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From: andrewsh@lonex.radc.af.mil (Harold G. Andrews II)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Educator discount list:  Is there/should there be one?
Message-ID: <1991Mar12.194225.6185@lonex.radc.af.mil>
Date: 12 Mar 91 19:42:25 GMT
References: <1991Mar11.082920.7396@hoss.unl.edu> <1991Mar11.175031.1781@spool.cs.wisc.edu>
Organization: Rome Laboratory, Griffiss AFB, NY USA
Lines: 32

In article <1991Mar11.175031.1781@spool.cs.wisc.edu> so@brownie.cs.wisc.edu 
(Bryan S. So) writes:
>...I called
>for an educational discount, they offered 15% off.
>
>Now if you purchase the same package from other software houses,
>e.g. Programmer's Connection, you can get as low as $229.00 (about
>23% off).  Effectively, they are not offering anything to students.
>
>I told them about this.  They already knew about it and told me they
>were not allowed to directly compete with those software houses or
>something close... I don't understand a bit!

This problem deals with the politics of direct sales vs. sales to distributors.
I think you'll find that the majority of this company's business is through
third part distributors.  There is probably some kind of a licensing agreement
between the distributor and the manufacturer that basicly says that the distributor
will continue to sell the manufacturer's product, if the manufacturer doesn't
go behind the distributor's back and undercut the retail price of the software.
I hope this clarifies things a little bit for you.  The whole concept is
called capitalism.


-Andy

*******************************************************************************
* Harold G. "Andy" Andrews II, 1Lt, USAF  *  "Many the man whose punctuality  *
* andrewsh@lonex.radc.af.mil              *   serves only to warm his chair." *
* Rome Laboratory/IRRE                    *                                   *
* Griffiss AFB, NY 13441-5700             *   - M. Kabrisky                   *
* (315) 330-7788  (AVN Prfx 587)          * (Not an official  USAF viewpoint) *
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