Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

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Jonathan Wiegratz

Jonathan Wiegratz

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Oct 11, 2011
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www.bostoncommonband.com
Prefacing the current situation: I have been an Allen & Heath user for over 10 years... using their MixWiz and Xone mixers, and recommending them to just about anyone who inquires or asks me for advice.


When Allen & Heath announced the QU-16, I was extremely excited. My band was/is beginning to outgrow our MixWiz3 and are looking to make the jump into the digital mixing market. Looking at the feature-set of the QU-16, and combining that with the known reputation that Allen & Heath has delivered over the years, convinced me that this was the right board to be moving towards. With that in mind, I placed my Pre-Order the very-first day that it was possible through my GC Pro representative.


Here we are ~8 months later, and I still do not have my board... yet online resellers such as AMS, zZounds, Full Compass, etc... are all have a handful of these boards in-stock and ready to ship immediately. So basically, you mean to tell me... Joe Blow can walk-in off the street and buy a QU-16 from one of these stores, before someone who has had the board pre-ordered for 8+ months?


After seeing this, I got in touch with my GC Pro rep who had it escalated up the chain to see what the story is. Apparently, and what was communicated to me was that, Allen & Heath fulfilled pre-orders to dealers who have "guaranteed" they would buy "x" amount of these boards... and since the QU-16 is a "special order" item at GC, they will not be fulfilling those orders right-away.

So another-words, since A&H didn't like that GC wasn't guaranteeing they would buy these boards in bulk, they decided to delay all orders to GC. (a very childish move). And at the end of this chain, they have screwed over a long-time customer. I wish you luck Allen & Heath, if this is your new business model... at the end of the day, these moves will screw-over your customer base and I'm likely the tip of the iceberg... unlucky for you, I'm a very vocal iceberg and am posting this message for others to see your unfortunate decisions.
 
Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

Are you sure that GC actually placed the appropriate order with A+H? This sounds like A+H has been fulfilling orders that they have in hand first, likely in the order they were received, or perhaps based on order size (so larger orders get filled in full before the smaller ones get handled from what's left of the produiction run). Especially since the companies you listed are all stocking dealers (i.e. they carry inventory). I don't know many distributors that prioritize based on promises of orders vs. actually orders and a history of orders.
 
Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

Rob Timmerman said:
Are you sure that GC actually placed the appropriate order with A+H? This sounds like A+H has been fulfilling orders that they have in hand first, likely in the order they were received, or perhaps based on order size (so larger orders get filled in full before the smaller ones get handled from what's left of the produiction run). Especially since the companies you listed are all stocking dealers (i.e. they carry inventory). I don't know many distributors that prioritize based on promises of orders vs. actually orders and a history of orders.
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I had received a confirmation that my pre-order was in... THE DAY that pre-orders were available on it.


I'm sure there's plenty of blame to go around on both sides here... but at the end of the story, me... the customer of both GC and AH is affected by this. How is it fair to me that I put money down and was one of the first people to pre-order this item, and still don't have it, while other dealers have them in-stock and ready to go??
 
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Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

GC is your problem. I'm sorry but every time I hear someones experience with GC its always negative. I have a sweetwater rep who bends steel to make sure I'm happy as a customer. I also maybe spend less than $1k a year on equipment but anytime I need a question answered he's always either returned my email or my phone call within an hour.
 
Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

Jordan Lahr said:
GC is your problem. I'm sorry but every time I hear someones experience with GC its always negative. I have a sweetwater rep who bends steel to make sure I'm happy as a customer. I also maybe spend less than $1k a year on equipment but anytime I need a question answered he's always either returned my email or my phone call within an hour.
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That's the difference between buying from the cheapest vs. being willing to pay for good service. You really do get what you pay for in this world.
 
Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

Jonathan Wiegratz said:
I placed my Pre-Order the very-first day that it was possible through my GC Pro representative.


Here we are ~8 months later, and I still do not have my board... yet online resellers such as AMS, zZounds, Full Compass, etc... are all have a handful of these boards in-stock and ready to ship immediately. So basically, you mean to tell me... Joe Blow can walk-in off the street and buy a QU-16 from one of these stores, before someone who has had the board pre-ordered for 8+ months?
Click to expand...

I left the appropriate information above. See your problem? Other retailers get/give better service than GC.
 
Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

GC/MF are in the slow process of going bankrupt. You'll see more and more companies not willing to sell them product on credit. I buy stuff from them because they sell under their (net) cost on sale items but I don't fool myself that is a sustainable business :?~:-?~:???:.
 
Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

Jonathan Wiegratz said:
Dick - I see what you did there. ;)
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JW....

My "personal sales reps" at several of the larger Internet sound vendors NEVER make me pay money down on items not in stock. Do I understand correctly that GC has had your money all this time? Or did they just have your credit card # and would bill you when (and if) they ever laid hands on a Qu-16?
 
Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

Ron Kimball said:
GC/MF are in the slow process of going bankrupt. You'll see more and more companies not willing to sell them product on credit. I buy stuff from them because they sell under their (net) cost on sale items but I don't fool myself that is a sustainable business :?~:-?~:???:.
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+1000 I hope they go under sooner than later. They are terrible for our industry.
 
Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

Kemper Watson said:
He's posted all this over 4 forums, probably more. Bob Leonard researched it quite a bit. Seems GC doesn't have the capitol to place an order with A&H, and this is somehow Allen & Heath's fault.
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Kemper,

The guy's a troll.

To be exact my post is a summary of probability based on business factors and normal operating practice. GC may have the capitol or credit but is unwilling to use those funds for a large costly order with A&H at this time, or the quantity exceeds what A&H can provide for their almost 200 stores at one time.

At any rate his wonder rep at GC told him everything except what GC clearly states on their own web sites. They / GC won't have stock until 11/29.

AMS and Sweetwater have the board. or so it seems.


Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution
 
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Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

Does prove the point that going with the lowest price you can find sucks if there's no service behind it. Now that GC has killed off most of the independant stores it'll be interesting to see what happens when they finish killing themselves off by selling stuff below their own COGS. OTOH AFAIK Sam Ash is doing OK as is the Zzounds/AMS/whatever group of internet stores?
 
Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

Jonathan Wiegratz said:
<snip> How is it fair to me ......<snip>
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"Fair" seems to be a word more often used by moaners, and moaning in every forum at hand isn't going to win much sympathy. Maybe this moaning is an attempt to get some action from someone who can help with the situation, but I doubt if it will succeed.
 
Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

Or in other words-"Would someone slap some grease on that dang squeaky wheel"
 
Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

So wouldn't the obvious solution here be to cancel the order with GC and order the board from one of the dealers that has stock?? Or are you hell bent on buying from GC?
 
Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

Jonathan Wiegratz said:
Prefacing the current situation: I have been an Allen & Heath user for over 10 years... using their MixWiz and Xone mixers, and recommending them to just about anyone who inquires or asks me for advice.


When Allen & Heath announced the QU-16, I was extremely excited. My band was/is beginning to outgrow our MixWiz3 and are looking to make the jump into the digital mixing market. Looking at the feature-set of the QU-16, and combining that with the known reputation that Allen & Heath has delivered over the years, convinced me that this was the right board to be moving towards. With that in mind, I placed my Pre-Order the very-first day that it was possible through my GC Pro representative.


Here we are ~8 months later, and I still do not have my board... yet online resellers such as AMS, zZounds, Full Compass, etc... are all have a handful of these boards in-stock and ready to ship immediately. So basically, you mean to tell me... Joe Blow can walk-in off the street and buy a QU-16 from one of these stores, before someone who has had the board pre-ordered for 8+ months?


After seeing this, I got in touch with my GC Pro rep who had it escalated up the chain to see what the story is. Apparently, and what was communicated to me was that, Allen & Heath fulfilled pre-orders to dealers who have "guaranteed" they would buy "x" amount of these boards... and since the QU-16 is a "special order" item at GC, they will not be fulfilling those orders right-away.

So another-words, since A&H didn't like that GC wasn't guaranteeing they would buy these boards in bulk, they decided to delay all orders to GC. (a very childish move). And at the end of this chain, they have screwed over a long-time customer. I wish you luck Allen & Heath, if this is your new business model... at the end of the day, these moves will screw-over your customer base and I'm likely the tip of the iceberg... unlucky for you, I'm a very vocal iceberg and am posting this message for others to see your unfortunate decisions.
Click to expand...

Jonathan, here's my take:

All GC can rightfully do is to promise you that you are first in line to get a mixer when they are available to GC:
They are not in a position to rightfully promise that you are first in line to get one out of all mixers sold. That's not for GC to control.

It seems a little naive to think that GC would have the "pull" to dictate A&H's production cycles and supply chains.

My observation is that GC made a promise they were not able to fully keep. A&H may have very reasonable grounds for not delivering mixers to GC at the same time as to other resellers.

You need to tell whoever promised you the mixer that you don't appreciate them promising you something that they can't keep.

Weather it's A&H being difficult, parts being unavailable in China, a transit warehouse becoming flooded somewhere, or the position of Venus relative to Mars, that's causing the delay is immaterial to you: What you need to worry about is who made you a promise they couldn't keep, and how you should use that information when choosing a dealer in the future. GC made that promise to you. Granted, someone at A&H MAY have made GC a promise A&H couldn't keep - but that's for GC to worry about. Let them write angry letters to A&H.


Let me spell it out in this way: If your band is late for a wedding gig and you blame the flight running late...does the angry bride:

1). Blame you and ask for a discount?
2). Blame the airline, and ask them for a discount?

It's simple supply chain logistics:
The end client asks her supplier (in this case of musical entertainment) to come to an agreement with her, and in turn, you go to your subcontractor (in this case, someone delivering transportational services you need to be able to deliver musical entertainment on time) to make them do right by you. If in turn, the airline was running late because someone else screwed up, they will turn the heat on them, and so on and so forth.

If you still don't grasp the idea after this explanation, I give up!
 
Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

My Local Dealer (old brick and mortar store) received their Qu16 stock on July 30th (posted on Facebook) and as of last week they've sold 15 so far and have 5 sitting in the warehouse.
 
Re: Pre-Order Fail : An open letter to Allen & Heath and AMS Distribution

The sister thread over at PSW has already been locked, so I'll throw in my observations here.

Jono, your problem is with Banjo Depot. For whatever reasons they don't have inventory when even the smaller Mom & Pop stores do. Get a refund and purchase your mixer elsewhere.

I'm not a fan of AMS/Allen-Heath's USA operations. I've posted before that I'd still be waiting on the demo console they promised me 4 or 5 years ago, but since they didn't deliver we simply purchased other products, none of which are Allen-Heath. If you have a problem with A-H, you have other choices in the market and if you wait a few months there will be yet more choices.

But your anger at A-H is misdirected. Your relationship is solely with the retailer and your efforts would be better directed at them.
 
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