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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
ozfly
887 posts
 
Ernie, I agree with Jeffloistarca that you got hosed. As Sean eloquently stated, it was up to the distributor to save you the time and energy up front. To simply not work on these units (especially after their failure to state their policy) is inexcusable since, as others have stated, there are those who move and are not trying to "get around" the US distributor. I hate the bureauratic "no" -- at minimum, why not offer to do the mod at a higher price to recover some of the lost import fees?
Thanks for pointing this out. I was unaware of these kinds of risks. And, I was unaware that EC was so customer unfriendly -- I was going to go that route, but not now. Good luck. Please keep us posted.
fpeel
455 posts
 
Initially my take was everyone involved got the short end of the stick in this deal. The importer, the dealer and double short for Ernie. Then a new twist to the issue struck me while following the discussion.

But before sharing my take on this, the importer has a valid position on gray market goods. Declining to deal with them is a tool that helps protect the importer's position in the market. An old one that is quickly becoming antiquated and untenable in a global economy, but a tool nonetheless. I would not fault them for using it judiciously.

In this case, Ernie apparently did everything right by not being assumptive, making arrangements in advance, etc. He even jumped through every hoop as instructed. Most of us who sell for a living appreciate customers of this ilk. So, the paperwork done the unit was delivered to the importer with an expectation that everything was OK and the upgrade would be done.

Here, in my book, is where things fell apart. At the last minute the importer discovered the unit hadn't passed through his warehouse which means he didn't make anything off its original sale. Unfortunately, and regardless of their policies, the importer had already made a commitment to do the upgrade. So, while he had every reason to be disappointed, the importer should have followed through and done the work.

If this led to a change whereby in the future the importer checked serial numbers BEFORE committing to do an upgrade, so be it. That would be acceptable in my book. Also, given the circumstances, if somehow the upgrade is not a profitable item, (which I doubt) then it would be reasonable to ask for the difference. Note that I said "ask", not "demand". A commitment was made and should have been delivered on. The whole end result reeks of a combination of poor business sense and sour grapes.

This is all sad to hear as I have been planning an upgrade to the digital source in my system. EC's DAC (at very least) was in the running. I'll certainly be looking elsewhere as how a vendor treats their customers is *very* important to me. The only thing worse than having a problem with a purchase is having it compounded by a short-sighted, inflexible vendor.
tweety
41 posts
 
Ernie,
I bought a used emc-1 this year and am very happy with it. Mine is the 24-96 version and when I heard that only the distributor can do the UP version upgrade I decided to forget the whole upgrade thing all together. At least you have the 24-196 upgrade. Be happy with it the way you have it, and enjoy it. Electrocompaniet has always had trouble with their Distributors over here. This person seems that he will not play the game unless he makes the rules, very childish behavior. If you want to promote good will you have to extend yourself, this does nothing for Electrocompaniet as a company and maybe they need a change over here.
unsound
7,329 posts
 
To heck with the middlemen. The dealer and distributor didn't provide any initial service to be compensated for. Here's a chance to make some money that would otherwise be lost. Do you mean to say that if I drive a car purchased in the USA to Canada and it breaks down I can't get it repaired? Ernie asked specific questions. Ernie answered specific questions. Ernie gets screwed. EC has had a bad reputation in the past, looks like they don't learn. I for one won't buy or recommend anything from them unless they do the right thing. Furthermore, I will think twice about doing business with any dealers who represent companies with such bad customer service. It's not just out of patriotism that I say buy American. Ernie, good luck
Ag insider logo xs@2x
dgclark0007
29 posts
 
Hello All,
I too will not purchase any products from Electrocompanient. As some posters have said, the distributer has the right to do what he is doing. I agree. We as consumers have the right not to buy from them. I remember reading a post here a few months ago about how Krell handled a similar situation. The poster as I recall, said he purchased a used Krell amp and something went wrong with it. He shipped it to Krell and they discovered it was a gray market good and therefore didn't have a seriel number. Their response was to give it a valid seriel number and repair the unit under warranty. I gather Krell has transferable warrantys. Because of that story, I will definitely look at Krell equipment next time I am purchasing equipment. The most relevant comment I read in this thread was by one of the earlier poster's. What will our response be if we drive our car to Canada, it breaks down and the Canadian auto dealer refuses to repair it because of its country of origin. I fail to see how electronics manufacturers are any different. Good luck Ernie.
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