Dell's deceptive pricing strategy

I find it interesting that when Dell announced the M2800 it was predicted to have a starting price of $1,199.00, but when it eventually was offered on the website the starting price had jumped to $1712.86. Thankfully Dell immediately offered it at a 30% discount, and by a remarkable coincidence the “sale” price worked out $1,199.00... exactly the same as the price which had been originally been announced.

I see that a lot of Dell’s machines are offered at discounts of 30%. That’s a good thing, and in browsing the sites of manufactures such as Lenovo or HP it becomes apparent that Dell’s prices are only competitive if they are discounted by 30%. Perhaps some buyers will jump at the Dells because they think that the 30% discount means that they are getting a deal, and perhaps some people don’t mind paying Dell’s full price (such as managers of corporate IT departments where certain specs are mandated, and where the year’s budget must be spent in order to avoid the risk of having the budget cut the following year).

Alas, I am in Canada, and the problem with Dell’s pricing strategy is that it is illegal to characterize something as being “on sale” when the “sale price” is the defacto regular price. I presume that this is why no discount is offered on the M2800 in Canada. And because I'm not a corporate IT manager I prefer not to pay 30% more than what something is worth (or 30% more than a competitive product from HP or Lenovo).

One more reason to cross Dell off of the shopping list.

 

I think for them specs and build Dell's prices are not too bad. PC prices has gone down a lot comparative due to cheaper price of technology and stiffer competition. Do bear in mind that as a major manufacturer (like few others) Dell is no longer shifting as many PCs as they used to what with more people switching to tablets and even smartphones for their basic computing need. I still have great faith in Dell's Latitude range but sadly newer ones are going thin and light which utilising lower voltage processors which are generally subjected to throttling when cooling cant cope.

 

More likely Dell is not selling as many PCs as they used to because (unlike HP and Lenovo) they are not offering configurations that customers want, or (where Dell does not offer a 30% discount) they are 50% more expensive than the competition. At present only there is no option to configure the business-class Latitudes (E6440 / E6540). The machine that I wanted was the E6440, and on the Canadian website three configurations are possible, and none offer an SSD. There's a discounted one with a low-end i5 processor, a low-rez display and a 6-cell battery, another mid-priced discounted one which is shown on the site but when you click on it you get an error message telling you that it is unavailable, and finally a configuration which is not discounted for which they want $1,898. The specs on this latter model are far from high-end and can be replicated in a ThinkPad T440p for $1,248.00... ($650 less than the Dell). I need a need a laptop with docking capability, and I need decent specs. Given that I already have the Latitude dock (I'm now using a 4-year-old E6410) I'd planned to buy a E6440 with the same kind of high-end specs that I have now (and I bought the E6410 with a SSD). But for whatever reason Dell does not want to sell me one (and you cannot buy any of the E6*** series with an SSD).

Sorry, but the fact that Dell operates in an increasingly competitive market and that sales are slipping is hardly an excuse for adopting a marketing strategy which forces previously loyal customers to buy from your competitors, and it is bewildering that the Dell execs responsible are able to keep their jobs.