Pet audiophile peeves - name yours

Bill I am really REALLY sorry you feel that way :)

Folks who won't negotiate.
Folks who price their gear out of proportion to recent sale prices.
Folks who state "fair and/or firm" pricing. That's for the buyer to decide!
Folks who abuse the quite strict Condition Scale.

Folks who don't CLEARLY list if any original accessories, documents, packaging etc. are missing, damaged or non-OE.

Audio manufacturers who spam the used ads. Two stand makers are guilty of this.
And that speaker manufacturer.
And that Somebody Audio whose tagline doesn't say what is actually being sold, but some irrelevancy like: Don't Miss This One! or Listen! Look! End of high-priced cables! You have neve heard it like this before! Grab this fast! Hand-built! Ends soon! Cheap can sound great!
Stop, Wasting, Our, Bandwidth!

cheers apo

Joeylawn36111 wrote:

Companies that won't sell you their product over the phone/Internet. Hey, dealers, it's 2007! Wake up and smell the information superhighway that Al Gore invented!!! ;>)

Makes sense if you're buying Bose :-)

Losing a sale because of "geographic" policies don't make much sense either. What would you rather do, make a point or make money?

Personally I applaud manufacturers who set and stick to geographic restrictions. These manufactureres rely on a retailer network to put the product "on show" for the consumers. Those dealers need to be protected. A manufacturer who had a dealer network and is transitioning to direct or web sales is undercutting his retailers.

I griped above about manufacturers who use Gon to sell their product lines. I want to qualify: I see retailers who use the Gon to move trades, demos and other used components. I have no problem with that - it's using the Gon for what it was made for. Used inventory can be hard to match to a buyer at any acceptable return if one is restricted to a limited pool of floor traffic. Using a national (world, really) marketplace, retailer and prospective consumer both win.
But if a manufacturer wants to sell his line of goods on the Gon, fercryingoutloud - there's a proper way to do so. Buy one of those big glossy sponsor ads that precede the list of classifieds!
I can imagine one exception to that rule: Small manufacturers who use Gon expertise to help design and evaluate a developmental product, are up front about it, and document the goings-on in the Forums. Jade Audio comes to mind. I consider that another everybody-wins situation
Thanks for reading my rants.
cheers apo