LFD4U Decide to decline buyer invitations to engage in 'game-playing'

[Neil McCauley]

The announcement in full from Howard Popeck / LFD4U owner

Monday 6 February 2017

I am retiring from selling LFD Audio equipment and retiring from answering the scores of email enquiries I receive each and every week.

My decision has absolutely nothing to do with the equipment; to me it sounds every bit as wonderful as it did all those years ago when I started representing the brand. It's that I'm tired and frustrated with the entire retail process. More on this below. Anyway .....

For those who are not my customers:

My daily proactive involvement (answering enquiries from non-customers, and so on) ceases today, Monday February 06 2017 @ 12 Noon GMT.

For those of you who ARE my customers:

Retroactive involvement in support of my customer-base (responding to questions about purchases from me, order fulfillment, etc) will continue for at least three months.

Moving on .....

I had a discussion with Dr. Bews just now about a smooth transition for those with enquiries and related matters and claims under warranty too. I have tried to anticipate the questions that might be raised by my retirement and, below, are my answers.

Why have I decided to do this?

First, retailing has stopped being fun. The evidence suggests that carefully considered advice based on years of direct personal experience is of less interest to an increasing proportion of buyers than my ability and willingness to engage in relentless game-playing.

In the retail HiFi world I have observed that the predominant buyer / seller relationship has evolved in a manner and at a pace where it seems that traditional values are less respected than previously. These values are - it seems to me - increasingly marginalised and quite possibly irrelevant to an increasing proportion of today's buyers.

Secondly, an offer from the ever-expanding http://www.hifianswers.com/ to be more closely involved with them – albeit unpaid - has proved to be irresistible.

And then of course are my various B2B and B2C software business which I find increasingly engaging.

Am I staying in HiFi retail in any guise?

No.

Might this change?

Very, very unlikely.

Could I have sold LFD4U as a going concern?

Although the business was never offered to the retail trade, I regularly received invitations to consider selling. All invitations were politely but firmly declined by me. There was, it seems, no shortage of potential buyers. However ..... I feel it best for LFD4U to gently close its eyes and drift into a warm and comfortable ever-deepening sleep until its final breath, with a contented smile on its face.

Am I closing the LFD4U business down?

Not exactly and not yet. It is hibernation; but that doesn’t mean I will have a change of heart. No, the parent company Stereonow (which I own) is not in administration nor gone bankrupt – or anything like that. It is gradually winding down. You can read a brief statement at http://stereonow.co.uk/

Outstanding LFD Audio orders

All of these will be completed in a timely and professional manner by me.

If you want to buy new LFD equipment or you want information on pre-owned equipment then .....

Please contact the maker via http://www.lfd-audio.co.uk/

Warranty issues.

In the very unlikely event of an equipment problem occurring, Dr. Bews has agreed to handle these. Please refer to http://www.lfd-audio.co.uk/

General questions about LFD Audio equipment and suitability

Please refer to http://www.lfd-audio.co.uk/

Questions from existing customers

These will be handled by me for three months from today. After that please refer to http://www.lfd-audio.co.uk/

Data security for subscribers to this LFD 4U community

Your data is held confidentially and will remain so pending a decision by me to delete all records. Under no circumstances will these lent, sold or in any other way made available to any person or organisation - ever.

I thank all of you who through the years have supported the LFD Audio brand via LFD4U

I never took any of you for granted; not even a little bit.

Sincerely

Howard Popeck

[Spectral Morn]

A sad day, but I can fully appreciate Howard's views regarding retail, and how the public behave these days.

I wish Howard the very best in his change of direction.

[Yomanze]

That's a shame having bought my LFD gear via Howard, never been oversold, and given great advice. So if I read this right, LFD will be dealing with customers direct?

[hifi_dave]

Good luck with that !!!

[Yomanze]

Good luck with that !!!

Do you still sell LFD gear?

...can't help but think that UK marketing & sales needs to be represented rather than LFD handling that side of things!

[hifi_dave]

I no longer stock LFD. I love the gear but the prices in the UK are not viable IMO. It's a difficult sell and the name is hardly known.

[Neil McCauley]

That's a shame having bought my LFD gear via Howard, never been oversold, and given great advice. So if I read this right, LFD will be dealing with customers direct?

I asked HP just now about this. He says he has no clear idea (and suspects that neither do LFD currently) how LFD Audio will proceed with UK sales.

Dr. Bews has in the past been quoted as saying something along the lines of ‘not enjoying dealing directly with the pubic' - which is apparently why he has (had?) UK retailers to act as a buffer’.

Re the home market, some suggest he has to a greater or lesser extent abandoned it. Possibly a slight exaggeration, but not without some foundation I am told.

LFD do not publish a UK dealer list and so, my best guess is that during the interim he might decide to retail direct to the public despite his considerable reluctance (and some say inability) to do so.

Neil

[Neil McCauley]

Do you still sell LFD gear?

...can't help but think that UK marketing & sales needs to be represented rather than LFD handling that side of things!

From what I can gather, via HP:

• Dr. Bews has no website of his own (all and any sites have been paid for by other people it is thought)
• no mobile phone
• no intention whatsoever of requesting UK reviews (believes he won’t get a fair review because he is outside of the favoured clique) - and he is probably totally correct about that!
• no interest in any form of advertising and
• no intention of ramping up production.
• Demand exceeds supply.
• All units are hand-built by him personally.
• Everything is built to order; he carries no buffer stock.

[Spectral Morn]

I know for a fact that Moores HiFi in Northern Ireland sell a reasonable amount of LFD, and are a dealer.

Moore is fairly eccentric as a dealer and if he takes a shine to you, great, if he doesn't he is pretty unpleasant. I say that based on talking with folks who have and do deal with him and my own one and only experience. I left and never went back, that was in the early 2000s - unpleasant is putting it mildly, easily one of my worst retail experiences ever.

Second was in a home cinema dealership, not far from Moores. I was talking about buying some av speakers, another guy walked in with more money to spend and that was that, I ceased to exist, I left and bought elsewhere.