At TPC, the Customer Usually Comes Last

During the first few weeks of every school year, hundreds of Harvard students become begrudging participants in a curious melodrama.

Weighed down, literally, by the forces of technology, they push, pull, carry and drag heavy burdens from a warehouse on the Allston side of the Charles River, down JFK street, across the Anderson Bridge, to Harvard Yard, the River Houses and the Quad. The fortunate hire taxicabs--or manage to catch one of the shuttle buses that park nearby and happen along sporadically--alleviating their task somewhat. The rest trudge along, like packmules, resigned to their sorry fate.

These are the victims of Harvard's Technology Product Center (TPC), the University's in-house computer sales division. TPC's mission is to provide educational discounts on computers and computer supplies to University affiliates. Just about every university in the country has a "TPC" of some sort; Harvard's simply works less efficiently than most.

With its virtual monopoly on the Harvard computer market--Harvard students are not able to buy from other universities--TPC has no incentive to improve its inferior customer service. Harvard students, seeking some sort of a discount on pricey computer equipment, turn to TPC because, more often than not, they have nowhere else to turn. TPC, then, takes advantage of their predicament.

For example, TPC offers a delivery service to Harvard departments that make computer purchases. Harvard students get no such luxury--they must walk all the way across the river to pick up their computers and schlep them all the way back.

Even small items, such as network interface cards or software, cannot be bought at the TPC showroom--located near Claverly Hall--but must be ordered there and later picked up at the warehouse in Allston. At a University where most students rely on public transportation to get around, this level of (non)service is unacceptable. It is not surprising that many students order computer supplies by mail.

The irony of the whole situation is that students aren't saving all that much by buying their computers at TPC. A Powerbook 165 with four megabytes of RAM and an 80 megabyte hard drive costs $1,643 at TPC--more than $50 over the price MIT's computer center charges students and more than $100 over the price Tufts charges its students. Overall, TPC routinely charges up to three percent more than MIT for Powerbooks and up to six percent more than Tufts.

Prices aside, though, buying a computer at TPC is a bad idea unless you yourself know a great deal about what's on the market. The reason? TPC's sales staff doesn't offer much in the way of advice to ignorant computer shoppers. One potential customer's recent experience tells the story.

Upon calling to inquire about purchasing a Macintosh laptop computer, the caller was told the prices of three different laptop models: the Powerbook 165, the Powerbook 180 and the Powerbook 180c, each with different hard drive configurations. Each of those computers was in-stock and would be immediately available, the caller was told.

But a call to local computer retailers told a different story. Sales representatives at both the coop and Computertown, an area computer superstore, advised against purchasing the Powerbooks. Within the next few weeks, the salespeople said, the Powerbook line will be discontinued, when Apple Computer introduces new laptop models in April. Indeed, the computer stores noted, the Powerbook 180 that TPC was selling is already no longer available from Apple.

Thus, even if buyers save a few dollars over retail at TPC, they might be losing in the long-run, if the computer they buy isn't even made anymore at the time of purchase.

Fortunately, solving TPC's problems could be relatively easy, if TPS management were amenable. The answer has three parts. First, TPC should slash its prices by a few percent, so as to come in line with those charged students at other universities. Second, TPC should offer free or low-cost delivery to students living in Harvard housing, just as it delivers to faculty members in their offices. And third, TPC should begin actually selling small-ticket items, like modems, interface cards and software from its conventientaly-located showroom near Claverly Hall.