Re: What follows/Followup

I agree that they shouldn't be there by my theory, but I have sort
of answer for that:

The few remaining IBM employee's that work in the DC area are
proably gov. "specialist" types that have no interest in anything
but making quota and moving whatever is selling today.. If the 400
is not included, it makes no difference to them.. Their motto is
"Just Move Equipment & Services", they could care less about which
flavor... 

IBM made a statement a few years back that the bulk(85%) of 400's 
would be sold by Business Partners, not IBM. This does NOT include
selected national accounts that BP's don't get into....that buy
thousands at one time with VERY special pricing.....

 So what do they do ???

They screw with the BP program every single year, making sweeping
changes,
and manage to PO every "partner" who ever tried to do business with
them,
so the result being, a lot of very unhappy partners, who are trying to
make a living... Case in point: A short while back, going against what
they had said originally in print, they started a quota system, which
went against everything that they had said for the prior 5 years,,, 
"we need to weed out the slow performers"(not selling a lot of gear),
which eliminated thousands of small bp's that sold a few systems a year
but do all of that "free" support functions and carried the flag for you
know who... Another group of "very" unhappy folks who just might not
recommend the 400 or any other IBM gear ever again... Great Idea .....
This
is not sour grapes, just my views after having been a BP for over 15
years
and watching the program getting driven into the dirt every few years...

But don't worry.. they will "fix" it again next year...

I see a time where the only 400 you can buy will be through IBM Direct..
"you want a 630 ??? Press 4"

Just remember this one last "fact"... according to most numbers I have
seen, less than 20% of ALL 400's are new business, the rest being
replace
existing accounts.....

                          Just MY Grumpy Views for the day
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