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
Brian, you raise a good point but I believe F S Audio's response confirmed the story. Of course Alan has his reasons for what he did and he undoubtedly believes he did the right thing. Ernie and F S Audio stated those reasons very objectively. Many of us simply don't agree with Alan's rationale (especially in this particular circumstance) nor desire to add more money to his pocket.
Based upon the supplied info it's clear that the distributor is not the smoothest of businessmen. If grey market goods are such a problem, then he should have very clearly and at the beginning of the mod inquiry stated his restrictive policy. That being said, I'm not sure that Ernie has anything legit to complain about. He purchased a used item and presumably got it at a good price. As the purchaser should he not be responsible for knowing which manufacturers support purchasers outside authorized channels (used and grey market) and which do not? It's an added hassle finding this info out, but as this thread shows, it's worth doing.
Guess I'll be taking the EMC off the CD player shopping list... Thanks for the heads up. Even if the case is that this was a grey market item, the importer is asking you to share in the pain of the grey market problem. What he really is saying is that he is marking up prices excessively to import them to the US Market here. So who created the "grey market problem"? The excessively greedy, non service orientated, clearly heartless individual. If this is such a huge problem for him, the price differential from the US to Scandinavia must also be "huge" -enough to create a clear problem he is flailing about wildly trying to stomp. Clearly a grinch move, especially considering your sincere and honest and heroic efforts to get the unit to him. The appropriate thing would have been to look the other way, and even charge you more due to the grey market nature of the unit, not to "punish" you. Some of the treachery, gouging and deceipt I have recently seen has become truly disgusting to me-enough to personally bail out of this already frustrating hobby.
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!
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.