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Resmed Supposedly Has Re-instituted Their Minimum Internet Pricing Policy
Boy, I dunno. Resmed has been on a roll the last couple of years w/the advent of their S8 series of xPAPs. Resmed excels in ease of access to and amount of data available via the LCD screen and the Resmed devices have always been a quality product.
BUT - Resmed supposedly has re-instituted their Minimum internet pricing policy. I would guess in conjunction w/the release of their new S9 series of CPAP and APAP. (I doubt they are going to be in any rush to introduce an S9 bi-level since there is less demand for them and the VPAP Auto was introduced in Jan 08 and the VPAP Auto 25 in July 08.
This was posted on another forum by someone professing to be an online internet provider:
"... A direct questions was sent to Resmed asking," Can an internet company advertise the minimum price but sell at a lower price if not advertised on site." Response was, yes as long as they come to your office or call you". Well, that defeats the entire internet purpose. With that in mind, every avenue for us to provide you with affordable equipment from Resmed has been taken away. An example of the price difference would be this, Resmed Autoset II with heated humidifier would go from an average of 640.00 to a mandated price of 1092.00. NO DISCOUNTING ALLOWED. ..."
Views: 92
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by sleepycarol on
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In this day and age of having to pinch pennies this is NOT good news!!!
Everyone is being affected by the down turn of the economy and it is frustrating when the "big boys" feel that they have to gouge us some more.
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Permalink Reply by Judy on
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Keep in mind, the sale price does not go directly into Resmed's pockets, all this does is placate the local DME suppliers and their powerful association/lobby at a time when Resmed is introducing a new line of xPAPs that their Reps are busily visiting local DME suppliers to convince them to carry the line. They'll be offering the local DME providers some good bulk purchase prices as incentive. From the standpoint of the number of sales for the new line it is good marketing practice.
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Permalink Reply by Mike on
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I disagree that it's a good marketing practice. Maybe short-term, but long-term, it seems short-sighted. Sounds a lot to me like RMD is propping up a failing business model (the local brick and mortar DME) with artificial "bail outs" (internet price control policies). I think they'd move more units and make more money if they let the market go where it wants to go -- online. Then more online vendors would crop up and the volume would shift from the local DMEs to the online vendors. The pie would be bigger or stay the same -- it's just the people eating the pie who would change. And there are powerful interests vying for that not to happen.
Judy said:Keep in mind, the sale price does not go directly into Resmed's pockets, all this does is placate the local DME suppliers and their powerful association/lobby at a time when Resmed is introducing a new line of xPAPs that their Reps are busily visiting local DME suppliers to convince them to carry the line. They'll be offering the local DME providers some good bulk purchase prices as incentive. From the standpoint of the number of sales for the new line it is good marketing practice.
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Exactly. As in everything else in this country today, the market is ruled by Wall Street and the financial industry. And, we, the people, continue to tolerate it and our elected representatives encourage it. This is most likely just a re-statement reminder to the online DME suppliers as a sop to the vast majority of their buyers, the local DME providers.
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Permalink Reply by TorontoCPAPguy on
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In Canada, the setting of a fixed price by the manufacturer would fall under the Criminal Code and is prohibited. I believe this is also true in the USA although I don't know the penalties. Their response as to being able to sell at a discounted price is simply making it more difficult as you must now CALL for the 'real" price versus just dumping the item into your shopping cart in order to see it.
A boycott of ResMed products or an email petition on all of the boards would go a long way to make them see the light and the foolishness of their ways. I was born American and we fought for this country to have rights and freedoms that seem to be getting stomped on as of late; and one of those rights is the right to a free market economy in trade without intereference.
ResMed needs to retract this policy statement in full. An apology to the general public and their customer base in particular is in order I would think. Surely there must be some legal wizards on here that can give us some idea of the legal ramifications of their published policy statement attached.
And perhaps a copy to the New York Times, etc., might be worthy of effort - this is a newsworthy item as it pushes UP the cost of health care, which is exactly what President Obama is pushing to reduce. Heck, perhaps a copy of their policy statement sent to The White House is in order? You can't suck and blow at the same time, with all due respect, Mr. President, and to permit medical suppliers to implement such policies goes against the grain of what you are trying to do for the American people.
Besides, it stinks. - Attachments:
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Keep in mind that this makes no difference to the ResMed bottom line instantaneously as the units are just as well sold through any outlet. What this does is 'price fix'. Surely it cannot be a legal practice!
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But we end users are NOT the manufacturers' customer base!!! The DME providers are and the local DME providers outnumber the local DME providers. To say nothing of the fact that SOME online DME providers are ALSO LOCAL DME providers and so get their cake and get to eat it too.
And I reiterate: about 2 years ago now the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of allowing what we call "price fixing" under certain conditions. Resmed and Respironics meet those "conditions".
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Permalink Reply by Tim on
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At one time, price fixing like this was illegal in the US; when the Republicans were in power, they stripped consumer protection laws, deregulated corporations, and broken the unions.
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Yup, yup. Started back w/Reaganomics. Used to be, before so much de-regulation, that what's good for Wall Street is good for America and what's good for Wall Street is good for all Americans. NOT ANY MORE! Now what's good for Wall Street is a royal screwing for middle America and those even less fortunate. And don't forget the weakening of OSHA. And Worker's Compensation.
What upper middle class America has chosen to forget is that it was the unions that put them in upper middle class America. Union wages drove non-union wages up in order for non-union companies to compete in the labor market. Salaried workers had to be paid more than hourly workers to compensate. Meanwhile the guys at the top got more and more and the more they got the more they wanted. Pretty soon, screw the lower and middle salary workers so that the upper echelons got even more of the pie.
Its rather like the banks introducing and loving ATMs because it saved them teller's wages. Duh. It didn't occur to them there would be the costs of of buying and maintaining those ATMs? And now, of course, they cry and piddle and moan they HAVE to charge an ATM fee due to the cost of buying and maintaining those ATMs. Duh. Auto makers want to use robotics to build their cars? Where are the worker wages so the workers can afford to buy the cars? Eliminate the jobs, you eliminate the buying power of those laid off workers. What goes around comes around. Eventually.
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Time to return to honesty in government... time for people to be reminded of who is making a mess of American society and take it to the polls with them at election time. State by state. District by district. Time to hold our politicians accountable if they can take a few moments from stuffing their pockets.
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Permalink Reply by RockRpsgt on
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To do this we need the right men to run. Just going to the polls and making a wise decision is not good enough when there are no good decisions on the ballot. I honestly think that what is going on in America right now is a good thing. It took a slap in the face to wake everyone up. People are becoming more aware of the problems, and what it is going to cost us to fix them.
TorontoCPAPguy said:Time to return to honesty in government... time for people to be reminded of who is making a mess of American society and take it to the polls with them at election time. State by state. District by district. Time to hold our politicians accountable if they can take a few moments from stuffing their pockets.
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