At 09:50 AM 7/27/2005, George Gleason wrote:
>Hey, I'm not a doctor, wanna' buy some narcotic-analgesic painkillers...? > > >Sorry, Carl, they are subject to fraud charges (civil and possibly >criminal) for playing upon a manufacturer's marketing claims and not >living up to those claims. > >Fine print doesn't count either. Ya know, I was reluctant to get into this discussion because my asbestos underwear is in the laundry. mnm help me out here. Panasonic can NOT control software any better than Microsoft. There are whores in the marketplace (ob joke We already have established what you are, now we're just negotiating price) who will sell your soul for a price. Morality and/or ethics aside, if someone calls me up and asks me to install a system I didn't sell, be it Panasonic, Avaya, Nortel, or any other brand, I'm going to assess the value against the risk whether I'm certified or not. After 30+ years of installing stuff out of the box, I think I can figure out most systems, or find someone who can. >And if an illegitimate dealer is offering software, the software is by >definition bootleg, so they're as guilty as if they were selling pirated >copies of MS Office. > >And unsupported product intended for non-USA markets, good luck getting >the software legitimately. And if you get it illegitimately, Panasonic >has grounds to yank your certs. Once again, there's nothing to yank. >As for soapboxes and sweets, you have to live with yourself. Frankly I'm >disappointed. And in the long run you're screwing yourself too >(interesting picture that makes!). You've been reading too many Penthouse letters :-) >As for me, on the rare occasions when I've gotten help-calls from >customers who got screwed by an illegitimate dealer (e.g. wrong config, no >software, bootleg software, etc.), my response is to tell them they have >to get their money back from the badguys and press fraud charges if need >be, but I will not become a party to an illegitimate dealer's unethical >behavior. And very often it turns out that clients who whine about >getting screwed, were deliberately out shopping for a bootlegger after >having gotten legit proposals from real dealers and thinking they could >get something for nothing. So those clients are not as innocent as they >may seem, and I'm not going to be an "enabler" of that kind of behavior. Enabling what? Charge them more than you would have a regular customer and you're both happy. He got a good hardware deal and you got a good labor deal. If you don't, do you think the customer is going to do what you asked? Or is he going to hang up the phone and call someone who will do it instead of you? History has shown that manufacturers are not loyal to dealers. I know, (TIE) that some of them are no longer in business, but don't believe that wearing Panasonic underwear will keep you in good stead with them. Money talks. I don't believe for a minute that if I sell 10 systems a year at full markup and another guy sells 10 systems a month at cost that Panasonic is going to consider me a better dealer. Likewise, my vendor is going to feel the same way. However, if I start buying 10,000 feet of cable and associated hardware a month, he's going to take notice. So I'm not going to blow off the internet surfer because he didn't buy the KSU from me. I still get a higher markup on station equipment and labor is labor. Carl _________________________________________________________________ KX-T Mailing list --- http://kxthelp.com/ Subscription changes: http://kxthelp.com/mailman/listinfo/kxt
