john@bby-bc.UUCP (07/21/87)
In article <832@looking.UUCP>, brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes: > In article <137@bby-bc.UUCP> john@bby-bc.UUCP writes: > > [Laserjet could be imported for] $2600. Now > >what is a fair increase to make a profit? Say 40%? This would mean a profit > >of $1040 on a $2600 item, not bad. So the retail price would be $3640. So > >why am I quoted a price of $4700 as the Canadian list? > > So if any Joe Schnutz can get a LaserJet for $2600 by importing and HP > dealers sell them for $4700, why are HP dealers making any sales? Could > they be offering their customers something worth the difference? Are > the customers stupid? Or is there a barrier put there by a government > that mandates border hassles and useless duplication of distribution > channels, support facilities and warranty handling? Generally speaking, your direct costs of importing an item from the US is lower than buying the same item from a Canadian dealer. Depending on your particular situation, this may be the way to go. But what happens when you buy something from the US at a $200 saving, to have it break a month later. Odds are the warranty work will have to be done in the US. Shipping something like a laser printer, plus doing the associated paper work, etc., will eat up that $200 saving quite quickly. Usually the savings are more substantial. I may just have been lucky but I have bought over $20,000 worth of stuff by mail order and been responsible for others ordering a fair bit more. I have never had a problem. I have never had an item malfunction during the warranty period. OR, you could have it fixed in Canada by someone who will charge you $160/hr + parts to do the job. But I will have to do this anyway once the warranty expires and most computer warranties are pretty short anyhow. OR, you could spend the extra $200 and sleep nights knowing that your business isn't going to shut down along with your dead printer. For piddly stuff I do pay the extra for the convenience. There is a HELL of a lot more to selling computer hardware than taking someones money and giving them a box of equipment in return. We routinely run up ~1K/month in phone calls just on support for our customers. Obviously I'm not paying for this out of my pocket. And anyone who wants to stay seriously competitive in this industry is flying to the US at *least* twice/year to attend product seminars and trade shows. And *then* there are the internals and troubleshooting courses put on by our supplier that I feel I must attend if I'm going to give the customer the support he deserves - those suckers run at about $3K (US) each, plus 5 nights of hotel bills, meals, plane tickets, etc. There is no damn way I can do this for US list price + exchange. But don't the US dealers have to do this too? There is already allowance in the US list price for these sorts of business expenses (and it's still pretty rare to actually find someone who charges full list in the US). The bottom line is: you gets whatcha pays for! Ahhhh, if only I did, if only I did! If you don't need a product with backing from the vendor, buy mail order and save some bucks. If you DO need that support, be prepared to pay for it. Lyndon Nerenberg Nexus Computing Corporation (YES I speak on behalf of this company!) The following comment is not directed at you Lyndon; I don't know you or your company so there is no way it could. I am routinely disappointed at the so called support companies both here and in the US offer in the microcomputer field. Salesman usually know nothing about the product that isn't printed on glossy brochures. Technical staff are usually not much better - there are exceptions but they are just that, exceptions. My experience has been that you better be able to read schematics, use a soldering iron and be able to disassemble code and understand it if you want to feel secure. Very large companies are often better but not always. john