Anthony/Chichiuno: If I might presume to take a rather large liberty here and respond for Ernie, who is probably unable to do so himself at this time, while your heart is in the right place and you are *very* generous, Ernie already has himself a perfectly good CDP, and I'm sure he would thank you, but say that your money can be put to much more important and appropriate use donated elsewhere in the world.
Onhwy61, you and I are obviously just gonna have to agree to disagree about this issue, as I am firmly of the belief that you are missing the forest for the trees, as well as conveniently ignoring the flip-flops in 'policy' evinced by the distributor's actions. 84audio has it right: How could Ernie have been expected to "know" anything about such a load of arbitrary, contradictory BS? I say to hell with the franchise agreement, this situation is much simpler and clear-cut than the distributor's position you so valiantly defend would have us believe. The guy has screwed Ernie over, and is now screwing up his market as well, which means he is screwing over not only the consumers, but also his dealers (and quite possibly the manufacturer as well, though it seems as if they may be complicit in this whole scam, or at least overly tolerant of the distributor's apparently less than stellar record and highly questionable motives/ethics - something that seems may also be the case regarding their Danish reseller).
Rationalize it any way you like, blame the victim if it gives you a sense of propriety, but your contention that Ernie was operating in a free market with open information - especially as far as aftermarket service is concerned - is laughable. The whole point here is that the company and distributor are intent on creating a closed market, apparently at any cost in customer good-will. It is they who will need protection from the downsides of their bad decisions. To paraphrase a couple of well-worn cliches using a mixed metaphor, the 'rules' in this case are both the last refuge of a scoundrel, and the hobgoblins of small minds. Ernie is being penalized for nothing he's done, and most of us clearly aren't copacetic with that. Barring any last-minute heroics, maybe you can buy his CDP from him and be EC's last customer among the members of this forum, since you're so comfortable with their policies as long as you know them in advance - and we damn sure all know them now (and I know yours and you know mine.) There's too many other good alternatives in the marketplace for the rest of us to have to tolerate, much less condone, this sort of game-playing crap. Sorry, but that's the deal as most here see it. (Now, why don't you tell us what your beef with Sony is about, instead of just asking us to participate in a boycott without any reasons being given?) Respectfully but resolutely yours, Z.
Onhwy61, you and I are obviously just gonna have to agree to disagree about this issue, as I am firmly of the belief that you are missing the forest for the trees, as well as conveniently ignoring the flip-flops in 'policy' evinced by the distributor's actions. 84audio has it right: How could Ernie have been expected to "know" anything about such a load of arbitrary, contradictory BS? I say to hell with the franchise agreement, this situation is much simpler and clear-cut than the distributor's position you so valiantly defend would have us believe. The guy has screwed Ernie over, and is now screwing up his market as well, which means he is screwing over not only the consumers, but also his dealers (and quite possibly the manufacturer as well, though it seems as if they may be complicit in this whole scam, or at least overly tolerant of the distributor's apparently less than stellar record and highly questionable motives/ethics - something that seems may also be the case regarding their Danish reseller).
Rationalize it any way you like, blame the victim if it gives you a sense of propriety, but your contention that Ernie was operating in a free market with open information - especially as far as aftermarket service is concerned - is laughable. The whole point here is that the company and distributor are intent on creating a closed market, apparently at any cost in customer good-will. It is they who will need protection from the downsides of their bad decisions. To paraphrase a couple of well-worn cliches using a mixed metaphor, the 'rules' in this case are both the last refuge of a scoundrel, and the hobgoblins of small minds. Ernie is being penalized for nothing he's done, and most of us clearly aren't copacetic with that. Barring any last-minute heroics, maybe you can buy his CDP from him and be EC's last customer among the members of this forum, since you're so comfortable with their policies as long as you know them in advance - and we damn sure all know them now (and I know yours and you know mine.) There's too many other good alternatives in the marketplace for the rest of us to have to tolerate, much less condone, this sort of game-playing crap. Sorry, but that's the deal as most here see it. (Now, why don't you tell us what your beef with Sony is about, instead of just asking us to participate in a boycott without any reasons being given?) Respectfully but resolutely yours, Z.