Retailers

I’ll talk dealers in general here, for the most part you get what you paid for with dealers. Demos and liberal return policies cost money. First if I send a brand new factory sealed piece and you don’t like it I have created a B-stock, nobody likes paying for an open box at street price. Second all that paperwork, labor including QC costs money. Where do I make it up? Plus when you return a piece and I refund you, that capital isn’t working for me.
What if I don’t have what you want to demo in stock? I’m ordering in on my credit something you might return, let’s say you demo it for 14 days and I have 30 days credit with the manufacturer, now with transport and QC time I probably have 10 days to move it before I have to pay for it. Now why didn’t I have that piece on the shelf? Was it simply back ordered or do I not move enough of that SKU to justify stocking it? Every stocking decision is made based on how much I move, terms from Manufacturers and the amount of space it occupies in the warehouse.

Yeah you can sometimes get demos from manufacturers/ distributors, but those are not always available and again the internal paperwork costs money.

Some dealers do an awesome job with demos but most don’t discount, those that try to let you demo and discount don’t last long.

I don’t think this is about a dealer working for the sale, it’s more about different ways of doing business.

Now I’m going to repeat myself, you want special treatment? Well that’s often a reward for loyalty along with better prices, the guy who spent $100K a year is getting better treatment than the guy who spends $10K who is getting better treatment than the guy who spends $1k a year, as is the guy who didn’t return a bunch of stuff. Don’t BS me about how much you have bought from me, I have your entire history on the screen in front of me.

Again it’s not about confidence in the product, If they open the box it’s B-stock, you don’t like it they take the hit. Depending on the speaker that could be most of the dealer markup.

Now I will admit with monitors if I was told I couldn’t open something for a demo, if I could steer the client to Genelec I could get the rep to loan me a demo, or if I could convince them to go Quested I would drive the .5 mile and Grab a pair from Danny.

Don’t think of it as not wanting to demo for you, think of it as not wanting more B-Stock, and when it comes to monitors it always seamed like they were the worst to repack.

If I discount less than MAP, B-stock😁, I also know a number of smaller dealers who are afraid you will come demo local and then buy from the big bad discounters. I’ll admit being both was the sweet spot.

Studio Economik and Avantone.

I told the store I doubted it’s no return policy was legal.

No response.

ATC are shown at list, in reality you’ll pay in the UK 10 to 20% of list.

I got my 25’s during the pandemic for £5,900 …. I think they were keen to shift some stock

Thx, yes I know, but they had none in stock, I’ll recheck though!

I was mislead by Studio Economik staff in the past about returning expensive headphones which I thought sounded pretty bad and lost hundreds of $ selling essentially new headphones.

The post above from the Quebec gov’t seems unequivocal about the consumer’s right to return. I presume that’s when SE hits you with the restocking fee.
 
Instead of creating a disincentive for you to visit their store , you’d think they want to get you there?
 
They have the old studio control room, which was professionally designed, set up for demoing other monitors: its an excellent room.

That’s where I heard atc25’s for the first time: sonic heaven !

That contradicts this from the Canadian Government website.
In Canada, businesses are not obligated to accept the return of purchased items unless they are defective. However, many businesses offer refunds or exchanges for various other reasons to help foster good customer relations.

It may seam against the customer’s interest, but when you realize most B-stock is sold for less than the overall landed cost of that particular item, it is in fact more friendly to the rest of the customers by not having to mark up every piece you sell to cover the cost of returns. Post pandemic most retailers are beginning to see the real cost of returns.

Of course we are in the middle of what was termed “ Eric’s return policy for video projectors during college & Super Bowl season “
Sure we will take any video projector back for any reason, but unless it’s defective you’re paying a 120% restocking fee. What that means is we keep your money, plus 20% and Eric gets a low hours projector for free😁

eric

Let’s not get into the whole Quebec separation issue, but essentially in every area possible the Quebec gov’t tries to have its own powers and authorities.

Anyway, I understand about b stock but demoing products is a fact of retail life. If I can’t go there and demo or buy and return, then they lose my business, all of it period: how’s that affect the bottom line?

It's not really a retailer issue though is it? If a manufacturer can't even create enough spare units to test an assembly line they should probably consider whether or not it's the right time to go into business. Most demo's come from disti or manufacturer (like RAD, well done there), full price consumers are not alpha or beta testers for people's new fangled ideas especially in a crowded market.

If people can't hear it your product won't go anywhere. I wouldn't ever bother with a product if I can't get a demo or a decent returns policy, most of the time the markup for second hand will far outweigh the initial investment anyway, it's about fronting capital. Companies rise and fall constantly, usually it's due to common sense, so build it and they will come.. Don't worry I'm here all week for cliche's and film quotes.

Hang on a mo … ATC 100’s are £15K !!

Tell your friend that would be better parked in a cash ISA

Unless of course he’s as crazy as me and wouldn’t be able to resist if the money was available for such a purchase.

Anyone possessing ATC 100’s wouldn’t need any other monitors!


The bigger ATC’s 100 and 150’s are off the grid beyond stunning monitoring.

Imho, money cannot buy better monitoring.

When I think what me and Mrs Tenor paid for our SUV …. sigh could have been ATC 10O’s …. Save for two important issues

1) my studio room is only big enough for 25’s

2) Mrs Tenor loves her car and remaining married seemed the sensible option