As an individual, I don't like to have to deal with sales people either (but it's possible my orders aren't big enough that they can offer much of a discount).

As an individual, I don't like to have to deal with sales people either (but it's possible my orders aren't big enough that they can offer much of a discount). Most businesses don't feel the same way - they like sales guys, because the orders are larger - and it gives them the feeling that they are getting a special, one-off customized offer. No matter what the listed discounts are on the website, they'll always feel like a custom quote is a better deal (because it's part of the salesman's job to give them that feeling). AFAIK Dell does offer automated quotes (I found these http://www.dell.com/us/en/business/servers/rack_optimized/ct.aspx?refid=rack_optimized&s=bsd&cs=04&~tab=4 http://www.dell.com/us/en/business/servers/rack_optimized/ct... for example) - and even he says "I even put the $4000 server that I want to buy in my shopping cart". So what I think he means he gets the automated quote, but since it's not the 'special offer' he's used to getting directly from the sales guy, he's unhappy. So it seems that the blog author loves the hardware - but not enough to purchase it at the price listed on the website. My question in general is, how good are the discounts you get from these a sales guys, typically? And my question to the blog author is: How much of a discount are you losing now, that you'll compromise on the hardware you wanted.