I feel for you Ernie. I disagree, however, with your decision to make another post before F&S has a chance to come up with a reasonable trade-in offer. It seems to me that, by doing this, you are putting pressure on F&S to accomodate your UG request. I don't want to say that it's blackmail, but it certainly does put them in an ackward position.
Think about it. You bought the player on the used market for a substantially lower price than new. Why didn't you buy it from F&S? These are the risks that we take when buying used gear. Why should F&S take back a gray market cdp as a demo? How much re-sale value do you think that'll have. Would you buy a demo model that also happens to be used and, in addition was obtained on the gray market and can't (WON'T) be supported by the manufacturer or their lousy US Distributor? How much is THAT worth?
I'm sorry Ernie...It seems to me that you rolled the dice and, unfortunately, have to live with the outcome.
If you're so in love with the EC, my suggestion would be to put yours on the used market and buy a new upgraded version.
Don't get me wrong. I think that what Alan did was shitty. It seems to me that if you're going to put any pressure on somebody it should be him directly. If you need to contact EC to help you do it, then by all means. I would scream LOUD and LONG until you get the result you're looking for. Don't put F&S in the middle.
That being said...If I were F&S, I would discontinue selling EC immediately and pick up another product line. That shows integrity and puts the hurt where it needs to be...on the manufacturer who won't stand behind their products.
I'm guessing that this thread alone will have made a significant dent in ECs US sales. If nothing else, I'm sure that F&S (or any other EC authorized AudiogoN dealer) will be seeing far fewer EC sales as a result of this thread! Then again...I could be naive.