To: Scumbria who wrote (67050 ) 3/4/2001 8:20:58 PM From: Dave B Read Replies (3) | Respond to Dave's remark about Dell selling cancelled orders as refurbished made no sense. The fact that someone placed an order and later cancelled it, does not make an item used or damaged. 8 days before Dell has to pay for the parts . CPQ and HP, otoh, pay for the parts 40 to 45 days before they get paid for the systems . Unlike the other suppliers, Dell does not prebuild systems, nor does it keep an inventory of systems sitting around. Systems sitting in warehouses are lost money (the cost of storing them, etc.). Therefore, Dell moves them out as quickly as possible (in fact, if you check the list of refurbed systems in the evening versus the morning, you'll find that most of the systems are gone). Thus, they'd rather get paid for the systems as quickly as possible, and even at "refurbed" prices, they still make money.
