I was told by Roland that the G70 will be sold as follows.
Dealer has a Demonstration model supplied free. from this he takes the order and the customer makes payment direct to Roland who then ships it direct to the customer.
With the above arrangement Roland have control of it's selling price and the Dealer always obtains his full profit. This stops individual Dealers from discounting. A policy I am sure will have full Dealer support.

Actually, it sounds like price fixing.

P.S. I've been in music retail since 1976.

Scott

Scott. If you are still in retail I would have thought Roland's policy situation should please you.

Bad news.
This way of buy G70 directly to Roland, not to dealer, will make:

-customer will pay more money for the kb.
-customer will must pay before G70 arrive!.
-the 30 days for trial and return will be not possible.

doesn't it?

It's not going to happen!!

No way. It's a baaaaaaad thing for retailers too.

What Graham is saying is a fact
This has been confirmed to me by Roland U.K. .. and several dealers here in the U.K.
It is in fact price fixing...
We here in the U.K. can not shop around for the best price for the G70...
We will have to pay full retail.

That just.. sucks!

This makes a difference of 500 euro's/dollars at least, going with some negative side-effects.

This was only confirmed yet to jdx, but will it be worldwide?

For years Technics had tried to exercise similar control over their keyboards' prices, with no discounting, no mailorder sales allowed (at least here in North America). Despite having a great product, they folded, because they were too greedy.
I don't think they will be following the same sales model here in the US.

Without meaning to start an argument about the pitfalls of the 30-day return policy, I will say that there is no substitute to being able to try an instrument yourself, without anyone peering over the shoulder, and other customers rushing you. I usually don't return my purchases back to the Guitar Center, but on occasion I do find that whatever I bought was not suitable for my needs. Having the comfort of a 30-day return is a huge motivator in buying things from them. Roland will be losing sales fast if they switch to this.

This is my $0.02 worth.

Regards

The buying public have the power.....
Don't but the unit and Roland will get the message & change their selling policy. Theres too much competition out there.