James,
You are taking the comments from Fred and myself too personal. Neither of us are hoping you go out of business. We both have similar views on this new MRP price fixing policy but since I don't know exactly what Fred is thinking I will stop talking for him.
It seems to me you lump anyone who sells below your price in the same basket as
these places*.
*These places are the ads in the back of magazines with killer prices which are typically grey market, imports, non-US models, don't come with all accessories, etc... When you call them up they will sell you the unit, then offer to throw in the power adapter for $49, then a warranty for $99, then a...
I rarely ever shop at these places. 95% of my shopping is done at Amazon.com, why?
-No sales tax
-Free shipping
-Great prices (not always best but very good)
-Great customer service
-Legit, US spec models (Exact same place you get your stock to sell, direct from Garmin)
-I have a prime account which gives me 2-day UPS air shipping on everything I buy for free ($70 annual fee)
-Great return policy
-Customer reviews (which you have to take with a grain of salt)
Sure Amazon doesn't do any hand holding that you do, but how hard is it to call Garmin or use Google for most any issue?
Much of the information you post is nothing more than a press release from Garmin themselves.
I have never said you don't have the right to earn a living, hell if I lived outside of California I probably would have bought my Garmin from you but that Sales tax & shipping money adds up (which doesn't end up in your pocket anyway) Nearly $100 more if I bought from you vice my reputable dealer (Amazon.com)
Bottom line, let Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry's, etc... continue to sell the units for MSRP to all the people who don't know any better. Buyer beware and hopefully people will learn to stay away from ebay, open box, refurbished units and Grey market sellers.
But, there are sellers and other people out there selling to informed consumers like myself who don't need the hand holding or support. We can figure 99% of it out or make it work ourselves.
Why should the fact that I can figure 99% of it out for myself mean I have to pay an extra 20% surcharge.
(20%= Item should sell for ~$800 but MSRP is ~$1000) just like the Garmin 2730
What is that a stupid tax? No that is price fixing.
Wow! what an excellent respond and I do appreciate your links to these questionable PC and Camera stores and what you have commented.
https://donwiss.com/pictures/ManhattanStores/
You have stated:
"95% of my shopping is done at Amazon.com, why?
-No sales tax
-Free shipping
-Great prices (not always best but very good)
-Great customer service
-Legit, US spec models (Exact same place you get your stock to sell, direct from Garmin)
-I have a prime account which gives me 2-day UPS air shipping on everything I buy for free ($70 annual fee)
-Great return policy
-Customer reviews (which you have to take with a grain of salt)
Sure Amazon doesn't do any hand holding that you do, but how hard is it to call Garmin or use Google for most any issue?"
I would like to qualify that the price I sell at normally to my regular customers out of our retail stores are NOT MSRP or AKA as Manufactures Suggested Retail Price, these days, that would be a DREAM to be able to make a fair profit margin and sell at what we are suppose to be able to sell these GPS for, if we have a store front and have products to demonstrate.
Normally MSPR mark up is fair and we are allow to enjoy a profit margin between 25-30% depending on different manufacture and after you consider the cost of employees, tax, insurance, rent, utilities, inventory and demo units, it is really not that much of a mark up IF WE CAN GET IT. But it never happens because we have to compete with places such as Costco, Best Buy, Circuit cities, WalMart, Target etc that purchase 25-30K units a month and get the best price possible from these GPS manufactures. We as a small brick and mortar store do not enjoy these HUGE discounts that are offered to these large big box or warehouse companies and we still have to compete with them at our higher purchase prices on a daily bases. They do sell lower than MAP most of the time at their retail stores.
We are however expected to advertise our prices at MAP or Minimum Advertise Price which is not to say we can't lower our price when the customer shows up at our store to compete with the bigger companies, but we can't advertise at a lower cost and that is what MAP is all about.
My biggest complaint is
1] These Amazon.com resellers are BREAKING MAP policies by advertising a lower cost right on Amazon than what the factory have recommended, they don't have to sell it for the advertise price but they however need to advertise at the minimum pricing so the price does not get degraded right out of the gate. Some sell at below dealer cost which we can't compete with. These guys are not playing the same game and they are normally NOT authorized resellers or soon will not be authorized resellers for these companies by advertising a lower cost than MAP. My company in the other hand follow the rules to the tee, so even if we can sell lower, we cannot let anyone know because of the current MAP policy which we agree with.
How are these big box stores or warehouse stores getting such great prices, from return open box products, missing accessory units that is repackage by the factory and sold as new again! These special deals are only offered to these large accounts and not made available to smaller company such as mine.
2] These AMAZON.com PC and Camera Internet companies have a HUGE advantage over the Brick and Mortar stores like mine, why? If they sell a lot of PC boards and Camera lets say $5M total or more a quarter, they enjoy the deepest discount from a distributor that can offer than a price that is 5-7% BELOW dealer cost, they don't have to buy or sell a lot of GPS, they get the total volume discount which makes it hard to compete with. So they are happy making the 5% over their actually cost and sell below dealer pricing! Is this consider FAIR? Not really, they don't have the store front or the employee to show or answer customers for potential buyers. So I guess ALL middle class small 12 volt dealers deserve to be put out of business because they can't compete.
Well, here is the part that I don't understand, not a day gone by that customers come in and do not feel guilty spending our employees PAID valuable time to educate them with different GPS units and what the features are for them, they USE us to do the research so they can BUY from the Internet and save the TAX!
What about the cost of my demo units and employee time, never mind the rent for the store front and insurance. I know, I should not be there if I don't wish to get kick in the nuts! and should just close my door. If the customer is nice, they will show an Internet price ONLY AFTER all the training and free demo's is offered and ask us to match the Internet price! I love those customers and hope the GPS fails on them when they are using their Internet purchased GPS! Oh, we sell on the Internet also, not because I enjoy it, but because if I want to stay in business and move enough units to have any say with the manufactures, we have to do everything and anything we can to get our volume of sales up. Even if we sell them at cost!
The funny part is that we are not subsidize by the government and potential customers seems to think we are a public library only to use us and abuse us, we are not expected to get mad about all this because we deserve everything that is dish out to us.
I know it is hard to understand if you are on the other side of the fence looking in, but if you sit on my side of the fence and have to accept making $25-$50 gross profit for a $500-$1000 GPS system and have to pay my overhead with that $25-$50, you may have a different opinion also.
I don't expect anyone not in business to understand what I am trying to say here, but I have to at least attempt to make known that business is not easy to do and it is getting harder each day, we are all being replaced one way or another by cheaper products and cheaper labor outside the USA, and with the HUGE competition from big box and warehouse companies along with the web, it maybe necessary for ALL middle class citizen or small business owners to just depend on government subside instead of taking a risk with their savings to attempt to make a living working hard and providing the service that is not commonly found in larger big box stores or Internet!
As far as support goes, EVERYONE needs support, you have NO control over hardware failures etc and WE as Authorized factory GPS dealers are pushing for the factory NOT TO accept any repairs or warranty from unauthorized or MAP violators that is killing the market.
Do you think making 5% is to much, hell a busboy or waiter makes more than that and they don't have to use their own money to earn that 5%! Just how much do you think you can make with a system that is between $500-$1000? Gone are the days when we use to sell a GPS system for $3,200 and we were given a profit margin of $1,000 which we shared with our sales persons, we use to offer a $300 a unit commission for our salesman time to demonstrate these units for our customers, but back than, it took 50 demos to sell one unit, these days, sales is easier as long as you don't mind making less than 5% on your investment.
Finally: " Much of the information you post is nothing more than a press release from Garmin themselves."
If this was the case, why would you and many of the other members need to contact us, even you have asked questions such as " Any idea about SD card size limitations? 2GB, 4GB, 8GB SD cards (will they work)
To be honest the whole price, MRP/MAP, authorized seller thing is a sore spot."
Many GPS companies is taking a stand, and here is Pioneer new web site and announcement to fight the unauthorized dealers.
Unauthorized Internet Dealers
Pioneer does NOT offer a manufacturer's limited warranty for products purchased from anyone who is not an authorized dealer and it does NOT offer rebates or other special opportunities for products purchased from anyone who is not an authorized dealer. Pioneer is not able to identify all persons and companies who claim to be authorized Pioneer dealers. Pioneer has been able to identify the following persons and companies who are NOT authorized Pioneer dealers:
Valley TV (California)
New World Electronics (California)
eBay Sellers
Pioneer does NOT authorize any of its dealers to sell new products on eBay. Pioneer's agreements with its dealers prohibit sales on eBay. Accordingly, Pioneer does not offer its limited manufacturer's warranty or rebates for products purchased from any dealers on eBay
Thank you for your input
James
04FJR4ME
