Hi All,
I have just read this and it has put the wind up me !
I am on the verge of ordering a K3 ... however if one of these
"Exclusive dealer contracts" is put in place I will have to
seriously reconsider.
As Dominic says below, we get ripped off royally here in the UK with
the dealers basically fixing
prices and not using international exchange rates, thus as dominic
has said below we have to pay often more than double
the USA price for the same product.
I was going to buy an Orion II however Tentec refused to sell one
direct to me saying I had to buy from the UK reseller, I pointed out
that this will cost
me almost double the USA price however, Tentec still refused to sell
to me direct, so I didn't buy their product.
Here in the UK the dealers take the USA price figure, for example US
$2000.00 and change the sign to pounds so it becomes UK £2000.00
but if we look at the exchange rates US $2000.00 = UK £1000.00 so we
are charged DOUBLE the price with all the profit going in the dealers
pocket!
This has impacted other USA product sales here in the UK as many UK
HAMs refuse to pay the extorntionate prices and often turn to home-
brew solutions instead.
Please Elecraft don't enter into one of these anti-competitive, price
fixing deals with the UK radio HAM suppliers, let us deal with you
direct,
the price will be better, the quality of service will be better and
you will get more sales into the EU market place.
I really want to order a K3 with the optional second RX and
filters ... but I want to order it direct and get support direct for
the life of the radio!
Mike - M0AWS/F5VKM
=
Message: 9
Date: Tue, 08 May 2007 00:47:00 +0100
From: Dominic G4SLW <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Elecraft UK Distribution. No Thank You!
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
This little thread has got me alarmed. In fact when I looked once more
on the Elecraft site (to see if I could in fact theoretically afford a
K3) I now see that Japanese orders can ONLY be made through the
official Japanese distributor.
"Note: All Japan orders (including K3) must be placed through our
distributor: EDC"
I urge Elecraft NOT to enter into any exclusive deal with a UK based
radio dealer. I suspect that many K3 orders will be initially for the
basic unit but with a view to adding (many) extras over time. If I
thought that a UK dealer would be the only outlet for Elecraft K3
accessories in the future it would stop me from even not ordering the
basic unit in the first place. In the USA you earn considerably more
than us in England and it is a sad fact that out dealers (albeit they
provide a service so I am not just making a cheap criticism of them)
still charge the same in £ as you pay in $. Effectively twice the
price. There is no escaping the fact that here in England a K3 even at
your current prices is a luxury product likely to be bought by those
who would otherwise desire, but be perhaps unable to afford, an Orion
II (currently $7,200 with ATU though to a US citizen ordering from the
Ten-Tec site direct the price is $4,395). If you make an exclusive
deal with a dealer here I think you will kill the market entirely:
Kill it stone dead. To make matters worse, unless you are able to
reassure potential customers now that they can add extras to be bought
directly from you in the future then sales to the UK will be further
reduced.
When I saw the reference to orders from Japan it stopped me in my
tracks. I cannot afford a K3 right now (although I was considering a
transverter kit) so you have not actually lost a K3 sale but I believe
that you will lose many sales (maybe even most of them) if you follow
the Japanese route.
I am not just being a miserable doom merchant. I have no regrets at
buying my K2 from you and would consider the K3 in the future (if I
have the money). I wish your company every success.
Dominic G4SLW
K2 #3071___
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