Well, I just had an experience where a sales guy working with SMC audio was pressuring me into buying a refurbished Smc audio amplifier for $10.5k. It didn’t even have balanced inputs, and very little information was provided. I respectfully declined as there was no way to verify the value or features of the product. I became especially cautious when I saw a listing for the same model on Audio Mart for half price off. I would advise anyone spending more than $2k with this company to get a detailed feature list, model information, and compare prices with prior products that have sold on Audiogon.com, Audio Mart USA, or ebay. Buyer Beware taking the salesman "word for it" without doing your own third party due diligence. The salesman was very convincing and employed a high pressure sales tactic, using "scarcity" and all the same sales points mentioned in this thread. Just because a company does high end consulting work doesn’t mean anything about whether prices are fair and how they stack up against market competition. At $10.5k i could have got a new Pass Lab, Mcintosh integrated, so many good choices , how could I just buy a refurbished product without detailed market pricing information.
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As far as you claiming I’m misrepresenting the salesperson, I already explained it was an authorized agent I primarily dealt with. However I do believe the $10.5k asking price for the refurbished amp without balanced inputs was set by the company, allegedly that encompassed a commission, which I found odd since I never paid a commission on any of my equipment before.
Again, at the end of the day, it wasn’t a good experience for me personally. And I would just advise to do your homework and proceed with appropriate due diligence especially when buying anything custom. Apparently, these amps and associated refurbishment work depreciate quick and don't have a large resale market, so be prepared my fellow consumers.
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All I can say is this was my experience. Well, if you think $10.5k for a refurbished amp with decades old chassis and no balanced inputs is worth it, have at it ! I personally don’t think it’s a good value, and the same model was selling with a balanced input added for less than half on Audio Mart ! Call BS all you want but everything is 100 percent factual and I have all of the evidence and documents to support everything I am saying.
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Yes, it is true they don’t have a dedicated sales force. It appears to be largely a one-man operation with helpers. I’m not going to dox anyone or speak badly about any person in particular, that’s not how I do things. I am just sharing my experience with the company and somebody who apparently works with them. I do have credible personal information that this was an authorized sales distribution channel I was working with. Look, if you had a good experience with them great, I'm just sharing my personal experience and issues that I encountered.
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Look, i don’t have any motivation to denigrate or anything of the sort. Your insinuation that sharing my honest experience is "disgusting " is ridiculous. So if a customer has a truthful experience that doesn’t align with your particular company’s narrative you resort to baseless and false attacks? Please, get over yourself. The world isn’t limited to experiences that always align with your preconceived notions. And at the end of the day, my point is to always ask for transparency, detailed information and check with market data. Every consumer should be advocates for such behavior .
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Maybe the sales agent I worked with is not a w2 employee, but apparently SMC was comfortable enough to provide pricing and sell through this person.
Mitch, are you for real? Do you also go on Yelp and cry about everyone who didn’t love the food or service of every restaurant? Again, a decades old amplifier at $10.5k with no balanced inputs isn’t a screaming bargain to me, okay? If it’s so great, go buy it Mitch and post pictures of the amazing chassis and value. It’s available, so no excuses! Just don’t come crying again when you realize you could have got the same model for over half off.
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Ozzy,
Let me put it this way, when I asked Pat about how much it would cost to upgrade to balanced inputs and an external power supply, he stated that he could not discuss pricing with me and I had to go through this agent. That alone made me feel there was a lack of transparency in the transaction, and frankly, it makes me wonder why SMC would agree to that.
I will agree with you that $10.5k was far beyond anything I’ve ever seen charged for this refurbished amp. I would hope SMC knows what their agents are charging and reign in any excessive pricing. That’s the purpose of this post, to make sure buyers are made aware this type of experience could happen to them. This is compounded by the lack of information on the products and the brand, as well as the lack of a credible dealer network to obtain firsthand information.
As far as balanced inputs, I have invested in good balanced cables and have terrible EMI problems, so it’s a must for me. I would expect this feature on any amp in the $10k range.
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I can't speak for SMC. I can only relay my own personal experience as accurately as possible.
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Mitch,
Fair enough. There’s more to this story that I really don’t think it’s worth anyone’s time to get into. Look if I’m the only bad experience out of 1000 transactions then I’m happy for our community. I hope that to be the case. And I hope my feedback can only go to improving and strengthening the audiophile market and experiences for everyone. I believe we should all speak out and give everyone a chance to express themselves as long as it’s based on factual information.
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Patrick didn’t refer me to the agent. The agent introduced me to Patrick and I spoke with Patrick about it.
Ozzy, you are mistaken. Smc audio ratified and approved the price and agency relationship with this person, so they do bear some responsibility for this experience frankly. If they want to come make a statement about it, they are welcome. I’ve already shared more than enough information that adequately apprises future buyers about this situation. If you’re not satisfied, that’s your problem. I don’t believe I need to dox people because you think I should.
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Mitch, agree with your points. And thank you for the civil discussion.
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Soix,
I see reading comprehension isn't your strong point so I'll repeat: the salesperson introduced me to Pat, but I spoke to both of them during this time period. Are we clear now?
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Well, I had a good conversation with Pat this morning and it appears it would be unfair to malign him or SMC audio over this incident. It looks like this was probably more the result of a miscommunication with a seldom-used outside sales person that deviated from his normal "direct-to-consumer" sales approach. He indicated that I could contact him directly and purchase from him directly from this point forward, which would probably avoid any future incidences. One thing I did learn is that it appears there is no shortage of support for SMC audio, and Pat does appear to be stand by his business. Who knows, maybe there could be a SMC amplifier in my future after all.
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Soix,
You didn’t call me out on anything and I didn’t appreciate your baseless and false attacks, or the tone of your ignorant posts. I share the same sentiment as Rubicon, your posts are tiring and generally uninformed. And, they don’t do anything productive or contributory to solve the actual issue. You just come across as a bitter, angry, judgmental, and condescending old man (which you probably are). I don’t know why you are, but you don’t need to spread your bad energy to innocent people on this forum .
The irony is you are doing more to deter people from buying into the brand when they see people like you are associated with it.
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I did not admit to any "mistake". There was a miscommunication that was subsequently clarified, and I don't see the need to assign blame or judgment on anyone since we've since corrected the issue.
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