Hardware Vendor Relations

Looking for recommendations on hardware vendors at work. Recently I became responsible for ordering hardware and the last guy would get everything off of amazon. I would really like a rep that I can call for lots of different types of hardware that can give me better prices that are not advertised publicly. I have relationship like this built with other vendors for server racks and network cable. I have a rep at CDW but in the past they quoted me exactly what is on the website. Why would I go through the trouble of talking to a person if I get the same end result as clicking add to cart? Right now my needs are small but the company is growing!

Thanks

My fav is Microcenter, I really like brick and mortor when close enough for that face to face interaction.
They have great deals that do not show up on PC partpicker

Well, you can probably can get some Numbers/Info for HW Companies using the Reps that you already have, i usually got that information asking for hardware parts like Security Cameras to the Dell Reps, they didnt have those, but they knew ppl who sell that, eventually u will get more and more information about the sales/mkt, because i dont think that anyone will share the info for their contacts for security reasons.

-Fallen

The master resellers pretty much all suck. Amazon handily beats their prices. Generally if you need the reseller help you choose your next purchase, you shouldn’t be the one ordering. The only advantage of one of those resellers is you can do terms once you are set-up. But that’s bullshit in my opinion. Their value-add is non-existant. Setup an Amazon card and you get 5% cash back. As for computers, I’ll talk to my Dell rep and he gets better prices than whats online, but their discounts might barely beat a similar config at Amazon. We don’t turn over systems that often. I’ll have 4-6 different reps before my next ordering cycle. These guys never last more than a couple of months.

A rep is just a slimy sales guy. You don’t want one, and you shouldn’t need one. You’re smarter than those guys anyways.

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The relations I have for server racks and cable are actually through and large AV company who sells massive amounts product with low margins. I was hoping that the IT industry would have something similar. Sounds like IT hardware is a different ball game.
Thanks