July means happy new fiscal year to me! In this bountiful month of refreshed budgets, I am updating an Express to an Ion.
It's deja vu because I just did the same thing about 2 1/2 years ago at my last job. Back then, I heard a rumor about ETC pricing and I've wanted to find out if it is true. We got bids for an Ion with all the trimmings from a couple vendors--one the big regional player that did the original installation in the facility a decade prior, and the other our friendly neighborhood company who we had done lots of business with for a long time. When we asked friendly neighborhood guy to bid, he warned that he probably wouldn't be able to compete because when a new console is bought to update an existing ETC installation, ETC gives preferential pricing to the dealer who did the original full system install. This was confirmed only by circumstantial evidence when his bid did come in way higher than the other company's. Our relationship with the local company was really good and I'm pretty sure he would not feel it necessary to make something up to explain why he can't get the price down, but I wonder...
Can anybody truly confirm or deny?
It's deja vu because I just did the same thing about 2 1/2 years ago at my last job. Back then, I heard a rumor about ETC pricing and I've wanted to find out if it is true. We got bids for an Ion with all the trimmings from a couple vendors--one the big regional player that did the original installation in the facility a decade prior, and the other our friendly neighborhood company who we had done lots of business with for a long time. When we asked friendly neighborhood guy to bid, he warned that he probably wouldn't be able to compete because when a new console is bought to update an existing ETC installation, ETC gives preferential pricing to the dealer who did the original full system install. This was confirmed only by circumstantial evidence when his bid did come in way higher than the other company's. Our relationship with the local company was really good and I'm pretty sure he would not feel it necessary to make something up to explain why he can't get the price down, but I wonder...
Can anybody truly confirm or deny?