Compaq Kills Off Online Competition 73
Scott writes "It
sounds like standard offline retailers weren't very happy with
being consistently undersold by online-only retailers, and asked
Compaq to fix it. Well, they did. For the next 90 days
Compaq has suspended sales of it's boxes to companies who
only sell through the web. Compaq also ordered Ingram
Micro, who wholesale everything imaginable to retailers to halt
sales to their online-only customers. "
Why? (Score:1)
In response to the person who asked if it was legal to do this, I can't say for certain, but since Compaq requires all of its vendors to be authorized to sell, their product, they can revoke those authorizations at any time. I would think a class-action suit would stand a pretty good chance , but that would take time and money.
Crossbow
Compaq Presarios != Compaq Computers (Score:1)
How I see it. (Score:1)
Why?
o 3 disks allow me to run a mirror + hot spare
o 2 words: form factor!
o price
Now, I know it'll be suck-ass hard to drop RedHat on these (I did so on a 1600R, was a mess) but I couldn't find a similar competitor with a similar price.. VAResearch never got back to me on a single-PII/celeron system featuring 3 disks and a rackmount chassis, they seem to only be interested in the quad proc servers.. LinuxHW gave me a good quote, but getting another vendor added for this one purpose drove the beandroids nuts so I had to take the path o' least resistance..
.. though Compaq junk is highly bitchy with RedHat
.. though I'm philosophically opposed to a lot of Compaq junk (proprietary home cases, support call fiasco, etc)
.. it's just that when you hit the real world, unfortunately, the people who know aren't always the people who hold the wallet..
Still, I guess it'll be interesting to hand-build yet another set o' compaqs.. I actually have a reference RH server mkisofs|cdrecord-ed onto disk so just build a kernel with cd support, mount, copy, reinstall patched kernel/lilo/fdisk, and I should be good to go..
This will change,soon (Score:1)
What strikes me as hilarious is this "retailers give 'real' support" argument. For the last several years, I haven't even wasted my time trying to get support from local retailers--I go straight to the manufacturer's web site. How in the hell can you get support from someone who thinks a "SCSI adapter" is a printer cable and Linux is a Windows 95 golf game?
Not Surprising (Score:1)
Watch the share price plummet! (Score:1)
From what I can gather, the announcement was made after COB last night, so it'll be interesting to see what happens today (actually, it's +1 - go figure).
...j
Check out the related story! ROFL! (Score:1)
Funny.. Is halting online sales of your product being a good "Internet leader"?
Did I miss a step?
huh? (Score:1)
Is this legal? (Score:1)
if you want my car, am I legally required to sell it to you?
Certainly not. The Rules are, if you are a publicly traded corperation, and you sell your product to x, y, and z, you must also sell to w unless you can show that w somehow damages your reputation (simplified, as I understand it).
Standard disclaimer:I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV.
True, but not what's going on here (Score:1)
True, there aren't that many local shops around, but there are a few. Personally, I go to one with compeditive prices and helpful people.
They may be a massive $5 more expensive than web order in some cases, but it's generally available NOW, and they will allow me to try it out, and trade for another model if I have any problems (including not being able to get a working driver. Add to that they give me HONEST opinions of quality and usefulness. Finally, they don't charge me the Microsoft tax. For all that, they can have the extra $5
Many such places are also on the web.
However, Compaq is not supporting those shops by cutting off web retailers. They are supporting the super-megalo-marts.
I suspect that the mega-marts will be a passing thing. The same forces that drive customers to accept less service for lower prices at the mega-mart will eventually drive them to web based business. Mom-and-Pop are wired these days, and are less likely to be mired in corperate inertia. I wish them well.
Offliners (Score:1)
Forget Compaq, PCs and P3s (Score:1)
But (Score:1)
Example: I wanted to buy an Ensoniq Soundscape Elite a year or so ago. In the local store it was AU$400. On Ensoniq's web site, it was US$170 or so. But they wouldn't sell to me over the web 'cause they had an Australian distributor. Who wouldn't sell retail! My choice: Pay the AU$400 or physically go to the US and buy it there!
Whilst your comments regarding resellers are valid, certainly the prices should be comparable. If the reseller's prices are hugely higher for no apparant reason, then we have a middle-man effect that the vendor should probably have look at in the interest of their own customers.
It's more of a problem than you think (Score:2)
I've just completed an e-commerce website for a font foundry (a company that makes fonts). They won't sell you a font via the website if you live in a country with a physical reseller - you have to go via the reseller.
At a glance this is patently stupid. However, from the font foundry's point of view it is very sensible. They currently get 100% of their revenue from about 6 resellers in about as many countries. Let us suppose after being running for 1 month, the website accounts for 3% of their revenue (realism at work).
If one of their resellers got so annoyed that their own supplier is undercutting them that they stopped reselling fonts from that foundry, the foundry would suffer a 14% drop in revenue. That would be crippling. Possibly, a percentage of that 14% would start using the web site, but not instantly and not all of them.
The cash flow problem are significant, to put it mildly.
That said, Compaq has behaved rather drastically, but people need to understand that businesses have to look after other businesses in the supply chain as well as end users. Compaq only got where it is today with the help of its (old style) resellers. Undercutting them is not the best way to say "thank you".
How I see it. (Score:2)
I'm no fan of Compaq, but let's look at what's on offer from these big over-priced corporates
1.Proprietary case
Which is easier to remove (no screwdriver), and easier to lock down with padlock systems.
2.Proprietary Hardware
Like, Sun, Irix, etc. More expensive, but more reliable. By using the same supplier for all hardware, incomatabilites are reduced.
Compaq also offers features like network reporting of hardware failure. Allows an admin to, for instance, alter BIOS settings on the 400 desktops on floors 4-6 of the office, all in one go, by remote.
3.Proprietary loader that hides all the system info (like card type, memory count, and peripheral assay) from view.
That's annoying, but then since you specced the machine, you don't really need to know this.
4.IDIOTIC use of completely separate forms of power management (BIOS, Windows, and their own proprietary power manager), all of which screw network connections."
Can't say if it screws up the network. Advanced power management features are very important when you are managing 2000+ machines. Do you want to send someone round re-booting them by hand? With these systems, you could reboot 1500 machines remotely, and then get a report of which machines failed to come back to online status and then send an engineer out to check those machines.
The issues of running a kick-ass home system and 20,000 systems across a multi-national company have remarkably little in common. Compaq, let's face it, is geared more towards one and not the other.
Whoa. (Score:1)
Do they think that the Internet is going away or something?
Drive Rails! (Score:1)
Flipside - flipped again (Score:1)
| along, the mom-n-pops were a booming business.
| You could setup a small
| town shop with great customer service and
| imagine this - the possibility of actually
| handling something before you buy it.
Notice the "great customer service" part above. There are a a number of small local computer dealers in the area. Of the three that I've been to in quest of parts, all have been incredibly overpriced, had poor service, and have had very little in stock.
Now back in the "old" days, it was different, but my sampling of "local" computer stores leaves me heading back to mail order/online businesses every time!
Case in point - wanted to purchaase an ATX case for my new motherboard. Now this isn't a particularly small or light item and I wanted it quickly, so I went to the local computer shop. For the price they wanted for the case, I could have bought the *same* case mail order and had it delivered next day air
Disclaimwr: Sure, there must be a lot of these great local shops. I've just never found one since 1992.
Just ignore Compaq (Score:1)
I say buy Micron, Dell, or build your own.
Troy
They also quit selling systems online THEMSELVES (Score:1)
online retailers were bettering prices).
FUD. Rob, when are we going to see some GEEK news
on here? I can get this stuff off of cnn or
news.com.
How I see it. (Score:1)
Other than the disgusting precedent this sets, I cannot say that I care all that much about it.
Who, outside of complete neophytes buy Compaq's anyhow?
Unfortunately these dummified systems are becoming status quo for prebuilts from the "Big Guys".
Me? I'll stick with building my own.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Ignorant (Score:1)
The need to realize that companies like Cyberian Outpost are their best friends for moving into the next millenia. Instead, they shit on them. It will be interesting to see if online companies even allow them back into the fold.
Duh, which way do you point the gun?
I'm delerious with joy! (Score:1)
Today we celebrate the Clueless Corporation Day (Score:1)
Compaq will now stop this pesky little network from interfering with their legitemate business.
Who is next? A good day for Microsoft to relaunch Bob, I would say.
We can declare February 23th the official Clueless Corporation Day. Maybe, if we can convince them all to concentrate their crap in one day, we can all be happier for the rest of the year.
$$$, duh. (Score:1)
~afniv
"Man könnte froh sein, wenn die Luft so rein wäre wie das Bier"
"We could be happy if the air was as pure as the beer"
It's called Government Contracts (Score:1)
If you can beat you computer at chess, try kickboxing
Spyd'
What the F***?? (Score:1)
monkies...
my
-deech
Is this legal? (Score:1)
No Subject Given (Score:1)
Well, if they don't even teach you that in business school, I might reconsider wasting $70k+ and two years of my life for an MBA. Maybe Adams should take a look at the "programs" Dells has successfully iplemented in the past ten years.
Vassya
Offliners (Score:1)
simple. Get with the program. these groups that are fighting the web and what it means, are standing on the shore with a chinzy life preserver
Good Luck. How long can you tread water?
They are brilliant (Score:1)
This will only hurt them i buy a fair amount of equipmet and I haven't gone to a retail store for 2 years.
If you bought it retail you paid to much!!
Flipside (Score:1)