As part of its effort to maintain sales volumes of current 3380 disks while users await newer versions, IBM has offered a deferred payment plan. The plan was announced to sales reps and selected customers on September 1, when 7.5Gb 3380 disk models were announced, but details of the plan were not included in IBM’s […]
As part of its effort to maintain sales volumes of current 3380 disks while users await newer versions, IBM has offered a deferred payment plan. The plan was announced to sales reps and selected customers on September 1, when 7.5Gb 3380 disk models were announced, but details of the plan were not included in IBM’s ivory letter announcement documents. Users ordering 3380-D and 3380-E models by September 30, and installing them by November 1, will not have to pay until 90 days after the drives are up and running. The deferral may be combined with volume discounts, special bid discounts, and other IBM sales in-centives, but may not be added to any other deferred payment plans IBM may have offered customers und-er special bids. IBM says it may run out of disks during September, and the plan will apply only to ones it can ship before October 1. Users with eligible 3380s on order will get first priority, and those placing new orders will have to wait to see if they can get disks in time to qualify. It is unclear just how this will work out, as IBM is still sorting out its orders for new 3380s. Users who ordered IBM’s newest 3380s, the models J and K, are still waiting to see how fast IBM can ship them. Shops with old-er disks on order may cancel the deals if they can instead get newer models in a hurry. The result of this is a good deal of double orders on IBM’s books, a problem that will not be completely sorted out for at least another two weeks.
