Basis Audio - Exhorbitant servicing evaluation cost


I have lusted after a Basis Debut turntable for years, and recently was close to purchasing one used. That is until I explored Basis Audio's service policy. Service is not even a link on their website... I had to find the turntable policy, which explains they are a "victim of their own success" since they have such great sales success and excellent service, they can only provide very limited information about their older products. Then they say to know more you must send a table in for evaluation. The fees for evaluation are alarming to me (see below). $3400 just to evaluate a Debut vacuum table? I planned on spending just a little more than that to buy the table in the first place. I emailed Basis weeks ago to ask if I was understanding the policy correctly and whether the fee was applied to eventual repairs. No answer. 

Since this evaluation cost, and the general vibe I get from reading their website is "We don't want to service our tables so we will price ourselves out of most of the trouble," is preventing me from wanting to buy a Basis table, I thought I would ask experienced Basis owners here what they think. I've heard nothing but great things about their products over the years, but if I can't have it serviced if I need to, it just scares me away.

From the Basis website:

4. Basis turntables are extremely precise and technical tests and measurements are labor intensive. Pricing for the evaluation, based on model, is as follows:

1400: $500

2001, 2200: $1,200

2500: $1,600

2800: $1,800

Debut: $3,200

Debut Vac: $3,400

Inspiration: $3,500

Inspiration with Vacuum: $3,700

Vector Tonearm: $1,200

SuperArm: $1,600

montaldo

All good. if I misunderstood, my apologies. 

If I receive any clarification on the evaluation fees I will post it here.

Thanks all.

After all this discussion, I think it best if you contacted Basis directly with your questions. It seems there have been others that had great service from them in the past, but maybe they needed to change their priorities due to market changes.

Bob

In a scenario where talented manpower was limited, I can understand the motivation why a company may choose to put their effort in supporting direct sales, but limiting support for used second hand items

The OP brings up an interesting point...is the Basis companies pricing structure for evaluating their turntables exorbitant? 

To some, it would certainly seem so, maybe to others, not so. The price asked for a lot of the gear in high end audio seems exorbitant to folks who are unused to such pricing strategies, yet apparently the aspect of exorbitance is one that most high end dealers and reps are happy with. Maybe that is because they can get away with charging exorbitant amounts and the consumer is not pushing back on them for this?? Many here are apparently quite happy to pay what others feel is an exorbitant amount for their gear and the servicing of it when the time comes. Question is do we hear that much from the others who may not be so pleased?