Re: Uli Behringer of The Music Group Q&A
I decided it was all a bit uncertain re what to do about the price and pre-order and the delivery dates in the UK. I had pre-ordered one from studiospares for £1,799 ( no payment/no deposit - no email confirmation - as did it by phone - but verbal confirmation of price at the time) After the price rise I had thought of attempting to hold them to this when I was hoping to collect it by end of August and after "unknown" availability date went back to december condidered that for me to wait for the pre-order with this delivery date I would call to see if the price I pre-ordered at would be honoured -i.e. might make it worth waiting. However, my feeling is that because I had not already paid it would not be - and indeed re the studiospares hardcopy catalogue they have a disclaimer saying prices published are only valid for 30 days (i.e. may go up or down) - it is possible that this could be applied to an item that was pre-ordered against a price on the website for which they also had no control over the wholesale changes in price they would be charged when stock became available- but maybe they would have honoured the initial price provided they still made some profit - basically I should have asked at the time of the order.
I was making these considerations at the week-end (studiospares closed)and then decided (not over rational!)on Saturday with all the uncertainty of delivery to go and simply order the desk and case bundle from Thomann - with expected new stock in early September- for which they are taking orders -( I had considered doing this at the time of the initial pre-order but had at that time worked out it would be cheaper to buy the desk from studiospares and the case separately from Thomann - which is no longer the case (no pun intended!))
But who knows what may happen - Thomann may not get their expected stock - studiospares may get stock earlier than expected and may have honoured the pre-ordered price - and I may lose out.
I hope this thing will be worth all the effort - although they are shifting the blame I thing it was all a bit of a shambles by Behringer marketing - and when sending out info to retailers to advertise the thing they should have made it clear that the price at the time was not fully confirmed advising retailers to state this- as I feel it is their (Behringer's) reputation that has really taken the hit!
Actually having read Uli's reply re Behringers direct dealing to only Digital Village and Electrovision - I take some of that back as Behringer had little control what was advertised re an "advised" pricing for the unit. However, the changes in prices (I seem to remember DV went from about 1799 to about 1880 and then to current price - reason why I ordered from studio spares who were still at the 1,799 price for a long time!) - have reflected back on Behringer rightly or wrongly!
