Richard's hi-fi ranting 'Room 101'

[anthonyTD]

Anthony, I think that is part of the problem for sure but not the whole enchilada. I am certainly one of the people with backbone enough to make my own decisions but at times this can be difficult. Sometimes the manufacturers and/or distributors manage to shoot themselves firmly in the foot. A recent personal experience when I was looking to change speakers brought this home to me. I will not mention the names for fear of retribution but a little lateral thinking based on what I did end up buying will probably get you the answer.

I wanted to listen to a pair of speakers by maker X. I contacted the distributor only to be told that he only currently had a much smaller model in the country. So I said that I would certainly like to hear that but was really looking further up the range than that. He then said he would arrange for the manufacturer to send a pair of the more upmarket speakers for my evaluation. Two weeks passed with no word, bear in mind the manufacturer is European based, so I again contacted the distributor and basically I got an "I really can't be bothered response". This infuriated me a little and so I grabbed the bull by the horns and directly contacted the manufacturer. I told them what I was trying to do and the difficulties I'd encountered. Their response was even more amazing, along the lines of we don't do enough business in the UK to bother. Needless to say at this point I decided to not pursue the quest any further.

Two different strands of apathy here.

One a distributor who didn't want to put himself out on a maybe purchaser, this I can almost understand as from what I understand most demo models have to be paid for by the distributor.

The manufacturer response just baffled me. They have distribution here that you would have thought indicated a desire to build their market over here. At the time they had an interested customer with £10K burning a hole in his pocket they just shuffled off shrugging their shoulders.

Just my .02

Nick

nick,
thats terible! just goes to show that nothing is clear cut, and that on times manufacturers can also be just as bad [worse in your case] than their distributors...

[Mike]

Also somewhat surprising considering many overseas manufactures seem to regard the UK as 'Treasure Island' is so much as they can seemingly charge more or less whatever they like. Including the usual ridiculous markup for their distributor/dealers.

I wonder if the same speakers would have been quite so expensive 'over there' ???

[WikiBoy]

Also somewhat surprising considering many overseas manufactures seem to regard the UK as 'Treasure Island' is so much as they can seemingly charge more or less whatever they like. Including the usual ridiculous markup for their distributor/dealers.

I wonder if the same speakers would have been quite so expensive 'over there' ???

Germany France and Italy are just as bad as us, best bargains are in Holland and Belgium.

Take a trip to the Far East and in Singapore and Hong Kong you will pay 30% less for UK manufactured product than you do here

Take a trip to the US and you will pay 30 to 40% less than you do here for UK manufactured product and 50% less for US manufactured product

They say voters get the government they deserve, and I am afraid Hi-Fi enthusiast get the Hi-Fi industry they deserve, so vote with your feet, that is the only thing that will change it.

[Mike]

I've never actually voted for any of our so called governments!

Well.... there was that time when I voted for the Green Party, but I was young and stoned in those days....

As for voting with my feet, well I'd like to think that I'm doing that in some small way by sticking mostly to the DIY side of things these days, or using the second hand market when possible.
Of course I do need to buy new components (as in resistors, valves etc) from time to time, and I'm not up to making a DVD player or TV from scratch!

[Nick]

Do as you wish it is none of my business. It just seemed it was important to hear them so I made a suggestion. The Hi-Fi industry owes you nothing and doesn't have to perform and wag its tail to your whims. There are many things we can't buy for one reason or another, it is not the end of the world.

Anyway I hope you enjoy what you have now, if they don't get your business it is their loss.

You're right, it is my business.

The hi-fi industry owes me something as a prospective purchaser and that is simply consideration. I really wasn't asking anyone to do anything other than the job they put themselves forward to do, in normal business that is expected and doesn't constitute some kind of favour. Yes, at the time it was in my list to hear the items but after considerable effort on my part it seemed no one was interested. At that point I wonder about all the other things like customer service in the event of problems etc;

You are aware of the requirement of some kind of service for a customer ?

You have at least helped me in one area, with the pompous attitude you have displayed I certainly wouldn't be buying any of your products, period. With that I'm out of this thread.

[WikiBoy]

You're right, it is my business.

The hi-fi industry owes me something as a prospective purchaser and that is simply consideration. I really wasn't asking anyone to do anything other than the job they put themselves forward to do, in normal business that is expected and doesn't constitute some kind of favour. Yes, at the time it was in my list to hear the items but after considerable effort on my part it seemed no one was interested. At that point I wonder about all the other things like customer service in the event of problems etc;

You are aware of the requirement of some kind of service for a customer ?

You have at least helped me in one area, with the pompous attitude you have displayed I certainly wouldn't be buying any of your products, period. With that I'm out of this thread.

Oh dear, thats sad!

All I did was offer you a solution, but if you went at them like you are now doing at me when you can't get your own way, can you blame them. Most high end distributors have an attitude, it goes with the job so it seems. Something to do with making themselves as superior as their products, perhaps to justify their ridiculous mark-ups. Anyway anyone who is willing to pay £10k for a couple of lumps of wood with some drivers in them is just labelling themselves as a patsy, no matter what is in it they cannot justify that price, you can get a new car for that for heaven sake and that has massive mark up as well. You are probably paying under £1000 for the speaker and the rest for nothing but to keep the fat gits in fat gits toys.

[Nick]

Oh dear, thats sad!

All I did was offer you a solution, but if you went at them like you are now doing at me when you can't get your own way, can you blame them. Most high end distributors have an attitude, it goes with the job so it seems. Something to do with making themselves as superior as their products, perhaps to justify their ridiculous mark-ups. Anyway anyone who is willing to pay £10k for a couple of lumps of wood with some drivers in them is just labelling themselves as a patsy, no matter what is in it they cannot justify that price, you can get a new car for that for heaven sake and that has massive mark up as well. You are probably paying under £1000 for the speaker and the rest for nothing but to keep the fat gits in fat gits toys.

Oh dear indeed, this is sad !!

I did say I'd be leaving this thread but when someone calls me a "patsy" I feel I have to respond.

You offered a solution ?? All you offered was that I should chase around half the world to audition a product supposedly supported in my country of residence.

My response to you was not at all about "not getting my own way". It was all about the arrogant attitude you seem to have towards customers. Spending a deal of money, whatever it's being spent on, does bring with it some expectation of customer service. All I pointed out in my original post was that in some cases this service was severely lacking.

My original post merely described a situation which I feel illustrates part of the reason for the decline of the hi-fi industry. Some how you managed to turn it into a personal attack where everything was my fault and down to my attitude.

You really need to look at your attitude, I feel. You have a very confrontational style and quickly resort to personal remarks rather than attempt to empathise with a point of view. This to my mind isn't constructive discussion more like "neener neener" school bully tactics. This might intimidate some people, it doesn't work with me.

How dare you call me a "patsy" !! I have conducted my posts, incidentally not really directly aimed at you, without resorting to name calling. It seems that if someone comes along who doesn't agree with you the toys come flying out of your pram. I "went at you", again without resorting to name calling, because your initial response to my post was to tell me I was to blame

As it turned I came in well under my £10k budget and am very happy with the product I bought and the service of both distributor and manufacturer.

Anything else you'd like to call me ?

[WikiBoy]

Oh dear indeed, this is sad !!

I did say I'd be leaving this thread but when someone calls me a "patsy" I feel I have to respond.

You offered a solution ?? All you offered was that I should chase around half the world to audition a product supposedly supported in my country of residence.

My response to you was not at all about "not getting my own way". It was all about the arrogant attitude you seem to have towards customers. Spending a deal of money, whatever it's being spent on, does bring with it some expectation of customer service. All I pointed out in my original post was that in some cases this service was severely lacking.

My original post merely described a situation which I feel illustrates part of the reason for the decline of the hi-fi industry. Some how you managed to turn it into a personal attack where everything was my fault and down to my attitude.

You really need to look at your attitude, I feel. You have a very confrontational style and quickly resort to personal remarks rather than attempt to empathise with a point of view. This to my mind isn't constructive discussion more like "neener neener" school bully tactics. This might intimidate some people, it doesn't work with me.

How dare you call me a "patsy" !! I have conducted my posts, incidentally not really directly aimed at you, without resorting to name calling. It seems that if someone comes along who doesn't agree with you the toys come flying out of your pram. I "went at you", again without resorting to name calling, because your initial response to my post was to tell me I was to blame

As it turned I came in well under my £10k budget and am very happy with the product I bought and the service of both distributor and manufacturer.

Anything else you'd like to call me ?

It cost less and takes less time now-a-days to get to Western Europe than going up and down the UK. But *you* see it as going half way around the world

I reiterate - *anyone* who spends £10k on a pair of speakers is a patsy as far as I am concerned, you paid less, good for you. £10k was *your* figure not mine.

As to attitude I say what I think, you don't like it which is fine by me. I have not been hot under the collar in any of these posts with you, but you seem to have a propensity for hotness and anger, I would say watch the blood pressure if you react this strongly to simple conversation, but I am sure you would get angry at this as well.

[Filterlab]

If anything, buy second-hand. At least then someone else has paid for the profit, well to a degree anyway.

[WikiBoy]

It cost less and takes less time now-a-days to get to Western Europe than going up and down the UK. But *you* see it as going half way around the world

This is another example of how the slurpers get you, they want their exclusive patches, be that town for a retailer, or country for a distributor. It is all a con and against both UK and EU trading laws. *No* EU manufacturer can refuse to service product within a three year period from new if you are an original purchaser and if they cannot service it then you are entitled under EU law to get a replacement of same or similar specs and of similar or less age.

So you can buy in the EU with the same protection and warranty as you have in the UK. OK shipping costs are higher but with the likes of DHL as booked through Interparcel being nearly as cheap to EU as UK what is the problem. We are in a single market, which is why I said the Brits are so parochial, also VAT is paid at country of purchase and VAT in *every* EU country is cheaper than ours - rip off UK again.