“How much will I pay for this lab equipment?”
For many lab equipment purchases from many different suppliers, that’s not a straightforward answer. There are often a million different “discounts” – new lab discounts, start-up discounts, educational discounts, because-you-asked-for-one discounts – and the prevalence of these discounts means that you never really know if you’re getting the best price. Many of these “discounts” are baked into the marked-up price that vendors are advertising (and many vendors often inflate the list price), meaning that not only are you not really getting a discount at all, but you have to put in additional effort just to possibly get the price that you should be getting in the first place. If you simply ordered online, for instance, you might not get a discount that you could have gotten if you asked for a quote. In the end, a lot of customers do end up paying very different prices for their lab equipment.
All of this means your purchasing process takes more effort and is less transparent, and suppliers are not treating all of their customers equally. We don’t think that’s right.
At Laboratory Supply Network, we have what we call a Fair Pricing policy. To us, Fair Pricing means a few things:
- All customers get the same prices. We value all of our customers equally, and we firmly believe that the most fair thing we can do is offer all of these customers the same prices. New labs, old labs, academic labs, industry labs – no one has to guess if they’re getting the best price possible.
- We advertise our best prices to all our customers and we stick to them. You shouldn’t be penalized if you want to buy online (or generate your own quote on one of our marketplaces) or don’t want to bother having to ask for a discount. We want to ensure you know that no matter how you choose to make your purchase, your price will be the same – and the same as everyone else’s!
- Our prices are always advertised. No “call for pricing,” or items which you need to add to your cart to see pricing, or anything like that – even on expensive equipment.
See that discounted, advertised price? That’s the price you’ll get no matter who you are or how you buy.
In the interest of total honesty, I can tell you that there are a select few, limited exceptions to this policy. Bulk orders, where someone is purchasing at least 3 units of a single piece of equipment, would be one such instance. We will sometimes price-match quotes or advertised prices from competitors (although when we do, we try to just lower our own advertised prices). There are sometimes limited-time promotions which change the price temporarily. We’ll be the first to admit that our Fair Pricing policy isn’t perfect, but we’re not so sure there is such a thing as a perfect pricing policy. We strongly believe our Fair Pricing policy allows us to act in the best interest of all of our customers.
One of our key goals is stated right on our homepage – simplifying laboratory purchasing decisions. Complex pricing policies that leave you guessing are not in line with that goal. Our Fair Pricing policy is implemented to ensure you can know what you’re going to pay for your laboratory equipment as soon as you look at it. We believe that your purchasing decisions deserve simplicity, fairness, and transparency, and the team at Laboratory Supply Network will continue to try to find ways to provide more of it.