Not at all, this all started when a new "sponsor" spammed a forum and I as an authorized retailer of the same brands took issue with his advertising to be an authorized dealer of the same brands when in fact he is not. Dereck, imagine that if your shop that is authorized had an unauthorized dealer right next door to you selling the same products for 25% cheaper and selling the pack of lies about warranty and service at the same time. Would you lose business? Yes you definitely would, but you would als try and educate the consumer about the unauthorized dealer next door. For all of us retailers, the unauthorized e-tailer is right next door all the time.

Last month we did have a customer who bought his full system off of E-bay. We did his install and one amp was blown. Truns out that the amp had 3 repair stickers on it. Did he learn his lesson, no he did not. He went out and bought another used amp again. I was quite happy to earn his business with his installation, for him his budget dictated where he could purchase from, in this case it was E-bay.

 

You are 100% correct Dereck for the most part. The manufacturer needs to do a much better job of enforcement.
Where you are a little of with your comments is where the business is run well enough to weather the short term problem. This is not a short term problem at all, a e-tailer may change his name at will when they are shut down, then the whole thing starts over again with a different e-tailer name and the same people. Thus it is a long term problem for all involved. Certainly my businesses are well run and can weather this type of storm (never mind out crappy economy)and most good companies are but something needs to be done about the scourge in our industry.

 

I don't know if this was directed at me...but I believe this is a different case. Maybe I'm making the assumption that I can barter with salesmen in the car audio industry. I've always done it in home audio, and gotten good deals and good service. I'm not afraid to walk away from a price that I feel is too high.

In my case, I knew that he could go lower because he was above a regular sticker price at my usual shop back home. If he's not going to earn my business by showing me features and helping me make an educated decision, then he should do it by giving me a deal that is worth my time. I also just bought a full car alarm/starter/keyless entry system in january. I went to this same shop when I was looking to buy, and I said that if I buy from you I need to have it installed on a Saturday because I need my truck for work during the week. They said they couldn't do that because the reserve Saturday's for people that come from out of town. umm...yeah. bye.

But as I said to him when I left the store...if that's the best price that you are willing to give me, then that's fair.

-dyno

 

the reason is thats its probably a supplemental
income he probably runs it out of his house or garage so his overhead is nothing
running a bricks and mortar store costs money every day

for me i don't seperate them much from fs and bb
when they get a backdoor deal on units and sell them for alot less than us independants pay for them is a shot in the face to us


we as independants should get the same treatment as the big box stores do
its unfair
and does nothing but undermine the value of the product and makes us look bad for trying to make a living
take for example the entry level kenwood head unit fs d it out the door for $99 and it was a $169 go piece dosn't do the independants or the products image any hell

also why is that the big box stores are authorized internet sales approved and independants are frowned upon for doing it

 

part of it is that certain people get back door deals from the major distributors
so that the distributor keep his target for that quarter
so that they keep the head cheeses in japan happy
truth is this stuff is suppost to disappear from the country not to be returned for warrany or anything
and it gets sold on ebay pawn shops and anybody that has the connections and is willing to buy in quanity

thing that erks me is that these give away deals never get offered to the independents
just big box stores and people with connections and a couple mill in there back pocket

oh yes if you ask your sales rep or the company they deny that it happens until you catch them with there pants down
this is a fact

[ March 10, 2004, 07:18 PM: Message edited by: pinhead ]

 

Then choose your companys more wisely.

distributers that hurt there dealers indirectly might want to know this as to correct there mistake.

I think I'm better off not commenting any further on this but I will be reading.

[ March 13, 2004, 11:57 AM: Message edited by: Icon ]