ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
I have recently returned to work after taking a break for 5 months, and since I have been back I have been diligently saving, which will still take me some time to put aside some money for a BeoVision Avant 55 and a set of nuns aka penguins aka BeoLab 20s.
I'm no where near the goal, but it's still been a while since I have actually saved for something, so it's going well and i feel good about myself.
I received an email from B&O, not my local store, but our Sydney store where i bought the BL12 whilst I was on the way back to the country as it was the closest store.
This email said come in and buy before the Price Rise from 1 December 2014.
As a Contract Manager I know how to deal with indexation, and whether there is a price rise; or a price decrease, sometimes the costs align with real world conditions.
It seems prices at B&O only seem to be going up, and if the market is down, they never decrease - only stay the same as last year.
But is this a wise move? I read recently that the IMF was saying that the world economy, is not growing as expected as people are still tightening their belts. Are B&O cutting off their nose, to spite their face?
I believe that a price rise is not justified.
valid points Martin and it's a hard one to answer as you want to entice young and new customers whilst heavily investing in R&D and cutting edge. products.This field of technology is fast moving and I would assume you spend time and money chasing systems that never take off.
I was thinking this morning that B&O should push more on its "Play" brand in the automotive world, we already see premium systems in Audi and Aston Martin respectfully but why not push Play to a more fun, funkier young car audience brands like Mini etc and get the name out there.
Also could B&O look at adding more value to their products rather than bringing the price down, better warranties, technical upgrades, guaranteed by back prices when up-grading, classic servicing etc.
we tend to forget there is more to design than designing.
Personally, I think you could do more harm than good by dropping the price of a product. For every customer you gain by dropping the price of a product you'll surely have ten who will be absolutely livid - half of which probably wouldn't buy B&O again...
Adding value is the best idea. It gives the stores more in their armoury to sell a product. It's all about the salesman and the customer at the end of the day... the more he has to sell the product with, the better his chances of making a sale - and that's what it's all about.
Lee
High prices -high depreciation.
As I found out to my cost, just look at what the BV 7-55 3D cost originally, and the price it sells for now.
In my case it was an unreliable TV with a resale value that sank like a stone.
At £3200, a LG 55EA980W OLED TV plus a Focal Dimension Soundbar & Sub Base now provides my AV pleasure.
Michael, my letter also included a 0% offer for 24 months.
I imagine the AU$ exchange rate fluctuations might drive a price increase - or other importation cost charges e.g. fuel ?
Like you I have been diligently saving ... for me now the dilemmas are
-- taking the 55" when I was wondering about the mythical 65"
-- taking the MK I when there may be a MK II around the Christmas corner
Perhaps I should take a bet by buying my speakers now and Avant later ?
A dollar averaging strategy ?
BeoNut since '75
Aussie Michael:I have recently returned to work after taking a break for 5 months, and since I have been back I have been diligently saving, which will still take me some time to put aside some money for a BeoVision Avant 55 and a set of nuns aka penguins aka BeoLab 20s. I'm no where near the goal, but it's still been a while since I have actually saved for something, so it's going well and i feel good about myself. I received an email from B&O, not my local store, but our Sydney store where i bought the BL12 whilst I was on the way back to the country as it was the closest store. This email said come in and buy before the Price Rise from 1 December 2014. As a Contract Manager I know how to deal with indexation, and whether there is a price rise; or a price decrease, sometimes the costs align with real world conditions. It seems prices at B&O only seem to be going up, and if the market is down, they never decrease - only stay the same as last year. But is this a wise move? I read recently that the IMF was saying that the world economy, is not growing as expected as people are still tightening their belts. Are B&O cutting off their nose, to spite their face? I believe that a price rise is not justified.
.
Present: BL90, Core, BL6000, CD7000, Beogram 7000, Essence Remote.
Past: BL1, BL2, BL8000, BS9000, BL5, BC2, BS5, BV5, BV4-50, Beosystem 3, BL3, DVD1, Beoremote 4, Moment.
seethroughyou:Price rises are absolutely warranted but only if pay goes up. My salary has stayed the same since 2010.
seethroughyou:Sturrock, how do you know that the new speakers aren't selling well?Do you mean the BL20 or BL18 or both?Do you think the price is putting people off in a recession or old beofans dying off and youngsters preferring Apples and Dr Dre's beats instead or some other intangible factor?
elephant: I imagine the AU$ exchange rate fluctuations might drive a price increase - or other importation cost charges e.g. fuel ? Like you I have been diligently saving ... for me now the dilemmas are -- taking the 55" when I was wondering about the mythical 65" -- taking the MK I when there may be a MK II around the Christmas corner Perhaps I should take a bet by buying my speakers now and Avant later ? A dollar averaging strategy ?
I don't think it's a Dollar Averaging strategy, but more a Global Pricing strategy. This is a world-wide increase.
In my previous life i used to do fuel indexation and although the bowser price looks like it increases, in-fact, over a 2 year period the wholesale price to supply fuel (importation costs would use this) actually fell. So I don't think it's that either.
It's simply just B&O deciding to increase their prices.
elephant:Michael, my letter also included a 0% offer for 24 months.
BeoGreg:In France right now untill end off the year there's a 36 months interest free campaign above 2.000 € purchase.
I think ,from experience, price cuts can be most off putting .In one year, we paid £100 extra for Smart TV on the V1 and £599 for our Beolit 12 . Later , the Smart TV became free and the Beolit reduced to £429 . I sent a quick e-mail to B&O and got some £129 headphones to say sorry. Nice , but they're available on- line for £50! Stil, mustn't grumble ...
Beo Century ,Beoplay V1, Beocenter 6, Ex-Beolit 12, Beotime , A8. Beolit 15 , Form 2i , Beolab 2000, Beoplay A3.Beosound 1
In Switzerland the promotion is different from what I can see on the Italian and French B&O sites. Instead of interest free financing, they offer 5-year warranty until 31.12.2014 on the Avant 55, BV11-40, BL18 and the A9.
In my opinion the constant price increase is not a wise strategy because Bang & Olufsen is not up to the quality level it needs to be, especially software wise. They need to learn VERY much to deliver the required perfomance in daily use of their products.
On the other side: Visiting a B&O dealer and seeing that the Beosound 5 now costs nearly 1500,- Euro less than I paid makes me feel uncomfortable and asking myself why I was so dumb to buy one of the first units. The search function is still not improved on the products and with large music collections and heavy use, one of your arms will look like Popeye in the future. Same for the Essence: Nobody really knows that the controller/remote is really capable of and B&O does not share any usable information.
Only rising prices because of a luxury brand but without a visible strategy and product quality...? Not wise.
4 beolab 5, beolab 9, beolab 10, beolab 5000, beolab 8000 mk2, beolab 6002, beolab 3500, beovision 7 55 mk2, 2 beovision 11 46 mk4, beotime, beosound ouverture, beosound essence, beoplay A8, beomaster 900 RG de luxe and the collection continues...
TWG: Same for the Essence: Nobody really knows that the controller/remote is really capable of and B&O does not share any usable information. Only rising prices because of a luxury brand but without a visible strategy and product quality...? Not wise.
@olvisab: thanks for the tip! But here in Germany the MLGW seems nearly impossible to find on the 2nd hand market - and because of the new NLGW I don't want to pay the full price for the old tech. ;)
@aussie michael: I guess that's a fairly good idea. In case of the Essence remote there are so many modes and nobody seems to know which mode does what in particular. My idea was to simply get an Essence remote and test it for myself - as always with certain products. ;)Because most of the product "reviews" found nowadays simply suck... ;)
The price increases might apply to the Avant 55 too. Back in May, a dealer told me that the "low" Avant price was only for its launch, and it would increase end of 2014/early 2015. He had mentioned 20%, but hopefully they changed their minds in Denmark..
Or maybe they lied to me just to make me get one immediately :)
TerryM:At £3200, a LG 55EA980W OLED TV plus a Focal Dimension Soundbar & Sub Base now provides my AV pleasure.
speaking of depreciation, that LG OLED TV was (in Canada) $10,000 at launch 11 months ago, a few months later it dropped to $5000 and they are now selling the demo models for C$1899 or £1060
I am always amazed by B&O's price increases though, when car companies are offering so much more for the same money that we were paying 15 years ago. My own income does not go up 10% every year, would be nice if it did.
The 55 Avant will go to about $13,500 AUD, so that's about a 1,000 increase.
I was going to write something else, but i forgot what i was gonna write... damn i hate that... (more later lol)
Ryan: TerryM:At £3200, a LG 55EA980W OLED TV plus a Focal Dimension Soundbar & Sub Base now provides my AV pleasure. speaking of depreciation, that LG OLED TV was (in Canada) $10,000 at launch 11 months ago, a few months later it dropped to $5000 and they are now selling the demo models for C$1899 or £1060 I am always amazed by B&O's price increases though, when car companies are offering so much more for the same money that we were paying 15 years ago. My own income does not go up 10% every year, would be nice if it did.
When I purchased my BV 7-55 3D system in January 2012 the price of the TV alone was £13100.
For that price one would expect not only quality, but also, above all, reliability.
Sadly, with my TV that proved to be far from the case.
Here in the UK, the LG 55EA980W was priced at £7999 at launch in September 2013 followed in December 2013 by a price reduction to £4999.
So a cutting edge OLED TV was not only priced considerably cheaper at launch, but then followed the normal pattern of price reduction during it's life cycle rather than the B & O policy of a price increase.