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(ASCEND) Re: Pipeline 220

On Sat, 29 Nov 1997 Tim Basher <basher@alpha.CES.CWRU.Edu> wrote:

> > P22-SO-ASA      $728
> > P22-SWUP-ASA    $1200
> > 
> > What's the difference?  Why the cost differential?  My only thought is
> > perhaps the SO is an at-purchase option whereas the SWUP is more because
> > Ascend is penalizing you for not purchasing the option at-purchase and
> > instead waiting to purchase it later.
> 
> Yes, "SO" is a Software Option [at original purchase time] and "SWUP" is
> a SoftWare UPgrade.
> 
> > Pretty lame, if you ask me...
> 
> It is called an "incentive plan".  You will find them used by many companies,
> like automotive firms (buy feature set "A" for less than the cost of each
> feature separately).
> 
> You are not being "penalized" for waiting, you are getting a discount for
> buying it earlier.
> 
Semantics of "penalties" versus "discounts" are games played around and
around by various resellers to get around the fact that per most credit
card contracts lettering, resellers may not charge a service charge for
products one could otherwise purchase with cash.

> If you insist upon a negative view - yes, there is more work involved, since
> the option can been done automatically in the factory with no additional labor,
> but an upgrade requires order entry to get involved again.  Time is money.
>
Simply because other companies use it is not sufficient grounds for Ascend
to simply follow suit and use, as you call it, an incentive plan to
encourage consumers to purchase the software option at the time of
purchase.  Ascend used to use this exact same "incentive" when they used
to market the P50HX at $1195 and the P50U w/o ethernet limitation at
$1695.  There wasn't even a discount on the SWUP to upgrade an HX to a
full P50.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks this kind of a policy is lame.
I agree that there is administrative overhead involved with processing an
additional order... but is that overhead really on the order of ~$500?

~~~
Kevin Ying / Chief System Administrator    interQ, Inc.
kevin@ns1.interq.or.jp                     Infoss Tower 10/F        
(vox) +81-3-5456-2555                      20-1 Sakuragaokacho 
(fax) +81-3-5456-2556                      Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150, JP

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