being zero on the X axis.
This shows that most resellers are only charging a premium of less than 10% but with significant numbers charging a premium of up to 40%. Resellers are more likely to sell the colour toners at a low mark-up than the black toner.
Spread of Reseller Pricing on Dell Toners
So, in summary, we again repeat the message from the executive summary at the beginning of this article – buyers must be very wary of buying Dell equipment and supplies from a source other than Dell itself.
Dell does not appear to have released its printers and supplies to resellers in other countries at this time.
~End~
