ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
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Hello, I hope this is not a sensitive topic but as I would be looking to purchase a new B&O V1 television I was wondering if anyone could please guide me to a dealer who is willing to offer generous discounts?
I am in the market for a 40", cash transaction no help installing or advice.
Please post or send me pm.
Thanks
Beosound Stage, Beovision 8-40, Beolit 20, Beosound Explore.
Chris Townsend:I understand why you have asked this question, but the price is not always the bottom line when it comes to this gear.
x2
Chris Townsend: the price is not always the bottom line when it comes to this gear.
... but for this customer it clearly is! And he is quite happy to have 'no help installing or advice'. Ideally I suspect he'd like to order online.
I too would be very interested to know the answer.
Our V1 took 3 hours to install by the dealer and I would not have enjoyed trying to do it myself. If you look at the beoplay website ,all the other products can be bought online though.
Beo Century ,Beoplay V1, Beocenter 6, Ex-Beolit 12, Beotime , A8. Beolit 15 , Form 2i , Beolab 2000, Beoplay A3.Beosound 1
3 hours! Really?
But some people enjoy the technology and embrace the challenge of installing the equipment themselves. Generally all you have to do is read the manual!
EDIT: Just looked at your 'flash your B&O' post - have you told him it's upside-down???!
i came back from work and the V1 was up and running .
... but I've watched loads of 'Nigella' and still struggle with scrambled egg! Each to his own.
BeoMedia: Hello, I hope this is not a sensitive topic but as I would be looking to purchase a new B&O V1 television I was wondering if anyone could please guide me to a dealer who is willing to offer generous discounts?
No dealer offers "generous discounts", that's the nature of the brand. Your best option is either to ask your dealer if he has an ex-display V1 he wants to sell (you might get a 10-15% discount on ex-display) or look at the pre-loved dealers.
w5bno123:I believe one dealer that was very generous with giving away his margin has just gone out of business this week! Another bites the dust...
moxxey: BeoMedia: Hello, I hope this is not a sensitive topic but as I would be looking to purchase a new B&O V1 television I was wondering if anyone could please guide me to a dealer who is willing to offer generous discounts? No dealer offers "generous discounts", that's the nature of the brand. Your best option is either to ask your dealer if he has an ex-display V1 he wants to sell (you might get a 10-15% discount on ex-display) or look at the pre-loved dealers.
That isn't strictly true. There are many reasons a discount may be offered.
Ex display is certainly one, and moxxey makes a great suggestion - the customer gets an almost new TV, and the dealer gets to rotate displays and keep the store up to date & looking good. However, deals are offered all the time for many more reasons. These would include, but are not limited to:
*Loyalty - many dealers will give long-term customers a rate off the ticket price simply as a thank-you for continued business. Particularly if its a swap out install ( so changing a BV11 for an old Avant) with a relatively straightforward installation.
*Delivery only - or collection. Most dealers will offer a basic installation within the local area FOC - but if the customer declines this (maybe a hobbyist, maybe using it elsewher or buying it as a gift) then there is a saving to the dealer, who doesn't need to send a man and a van round for what is always (inc travel) at least a half day of a job.
* A big system. If a dealer is on-site for a few days doing a link system, the economies of scale dictate that the 3rd or 4th link room is a musch smaller job than adding the same room 2 years later. So a deal can be done.
* The customer haggles well. Maybe surprising - but some customers are very canny, and will push and push. As a dealer, if you have done the dem, the home survey, the quotation, and the customer is pushing to round down the total to the next obvious price point, will you walk away for the sake of a couple of hundred pounds? Some do, some don't.
The upshot is, if you don't ask, you don't get.
Back in my dealer days I would often negotiate with offer & counter-offer being bounced around maybe five or six times - this can be done in a professional and good natured way and that was always my aim. Many customers would spend time in their own 'day job' negotiating and striking deals on behalf of their companies... and often they simply cannot bring themselves to pay the ticket price. Just not in their nature . It can be a game with some of them, and many dealers will expect you to make an offer. Some do not - but they are few and far between nowadays, in my experience.
That said, if you expect a full and comprehensive installation done at the same rate as a cash & carry deal, you will soon find yourself looking for another dealer - there simply isn't the wriggle room available in UK retail to discount by 20% and still offer a bespoke, premium service with everything done on the customers behalf ( even disposing of the packing carries a cost to dealers, whilst it is free to householders)
With all this in mind - The rainy city may be a place to visit.
w5bno123:A London dealer!
There will always be someone out there who needs to move the metal at a particular time and place. The trick is hitting this retailer when they need to sell the most. A good example is Best Buy here in the U.S. and Apple products. Generally, everyone would assume that discounting on Apple products is even LESS likely than B&O products. You certainly won't get ANY discount at most Apple outlets. But every once in a while Best Buy managers will get a boot up their rear end from corporate to move Open Boxed (returned items that can't be sold as new) inventory at a given store at almost any cost. Technically, Apple also sells "Open Box" through the Apple refurbished store, but the discounts are not usually anything major.
As part of this, Best Buy will nationally run a 10 percent "extra" off Open Box price promotion every so often, but over and above THIS, I walked into a BB once that was mired in so many open box products, that they were having an unannounced *50 percent* off MSRP sale on all open box items. This means that 2200.00 MacBook Pros walked out the door for about 1100.00 with full warranty, and while I got there too late for the computers, I got an 800.00 iPad for 400, and it was the latest model.
On this note, I recently found a very interesting internal B&O document in the bowels of the BeoWorld technical archive for the BeoLab 5s which I have always felt to be significantly overpriced at retail (especially since they are little changed from their original debut but now retail for 8000.00 MORE than they did in 2003 here in the states, approximately 16,000 US then and 24,000 US now, somewhat to do with exchange rates perhaps) but a good bargain in the demo/used world because of the fact that all of the amplification and processing is handled for you without the need for any other electronics if you so choose.
The article states the following: "BeoLab 5 is the 2004 top-of-the-line loudspeaker within the Bang & Olufsen loudspeaker portfolio on three important parameters:
The sound capability will be with the best in the market - and on certain parameters even better - and bring this loudspeaker to an state-of-the art position. This position, combined with a daring design, and a very high price point opens up an interesting business perspective."
I don't know if this document went to dealers or exclusively to service personnel but essentially, B&O never made any qualms that the speaker's price was set high to create an impression. How you want to take that is up to you, but the bottom line remains that there is likely plenty of room on some B&O products, and little room on things like BeoPlay products which compete more with the Apple type products of the world. I know a well known retailer here in the states (Abt) will knock 25 percent off the purchase price of any B&O speaker right off the bat if the speakers are purchased at the same time as a Video product (TV). They don't even hide this as its right on their website and has been for some time... So yes, the bottom line is there IS discounting if you're willing to do the legwork and hit the right store at the right time... This isn't really anything earth shattering. Speakers in particular have always been known to be high profit items, from any brand.
(and don't even get me started on the way Rolex intimidates the market into believing that discounts "aren't allowed")
folkdeejay: That isn't strictly true. There are many reasons a discount may be offered.
No-one said *no* discounts were available. The poster asks about *generous* discounts. Now, I'm not sure how you define generous, but this implies, say, 30-40% off to me.
It's relatively easy to get 10-15% off, but on a price of a V1, this would be a couple of hundred pounds. Not generous as the poster was suggesting.
Having just bought a new TV , I received an e-mail from the dealer
"Experience Bang & Olufsen sound and walk away with exclusive savingsAt Bang & Olufsen we have shared a passion for sound since 1925. Perfecting techniques that reproduce audio as close to its original form as possible. Our loudspeakers are designed to transform a room, allowing you to immerse into the music the moment you press ’play’.We are very proud of our loudspeakers and naturally want our customers to experience the best of what we have, and as such would like to invite you to come in and have a personal sound demonstration of your desired loudspeakers. There is no obligation to buy but should you then wish to purchase, between now and 15th May 2013, we can offer exclusive savings on a range of our iconic loudspeakers. "
I thought I might enquire about the suitable subwoofer!
The dealer told me when I first enquired at launch of the V1 that the margin was18% "unlike B&O normal rate as if to say " don't expect a discount"
this post reminds me of the ones on the Alfa forum where people expect to get Vauxhall level of discounts and both Alfa and B&O have appeal beyond price! Alfa are avoiding oversupply so they don't get massive depreciation.
Wouldn't you just love to be the UK dealer who gets outed on BeoWorld as the "go to" for big discounts?
StUrrock:Ealing?
moxxey: folkdeejay: That isn't strictly true. There are many reasons a discount may be offered. No-one said *no* discounts were available. The poster asks about *generous* discounts. Now, I'm not sure how you define generous, but this implies, say, 30-40% off to me. It's relatively easy to get 10-15% off, but on a price of a V1, this would be a couple of hundred pounds. Not generous as the poster was suggesting.
Fair enough.
Without giving away any commercially sensitive info, your definition of generous would, I suspect, be called ruinous by most dealers.
Discounts of 30% or more tend to be seen at the kind of retailers who, to be blunt, are overcharging customers on a daily basis for most of the time. When the headline price gives them a margin of many times more than a typical electrical retailer and they can knock 40% off a product and still make a decent return.
So food retailers, furnishings, some clothing outlets etc will offer BOGOF deals, 0% finance over 3 or 4 years, half price sales etc etc.
When you see "40% off" at Tesco, they will have bought in at a lower price than normal with the specific intention of selling cheaper - or be clearing an overstock.
B&O have run the odd promo out of DK, whereby the factory ships stuff on offer (say a discount on speakers when ordered with an audio master) but as a rule, stock is ordered as it is sold. The exception to this are the takeaway items like A8's and the Beoplay products which will be carried (in smallish quantities) from stock, but even so dealers will not be around for very long if they sell you a new, boxed item for less than they paid for it.
Back in the day when I sold gear and knew a number of other retailers, this was always a major problem in trying to sell higher quality brands. The mass market gear, Pioneer, Sansui, etc. had a lot more generous markup. In fact, the Pioneer dealer price list that you consulted looked like this:
Cost 10% 20% 30%.....100%
When someone asked for a discount, you'd say "hmmm, let me see, list is X, then you'd look at the book, pick a markup of say 50 or 60%, say I can give it to you for X-N, and the guy would be ecstatic, he got a deal! Never mind you were still hitting him for a major markup.
I worked mainly with what would be "boutique" high end brands though we had some mass market stuff. The problem was most of them had at most 35-40% markup at best, when you needed 30% to keep the lights on, pay the rent, pay your employees, etc. 30% will not make a dealer rich. So you'd have someone come in, hey, I can buy a Japanese receiver for a discount of X%, why should I pay you near list for your stuff!? Regardless of the fact our stuff was better. Dahlquist or A/D/S vs. Sansui or Ultralinear speakers. UL was a black box kind of speaker.
Re Black Box speakers, in the days of the old Fair Trade laws, manufacturers could say no discounting at all and get the feds to enforce it against you if you did. So, the rise of the black box speaker. You'd put a system together, say a receiver and a pair of speakers, and offer a hefty discount. The speakers, not a high end item by any stretch of the imagination, would have like a 300% markup or more, so you'd get full list for the receiver, and it appeared you were giving them a smokin good deal. Say, a 500 receiver that cost you 300 bucks, coupled with a 500 dollar pair of speakers that you paid maybe 50-100 bucks for, for 750 bucks. You made close to a keystone 100% and the guy thought he got a heck of a deal.
Jeff
I'm afraid I'm recovering from the BeoVirus.