I agree with CWLondon. My wife is an avid letter writer whether it be the Mayor of Miami or the CEO of Yves Rocher and has gotten a lot accomplished with her well thought and placed letters. Her letter to the mayor appeared in the Miami newspaper for all to read and her products were replaced as well as a future business relationship established with her favorite toiletry line. I myself received needed parts for my Castle speakers expedited from the UK at no charge by the speaker manufacturer almost before I could blink following an email. On the other hand I attempted to order some replacement belts for an inexpensive Radio Shack stereo, and was never able to get through the red tape and phone banks to even find the cost of the parts. I ended up making and installing my own belts with the aid of a local repair shop and donated the stereo to a local charity/thriftshop. It otherwise would have ended up in the trash which would have been a shame, it after all did produce music:-) Little parts do cost more than one would think as the dies are very expensive and wear out after X amount of parts are made, these parts are however mostly used in full production units and need not be marked up as much when sold individually to replace those in a unit that has already been profited from, IMO.
I'm very upset. Let me tell you why.
I'm mainly a home audio person; however, whenever someone in the family gets a new car its customary to at least replace the factory system with better aftermarket stuff. Anyway, my sister totalled her little Honda and so we took the stereo and speakers out before it went off to the junkyard. Well, in my haste, I forgot to take the wiring harness out that went with the CD player. Not the wiring harness adaptor, but the little device that plugs directly into the back of the unit. Anyway, upon realizing this all to late, I had to go get another. The dealer I bought it from said that I needed to contact the manufacturer since they didn't carry that part. I called up Clarion and they informed me that this little part, that was nothing more than 16 color coded 18 to 22 gauge wires terminated to a piece of plastic with thier own pins, was going to cost me $17.95 plus $7.95 shipping and handling. Personnaly, I was expecting $10 at the most, if not free. I've had driver stage vacuum tubes go bad in my tube amp and the manufacturer sent me one free of charge. And when they sent me the wrong one, they sent another one free of charge. Given the cost of materials for that little harness I was bit upset since I felt I had no choice and ultimately ordered the stupid thing. After ordering I decided to call up one of the local dealers to see what they could do, although I doubted they would be able to help any. The little punk kid who answered the phone put me on hold for a minute or so and then came back and informed me that "they didn't have them in stock, but could get me one for about $50." FIFTY DOLLARS FOR A F#!@*&$ HARNESS that's got less than a quarters worth of wire and a chunk of plastic that surely, no matter how elaborate the production method, couldn't cost more than a dollar. And furthermore, I don't see how a piece of plastic and wires that weigh less than 2oz could cost $8 to ship. The only reason I'm upset is because it seems like someone is marking things up ridicously to take advantage of people in specific situations. Anyway, that's what I'm upset over. Maybe its nothing and I should go do something else, but I'm still not very happy over it. I don't consider myself cheap or anything, but when something clearly cost so little to make and then its sold for such a mark-up I get upset. Anyway, I'll stop rambling.