Well Paul,
If you ever E'd me, I sure never got it. My E has not changed, it's still linked here. You could have posted something here on the board too that you needed me to E you or you would be in Sacto. or whatever. Could have gone to my site and sent me an E from the link there.I answer all my E mails if I get one period.

So I will E you again for the next time you are in town.

Many valid points have been made here regarding return policies and their necessity. I rarely return anything, but have returned a couple of pieces of gear and exchanged them for another piece after playing with them in my studio for a few days. Those things at store level here are then put out as opened or whatever and a discount given on them for the most part. I realize with a slim profit margin already this is hard for the retailers or companies to do however, these boards and gear are fairly complicated and it takes a few days or so to see if it is going to fit into the program. The next thing is in most of these stores, GC especially one cannot hear squat in there for all the 3 chord wonders that come in crank up the volume and keep playing the same crap over and over again for an hour in the store. When I asked them about that, they said it is the company policy to not issue headphones to all because they wanted to create excitement with all the noise. It sure is noise.

The other thing IMO is that NAMM should run another day or two say Thursday & Friday or Monday&Tuesday and those days should be for dealers only with the weekends open to the public for a fee. You guys would also have to add a couple of more locations to the itinerary, so it would be more convienent for cutomers.

Barring that perhaps mini trade shows across the country. Many companies do this....woodworking and sewing equipment as an example. Business may not always be done at these shows, but the customer then goes home and thinks about the product and many purchase later from a retailer locally, or mail order or the next time the show comes to town. I have seen some of the same booths at these shows for the last 20 years so it must be well worth it and having done these types of shows myself it is worth it, if for nothing else, the mailing list it creates.

GEM needs to do something if they want any of the US market. It's fine that George and Dan carry it but that is not going to cut it for the vast majority of potential customers in general. George is a good 8 hours from me one way, sorry but there isn't any keyboard I want or need that badly to drive 16 hours and stay overnight for.

Sorry but to me the entire sales market has changed from companies, stores, sales people really wanting one's business to acting more like they are doing us a favor by selling us their products. I think it ludicriou to me to hear someone proclaim their great customer service. I was born into and raised in retail....and today people/companies do not have even close to a clue as to what good customer service is 95% of the time IMO. There are exceptions to the rule but they are getting farther and farther in between.

The other day I had some idiot assistant manager at Staples blow me off over a $30. rebate I did not receive from them and his boss told me to come into the store and they would take care of it there if I did not get the rebate. This guy basically told me and any future business to take a hike, Fortunately for them his boss was there and made it right, otherwise they would have kissed any more business from me goodbye. And I spent the rebate plus some right there and then....what a dope. These sorts of stories to me are not the exception anymore, they are the rule by and large.

Gem I think needs to try harder and go farther if they want to sell many of the boards in the US. Arrangers to me in part have piss poor sales here, because nobody sells them, meaning if you walk into a music store, they walk you over to a workstation, not an arranger. The way for companies to combat that is to have higher visibility to the crowd they are trying to sell to. If you take a look at the mean age of the arranger players here, I would bet it has to be above 45/50, so it does not surprise me they do not sell well in a store that is basically catering to 17 year olds like GC. Not to mention the store personnel for the most part knows zero about them. I demo'd a VA76 the other day at my local M&P and a keyboard guy that's been there as long as I can remember and have been going in there 10 years or so, knew zero about the board.

I have bought 2 boards off of demos A Karma when Tom Norton demo'd it and a Motif when Blake Angelos demo'd it...if you've not seen a Blake demo.....what a shame, Blake COOKS big time. If he comes around with the new Mo Es,he'll probably convince me to buy one of those too. I think attendance may be poor at those demos because the promotion and build up of excitement around them is poor also add in a show special and you have the sales combo. As has been cited here we all would like a better deal.
Terry

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jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html

[This message has been edited by trtjazz (edited 07-24-2003).]