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In Reply to: Poor show posted by Rodney Gold on February 15, 2007 at 05:08:00:
have been made known. The contents and nature of the original post and Kevin choosing to only refer to Asylum posts tells me there is a lot more to this story than meets the eye.
Follow Ups:
side with a fellow dealer and justify it by assuming there is something more negative about the potential customer left unsaid. I'm not jumping on Kevin. In fact I've been buying NOS tubes from Upscale over the net for years, and I've always received good service and good product. In this case I think his attitude/behavior makes little sense.Does he "carry" that ONE pair of speakers - and keep them boxed - solely in case a customer who's bought several items from him *recently* walks into the store and says "I'll take them." without an audition? Don't know about your customers, Bruce, but when I bought my speakers from a dealer I sure as hell wanted to hear how they compared to other speakers that dealer carried that were near my price point. Had the dealer told me "Well, they're boxed up and I don't want to bother setting them up." I'd have wondered why the hell he claimed to carry that model.
Are we to think that Kevin had read the posts of the potential customer *before* talking to him, and recognized it was the same person? If not, then why provide links to those posts now?
Automatically disqualifying potential customers because they've bought items on-line and/or haven't purchased anything from you in 8 years would certainly disqualify a lot of us. The one obvious advantage B&M dealers have over net sales is providing face to face help/service/knowledge and *auditioning*. Dispense with those advantages - as Kevin apparently did - and there is no reason to buy from B&M dealers. I understand the frustration dealers must feel when people just use their time/space as a free audition and then buy from the cheapest on-line seller. But in this net age I think the onus is on the B&M dealer to attract/keep customers by displaying and emphasizing the advantages a B&M store has. Kevin did not do that.
I've never had a problem with Upscale, and I expect to continue buying excellent tubes from Kevin. I think he screwed up with this guy though.
"Automatically disqualifying potential customers because they've bought items on-line and/or haven't purchased anything from you in 8 years would certainly disqualify a lot of us."That was the biggest mistake he made, indeed.
I referred to it as "bizaare customer profiling".
I just opined that all the facts aren't on the table. I'd bet the farm on it. I've only met Kevin once (at CES) so I don't know him. He has a great reputation, though.I do not dispute that there are rude people out there, both in and out of audio, and both customer and seller. There's just something about what I've read here that doesn't click.
"It's said that 'The customer is always right' but usually the customer is always wrong, you just can't let him know."Over the decades I've taught dozens of guys the necessity of being a better customer, how to develop "a friend in the castle", how to get invited to parties etc. etc. (Thirty years ago a local dealer took me into the shed out back and lit up a j. That set me thinking... he must like me! What did I do?)
Still, withall, I think the advice I first offered below would have disappeared any controversy: "You should have called him right back and nipped the antagonism in the bud."
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