HP Seeks to Block Competitor From Revealing Its Pricing

Matt Asay writes "On October 13, 2008, Hewlett-Packard sent a complaint to an open-source competitor, GroundWork, asking GroundWork to stop revealing HP's 'confidential' pricing. CNET has posted the letter, which indicates that HP doesn't want its pricing revealed, but which doesn't question the veracity of the pricing (which, not surprisingly, is 82 percent higher than the open-source vendor's). Does HP think its pricing is really a secret? It's publicly available at GSA Advantage. Guess what? HP software costs a lot of money, but presumably feels that it can justify the high prices. Why try to hide the pricing information?"

Re:Sad.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been a software developer at HP for a little while since my previous employer was aquired. The amount of sales propaganda bullsh*t we get fed is rediculous.

HP has an online 'garage' thing where staff are supposed to submit ideas in the hope that their ideas are supported and developed. It's aimed at the technical staff to 'foster innovation', and yet the ideas are judged on how much money they can make HP and how fast. Nothing to do with making the world a better place, despite what their propaganda (like "the HP way") spews.

It should be noted that I view the average slashdot poster as a naive socialist hippie compared to myself, but maybe HP could do with some of that...

My impression of HP is that it's a massive hypocritical money-grubbing sales team.

545% higher, not 82%

[Paradise Pete]

but which doesn't question the veracity of the pricing (which, not surprisingly, is 82 percent higher than the open-source vendor's

HP's pricing is 545% higher. That's some fine arithmetic there, Lou.

Re:Differential Pricing?

[Paralizer]

You're right, except I don't think making their list price public makes a whole lot of a difference. No one pays full price, it's just like a car dealership. So if a particular vendor has a higher price but a good product, you're probably still going to at least look at that product and get a custom quote. From there you decide if the product itself is a good match for you, and if it is then you can start working with the vendor to reduce the price.

I just got my first IT job about a year ago fresh out of college. One of my first projects was to research, recommend, buy, and implement a particular product. I did some research and ended up being convinced this certain vendor has the best product for our needs. Their list price on their website was $29,000, +25% for each additional CPU over one, +20% support per year. I then called them, had a couple web demos, and began exchanging phone calls with the sales rep. What we wanted came out to about $75,000 with a 5 year support contract. Within a couple weeks (hey, this was my first time so it took a while) I had talked him down ~$40,000 with a 5 year support contract. It was easy, it didn't take a lot of negotiating, and I think I could have got him down more if I really wanted.

My point is they will lower their prices without so much as you asking them to, and that is what they are counting on -- you get interested in the product, they sell it to you for less than list price, and you're a happy customer who hopefully has repeat business based on your positive experience. List price means very little.

Re:Differential Pricing?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm currently evaluating URL filtering software. All of the vendors have moved between 40%-90% off list. Most around 50%.

Squid does this beautifully and is free & opensource. We run it on a triad of caches in front of ~3500 users.

Re:shouldn't pricing be public info?

[mysidia]

doesn't the FTC have clear rules on pricing schemes? Seems like it could be a bait and switch.

Bait and switch occurs when a vendor advertises a product at a low (unprofitable price.

Whenever a customer inquires, or places an order, intending to buy, it is revealed that the item is no longer available, or out of stock, so they CANNOT buy it, but there is an alternative (more expensive) substitute available.

i.e. This occurs when a retailer advertises a huge sale on a product just to get people to come to the store, but they take the for-sale product off their shelves (lock it away in storage), and only leave one unit in the store, so the item cannot actually be purchased at sales price.

HP is not advertising to sell a product that is not available to be purchased, so it is not a bait and switch.

It is also not bait and switch because HP does not advertise a price (they are not holding a sale).