Warranty? what warranty? Do you all really have warranty problems.
Switch vendors. :-)
Moto doesn't have a warranty program. They die, you throw them away.
Returning them to my x-distributor resulted in the same thing. They lost
the returns. Screw it. Buy cheap and manage your own warranty. If you
really want the warranty, perhaps the group buy co-ordinator would like
to recive $2 extra per radio to put up a website with MAC addresses and
to handle each return for $20. But really, I don't want to have anything
to do with "warrenty" - We're talking $250 items. If you are buying lots
of APs, well, get a spare and return through the distributor that sold
the 'lot' to the buying group. Moto doesn't sell direct for example -
unless you are government. Hey, wait, can we be a government? Know
anyone on an Indian reservation? They are a government. :-) Perhaps
they'd like to get involved. There are few Indian businesses in my area,
unfortunately.
Brian Rohrbacher wrote:
I have never done a group buy, but this is how I would approach it.
First step. Principal Members only. You want a deal, fork over 200
some bucks and support the industry.
Second step. Find 10 people who want ten units. (500 if possible,
but prolly 100 pack to start)
Third step. Go to moto website and look up resellers.
fourth step. Call resellers and get quote. Say "look here. I have a
buying group. I want 100 SMs, charged to 10 credit cards and shipped
to 10 addresses. Send me a quote to email" Forward quote to next
reseller and go from there. Whoever is cheaper wins. If they want
the business of the buying group, they better figure out how to cut a
deal. Am I acting like a know it all Charles? Would all the
resellers say screw you if I approached like this?
If all resellers say we can't do this.....then I would (big trust
here) run all cards through paypal and pay with one lump sum and re
ship from here. Now add the 1.9% for paypal and add more for extra
shipping....don't know what that would be, but it would be figured
before hand.
I just made all that up, but it seems like it would work. Only
question is how warranty is handled. By MAC addy or by who bought the
radio.
Someone let me know if my approach is out of line. Never done this
and might be reinventing the wheel (I hope it rolls)
Brian
A. Huppenthal wrote:
Charles,
I know you don't support the idea of group buys. Enough said. Fact is
I've done group buys with high-end equipment before - it wasn't
difficult at all. If you are comparing a public distributor to a
closed membership buying club, you aren't comparing apples to apples.
I sure as hell don't want to create a distributor organization.
However, as our discussion continues, I might be willing to send Jim,
George, Brian or whomever offers a group buy $2600 for 10 Canopy SMs
if the buy is 100 units and we're all lined up. I don't need support,
training, stocking, any of the services that distributors offer.
Frankly, I don't need my distributor under cutting me to sell direct
to customers. You have your pros and cons for going to distributors
for *everything*. Certainly what's being discussed here isn't
pretending to create a distributor that has *everything*..
Frankly I think the board with the exception of myself, uniformly
doesn't support group buys.
The buyers create the relatonship for the purpose of the buy, it ends
when the product is delivered.
Charles Wu wrote:
<snip>
You would think it would work that way, but Volume Buying ends up
eating the organization and the organization becomes caught up in
being a volume club.
</snip>
We all know that there's more to a WISP than just putting up an AP and
getting a T1 line
Having run both a WISP and a distribution company, I can personally
attest
to the fact that there's more to distribution (which is what your
proposing)
than breaking up a 500 pack amongst WISP
Have you considered all the risks / implications that the buying group
faces? For starters, there's the question of payment -- given that the
buying group has no / limited credit, chances are that any vendor will
require cash up front for the purchase
So, for example, say Motorola Canopy is the product WISPA chooses
Then WISPA / Buying Group needs to come up w/ $100k to purchase that
500
pack (at say, $200 / unit for simplicity's sake)
Then, WISPA / Buying Group needs to come up w/ a warehouse to store
stuff
Then, WISPA / Buying Group needs to come up w/ a shipper/logistics
guy to
repackage / ship stuff
On top of that, chances are, 50% of the WISPs who committed to
purchasing
the packs will renege and/or delay their deliveries due to unforseen
things
that always happen in deployments (e.g., lightning, customers don't
sign
on, interference from competitor, DSL coming to town)
So now, WISPA / Buying Group needs to hire a sales guy to sell
excess units
Now, you've added overhead (and you need to add an administrative fee /
margin to compensate)
In the meantime, either
1. Motorola to announce a 50% price reduction in their Canopy line,
and all
WISPA members now wanting the new lower price (therefore causing a huge
loss)
2. Trango (or some other company) to come out w/ the new "flavor of the
month" and no one wanting the inventory anymore, sticking WISPA w/
$100k
worth of boat anchors
-Charles
-------------------------------------------
CWLab
Technology Architects
http://www.cwlab.com
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