2. misc-audio
  3. 1041348528

HELP Electrocompaniet stole Christmas

What a mess:
After finally deciding that spending money on the latest EMC-1 parts mod, I contacted Electrocompaniet's distributor back in October to arrange to bring my EMC-1 MkII to him directly in PA so as to avoid RT shipping risks and expense for this 50 pounder. All was set for a Christmas week mod, as I was to be in NJ visiting my relatives that last week.
I called on Christmas eve to arrange a drop-off time, and was told that Christmas Day noon would be fine, but that I had to arrange the deal through a dealer! Yikes! So I remembered Fathers & Sons and called them, arranging for the paperwork and profit to be credited through/to them. Fine. So I drove 2 hours through a nasty winter storm to arrive at Warshaw's house, where he said he'd NOT perform the mod if my EMC-1 didn't have a serial number on it, as there was a grey-market guy in New York who sold a few of these this year. I assured him that mine indeed had a serial number, was produced in spring '01, and bought used by me in summer '01. He said OK, and lugged the player into his house, saying he'd call me in a couple of days to pick it up. Great!..............
I returned to NJ and watched the storm intensify....
Two days later I called to arrange a pick-up hour, and Alan told me that he did NOT perform the mod because the player had been originally sold by a Danish dealer, and NOT through him, so he had made a decision to NOT support any players not originally sold thorough him. No warranty repars, parts, nor mods!..............
I was stunned, couldn't convince him to make an exception since he had never asked me to provide a serial number beforehand, and I went through a total of a half-day of driving through a storm to accomplish this mod.
He just told me to come pick it up at my convenience. I glumly arrived on Saturday and retrieved my untouched puppy, where Alan said that unfortunately I had to share the victimization of the gray-market. I asked if I should contact a Danish dealer to see if a board-swap could be done (of course thinking he didn't really know the answer), but he thought that Electrocompaniet wouldn't support my player either! I asked with some incredulity what was going to happen with all the players that people have when they move from one country to another (!), but he said that this policy was the only way they have of penalyzing the gray market.... I suggested that in THIS CASE he should have installed the mod because of his lack of due diligence in assessing the production/sales history of this particular CDP, ESPECIALLY given my enormous effort in delivering it to his doorstep on Christmas Day.... I left sadly but gracefully.
WHAT SHOULD I DO? I contacted the Danish dealer but he's not responded. Should I contact Electrocompaniet directly and try to arrange a board swap or purchase the parts mod "kit" and instakllation directions (I'm pretty familiar with boards and soldering)? Should Alan have acted differently? Isn't the world getting small enough so that internationally-sold products should have protected lives independent of sales point?
PLEASE HELP!
A Happy and safe New Year to all!
Ernie
subaruguru

Showing 6 responses by ozfly

ozfly
887 posts
 
Ernie, I agree with Jeffloistarca that you got hosed. As Sean eloquently stated, it was up to the distributor to save you the time and energy up front. To simply not work on these units (especially after their failure to state their policy) is inexcusable since, as others have stated, there are those who move and are not trying to "get around" the US distributor. I hate the bureauratic "no" -- at minimum, why not offer to do the mod at a higher price to recover some of the lost import fees?
Thanks for pointing this out. I was unaware of these kinds of risks. And, I was unaware that EC was so customer unfriendly -- I was going to go that route, but not now. Good luck. Please keep us posted.
ozfly
887 posts
 
Brian, you raise a good point but I believe F S Audio's response confirmed the story. Of course Alan has his reasons for what he did and he undoubtedly believes he did the right thing. Ernie and F S Audio stated those reasons very objectively. Many of us simply don't agree with Alan's rationale (especially in this particular circumstance) nor desire to add more money to his pocket.
ozfly
887 posts
 
Sos, thanks for taking the time to respond so eloquently. I can only speak for myself (but believe others would agree) that a company can make whatever policies they deem fit for their products. The issue is not the policy per se. Rather, the issue is the application of the policy without prior communication. Had Ernie been asked to relay the serial number over the phone and then been told the policy, this whole thread would have been very short indeed and Ernie would not have risked life and limb for 8 hours (two round trips) in a snowstorm. Alan should acknowledge some culpability and remedy the situation by doing the mod in this instance.

As a matter of policy, it is important to protect those who paid full price. Hence, my earlier suggestion to offer mods at a premium for those who got the original unit so cheaply because of the gray market. The particular premium stated seems a bit steep, but that's a different issue altogether. The crux is upfront communication, which did not adequately occur here. You can't expect the customer to know the rules. You need to inform the customer of the rules up front.

Also, might I suggest that a different policy be enacted for those who can show an original receipt and documentation of residency overseas at the time of purchase? Why penalize people who have simply moved?
ozfly
887 posts
 
Leftistelf, you raise a number of good points (with Unsound's caveat) and all companies must now face increased price transparency. But, where should CRM (customer relationship management) be applied? The company must walk a fine line between their customers (distributors) and the end customer. It is distributors and their networks that still drive most of the business. Plus, distribution costs do vary widely from country to country as transportation costs, duties, insurance, operational risk, financing costs, economies of scale and exchange rates vary.

If the company could cut the middlemen, they would. But the distributors serve a valuable function and drive demand (via supply availability) for the product. The internet has not yet come close to replacing that channel in most businesses. It seems to me that a forced equalization of pricing could end up bankrupting the company. Countries with higher cost distributors in many areas would vanish as would the distribution and product demand. Countries with lower cost distributors would be charged a higher price since demand fell and fixed costs would have to be recovered (by the way, r&d would also suffer). I won't argue that price differences only reflect these cost and risk differences, but I will argue that most companies simply can't offer a product for the same price in all countries.

The best long term solution is clear and you point it out eloquently. But, you have to get through the short term first and differential pricing based, at least on large part, on different cost structures is something that is here today. I'm hardly defending EC's actions in this particular case -- this situation is a no-brainer for most people. Rather, I'm suggesting that many companies need to balance two kinds of customers -- their distributors and their end customers. Focusing on only one of these will kill the company unless, like Outlaw, they started off without distributors so don't rely on them today.

So, the company must focus on their distributors. In the same way, the distributors must focus on their dealers. The dealers must focus on the customer and must convince the distributor to do the right thing by the end customer. The distributor then places the pressure on the company to do the right thing for the customer. In theory, this works great. In practice, a bad distributor with an exclusive franchise can really screw up the works. Then it's up to the consumer to place pressure on the company through buying elsewhere. Smart companies demand that their distributors maintain some consistency in service and customer relationship practices across all boundaries to avoid potential disasters. Let's see how smart EC is.
ozfly
887 posts
 
Zaikesman, I couldn't agree more. My post pointed to the reality of the day, not to an ideal by any stretch of the imagination. Onhwy61's comments reinforced those observations. Manufacturers are often handcuffed by their distributors because the distributors drive revenue growth. Whenever a company relies on independent and exclusive distributors, it will lead to an inevitable decline unless the distributors are very customer-centric or unless the manufacturer took great pains in framing the right types of contractual obligations. It doesn't appear that either of those conditions are met in this instance. (We've yet to hear from EC though ... so there's some hope left) While I understand the business and economic realities of the situation and am very empathetic, my primary obligation as a consumer and audiophile is to exert pressure on the distrubutor via a personal boycott. I remain committed to that. I don't expect the same price in each region of the world. I don't expect free warranty service on clearly gray market units (in this case, that wasn't made clear nearly soon enough). I do expect some hint of common decency towards customers.
ozfly
887 posts
 
Zaikesman, I didn't mean to imply that the issue was one of warranty (though my poorly written sentence certainly could have been read that way -- I was trying to combine two ideas). This is not a warranty issue. It is an issue of poor communication about policies and the unwillingness of the distributor to acknowledge any culpability due to that poor communication. That is the primary driver behind my disaffection with EC.

What the response to this instance points out is that EC seems to have painted themselves into a corner with their past practices and contracts with distributors. They seem stuck. As mentioned, that is seldom good for the consumer unless the distributor is very good.
More to discover