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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
jeffloistarca
1,004 posts
 
What a crock of s**t. Who cares whether you're the first or fifth owner, or where it was orginally bought. I've sold semiconductors for 20 years, if a device fails it's replaced and NO ONE ever asks where it originally came from. These are the very same chips companies like EC use and would expect service on, yet they themselves are selective about repairs? EC has an obligation as the manufacturer of the unit to look after you, the owner of one of their products. This "protection" of their dealer/distributor network is called price fixing; it's a global village and businesses would be wise to recognize this rather obvious fact. They should take a page from Bryston and show some repsonsiblity for their wares.

I'd sell the unit and buy something that is equivalent (or better) from a manufacturer who provides service to their customers. Glad you worte about your experince, I can cross EC off my list of gear to own (new or used).
paulwp
585 posts
 
Just out of curiosity, if the unit was bought new in Europe and then moved here with the buyer's household, how do you get around the voltage issue? Do these things just have a little switch? If the manufacturer is supplying US spec components to European dealers, that maybe looks a little sleazy, but, otoh, maybe he has no distributor in other parts of the world where they use the same electricity we use? (That stuff is all very confusing to me, so speakers are the only things I would buy from abroad.)

What if the unit was purchased new in Denmark and shipped to an American as a Christmas present? What if you're on vacation and go into a hi-fi store in Denmark and spend a lot of time and the dealer does a real good job with you and you buy the unit from him there to be shipped back home? There are a lot of legitmate ways to acquire a new component from abroad without cheating the US distributor, so maybe the manufacturer will be helpful. I just wouldnt expect the distributor to help service a product he didnt sell in the first place.
fs_audio
148 posts
 
All,

Just so that everyone is aware, we are the dealer that Ernie went through to have the upgrade done. I WANT TO BE PERFECTLY CLEAR: ALAN'S DECISION TO NOT DO THE UPGRADE HAD ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH FATHER & SON AUDIO. IT WAS HIS DECISION AND AS THE US DISTRIBUTOR, HE HAS THE RIGHT TO MAKE THIS DECISION.

Keep in mind that regardless of which dealer Ernie would have gone through, the EXACT same scenario would have occured as this upgrade MUST be done by the US distributor, dealers are only a contact/middleman.

Please don't let this reflect upon us, Father & Son Audio, as we have NO control over what Alan decides to do. Given what Ernie went through to get his player to Alan, maybe Alan should have done the upgrade, I don't know, at this point, I am not sure what the right answer is. However, Alan has to draw the line somewhere.

This is really a sucky situation, and I feel terrible about the whole thing. I am VERY sorry that this happened.

Paulwp and TWL are 100% correct in their summary/explanation of this situation, and I couldn't have said it better myself (except for TWL's statement that mods are simply a way to get more money out of folks, true sometimes, but NOT in this case).

Give me a call Ernie and maybe we can figure something out. I don't know what yet, but we can work on it together ;-)

P.S. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, ALWAYS be 100% certain as to exactly what you are getting when you purchase a product on the used market!

Best Regards...Mike - Father & Son Audio
tireguy
1,964 posts
 
This does not surprise me much many of the international companies have policies like this- including Accuphase and audio aero. I guess electro. is the same way- its kind of a shame but I can't say I blame them. The way the fellow who was going to do the mods handled things was not very polite, but everyone has bad days. I would try again, through different circles, I have found that being nice often gets you A LOT further then yelling and such- when all else fails point them towards this thread and let them know you can post your story on every audio site, in fact it would be your great pleasure to do so- if you are not taken care of. If they won't help you let the world know about it, sell the player and get something else- there is nothing wrong with the elctro. unit but if your having problems with something small like this- there are other great sounding players in that price range. The Audio Mecca Mephisto II comes to mind :) Good luck!
thsalmon
348 posts
 
This is a realy lousy situation, but it is entirely emblematic of how much of the "high end" audio industry operates. I have seen many instances in which an importer massively inflates the retail price of an item compared to its' country of origin. In most cases, the mark-up is difficult or impossible to justify based upon import duties, distribution costs and advertising fees. Certainly, we live in country with a free market, but such "aggressive" pricing policies smack of opportunism and profiteering. I personally have passed on certain brands due to the U.S. importer's high mark-up. It's the only way to fight them. Alas, it's a shame that many importers and companies simply don't understand that the "high end ripoff" drives away many potential customers.

As for the manufacturer, there should be no excuse for not supporting the product, no matter where it was purchased! You might not expect the imported to help you, but the manufacturer should. You should post frequently about this problem here and on other audio sites so that others will learn about how you were treated. I bet that won't help Electrocompanient's sales, and they might look for a new importer.
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