Dell is really screwing me on this one...

[thecomputerguy]

I have been reselling Dell's for basically the entirety of my Business. I've been through probably 15 different account reps. The process always looked the same ... I'd request a quote for XYZ, they would provide a tax-exempt quote with the product at a slight discount under retail with a better warranty and if I needed to beef the device up further I'd yank the RAM and upgrade it myself.

I'd usually keep about 10 desktops, 6 laptops, a handful of Docks, and maybe 10 monitors in stock until I ran low.

I was informed that Dell will no longer be providing quotes to resellers and the only way to purchase is full retail + TAX and my account has been flagged as a reseller and has been closed. GREAT. I begged them to let me place one last order and I doubled my order so I'd be sitting on like $15k worth of product. Still no.

Now I'm desperate for product so I'm trying to source the same product through Amazon since I have a tax exempt account there and the pricing is similar to what I was getting before, but now I have no idea where these products are coming from and who knows if there is any warranty with them.

I put in an application to become a Dell Partner, still waiting to hear back. I put in an application to TechData/Synnex, still waiting, application into Ingram Micro, still waiting.

I'm desperate for product and if I order then my margins are, GONE since I have to pay retail + TAX now.

Does anyone have a rep I can get ahold of to buy product or any direction I can go? Heck I'd even switch brands at this point.

 

[lan101]

I've had my local library order 2 different times from dell in the past few years and it's been a PITA both times for them dealing with ordering so doesn't surprise me. I've never been big enough to be a reseller so I just help in the order process when I deal with businesses like that. I just charge a bit more for the services needed. They must be weeding out the small resellers apparently.

Their business support was also horrible in my last experience...needed an nvme replacement for an AIO optiplex...by the time I jumped through 79 different hoops it would've actually been cheaper for me to do it all myself lol. There's no way a normal non technical person would have ever satisfied what they wanted to get the warranty. Probably just boils down to luck sometimes too.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Dell is pushing hard to force everyone to distribution.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I gave up on Dell about 10 or 12 years ago. Shifted over to Lenovo.
One of our guys at the main office still prefers them, but in the past several months .....I've heard him moaning and groaning about how Dell really cut off their reseller program..and we were in a high tier. He does still purchase from them as I still see quotes coming through from his projects....but I know he's been moaning about having to shift over to the disties. D&H ...we've pretty much been avoiding Ingram ...we used to do a TON of orders through Ingram 10, 20, 'm more years ago. But they started majorly sucking.

Lenovo treats resellers well. Great margins. And I just love their quality.
There is a wholesaler fairly local to us in our home state (CT)....and we also get from D&H if he doesn't have the model we need in stock.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@YeOldeStonecat

Mid last year, Dell terminated the reseller program and forced you to distribution if you were TOO BIG!

Now they're getting around to the smaller resellers.

The experience is much better via distribution, but maintaining a relationship with TDSynnex or Ingram is just a PITA for the volumes most of us work with, pricing is crap too.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

For the Dell Premier partner program we did.....you could log in, customize models, choose from a wide choice of upper level warranty options (that had great options).
Through disties....that is much more limited.....especially the warranty options. Kind..."Here's what we got on the shelves".
Margins are much much less now.

 

[thecomputerguy]

I gave up on Dell about 10 or 12 years ago. Shifted over to Lenovo.
One of our guys at the main office still prefers them, but in the past several months .....I've heard him moaning and groaning about how Dell really cut off their reseller program..and we were in a high tier. He does still purchase from them as I still see quotes coming through from his projects....but I know he's been moaning about having to shift over to the disties. D&H ...we've pretty much been avoiding Ingram ...we used to do a TON of orders through Ingram 10, 20, 'm more years ago. But they started majorly sucking.

Lenovo treats resellers well. Great margins. And I just love their quality.
There is a wholesaler fairly local to us in our home state (CT)....and we also get from D&H if he doesn't have the model we need in stock.

Can you share with me the Lenovo naming equivalents of the below to the best of your ability?

Inspiron (Junk Home User)
Vostro (Junk Business/Home Users)
Latitude Laptop (Baseline Business Class)
Optiplex Desktop (Baseline Business Class)
Precision (Higher End Business)

My standard configs are:

Laptop = Dell Latitude 5550 (i5, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM) - usually about $950 my cost per unit
Desktop = Optiplex 7020 Small Form Factor (i5, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM) - usually about $840 my cost per unit

Then I upgrade them myself as needed

 

[Sky-Knight]

For the Dell Premier partner program we did.....you could log in, customize models, choose from a wide choice of upper level warranty options (that had great options).
Through disties....that is much more limited.....especially the warranty options. Kind..."Here's what we got on the shelves".
Margins are much much less now.

And Premier has been technically dead for three or so years now.

If you used it "too much" they forced you to distribution. We're using Ingram for this now, and they do all the things we had before. Typically what I'll do is work up a server on dell.com, save the cart, toss the link to my sales rep who goes to distribution. He says... this one... , but we need <blah>. And it appears, with decent pricing.

But we move enough hardware to get decent margin / support from Ingram. That's not easy to do.

 

[timeshifter]

+ TAX now

This isn't too big of an issue for me. My state allows exemptions. Even though I paid sales tax to the vendor when I purchased the item I can list that on my sales tax filing as a code 180 and write in "taxes paid on purchases resold". So if I paid $1,000 for the computer and $60 in sales tax, I sell it for $1,100 and collect $66 in sales tax, my net payment to the state is $6. The state is not entitled to collect 2x the sales tax for an item.