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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
taters
1,149 posts
 
Whether its a gray market product or not,good business would dictate for the distributor to take care of the upgrade.Let me give you the reasons why!
#1 Good service will make people come back to the product the next time they are ready to make a purchase!
#2In this day and age of dwindling hi-end sales nobody can afford to lose a customer!
#3HI-end is a niche market you have to retain your customers or you will be out of business!

P.S. Everybody who responded to this thread should e-mail the distributor and the manufacter!
dekay's avatar
dekay
2,959 posts
 
Hi Ernie:

Sorry to hear that EC and their distributor do not seem capable of forming linear business policies.

As far as Gray market items (out of territory purchases) go this should only relate to warranty repairs (though some manufacturers cover this as well for such items), not general repairs and/or upgrades which are not done gratis.

I'm not certain who created such a "bent" policy (EC or the rep), but as both seem to be adhering to it, they are both off my list.
elmuncy
64 posts
 
There are a lot of technical details that I have no experience with. However, I know Ernie to be a person of character. I've dealt with him, even sent money to him, and he's got integrity. Which in a nutshell means that I believe him. Audiogon should put out a list of products to avoid, regardless of quality. Put Electrocompanient at the top.
budrew
467 posts
 
First, I have an EMC-1 CD player, the latest version, and it's a great player. I also purchased it from a dealer I really trust and I know he can take care of any problems. Try to seperate the player from the distributor.

I agree that the distributor should have gone ahead and made the modification. It's just how good business is done. If you're not absolutely clear up front (and the guy drove out of his way to deliver it), you should just cut the loss (rather than lose a customer). But I've had a bad experience buying a used product and was shunned by the manufacturer when it needed a repair. In a similar analogy, just imagine a world where used cars were not accepted or supported! Get real and take pride in your products. Doesn't companies like Lexus and BMW proudly market their own used cars!
84audio
175 posts
 
It would be interesting to hear from some dealers about this. Also, I don't know that there is another side to this story. Alan told Ernie he would do the upgrade and did not ask about serial numbers or anything else. Ernie went out of his way to get it to Alan. If things happened as Ernie described the only reasonable thing to do is to follow through with installing the upgrade. I'm sure Alan wants to protect himself but think of the fall out from this. The high end audio community is small enough so that something like this can really hurt. I have an EC dac which sounds great but I get real concerned about anything less than great service. If I had read this thread a few months ago I would have probably purchased something else.
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