The Audio Guy - Dallas Home Theater Expert All your Dallas Home
Theater Needs

I’ve written a blog before about this subject, but will probably touch on it from time to time because it’s such a sensitive issue to those of us in the retail industry and especially in the home theater market.

Here in the Dallas home theater market , like everywhere else in the country, the slow economy has caused many consumers to stop spending (at least like they used to anyway) and those that do, are shopping around a lot more. I certainly applaud those that spend money wisely and make informed decisions, but that brings me to the issue at hand – just how informed are you?

Picture the following scenario.

Phone rings. “The Audio Guy, this is Clay, how can I help you?”

Caller - “Yes hi, I’m interested in doing some work at my house. Do you provide free estimates?”

Clay – “We do, what would you like to set up? Next week, 10 am? Great, see you then.”

I go to the job site, review the details and plans, visit with the owner and go back to my office to prepare an estimate. Depending on the job location, this whole process can take between 2 or 3 hours before I get the estimate sent out. Two weeks later, I get the following phone call:

“Hey Clay, I bought all the stuff you recommended on the internet and now I’m ready for you to install it. When can we schedule?”

Before I go more in to this, again, I want to say that I’m all for people shopping wisely. I think if nothing else, with the current state of the economy we’ve learned we can’t just throw money away. But here’s the issue as I see it. First, as a consumer you should know who you are buying from. The first question to ask yourself is whether the person/store/website you are buying from is an authorized dealer of the products they carry. I’ve said this before, and will continue to stress it in the future – go to the manufacturer’s website and look at their internet policy. This is off the Proficient Audio website:

Proficient Internet Warning

Proficient products are sold exclusively to consumers through installing dealers. These dealers are trained by Proficient to credibly represent and demonstrate our products. They provide professional installations, post-sale support and service on all Proficient products. Please be advised that any person or web site offering Proficient product on the Internet are not authorized to do so. Proficient will not honor its warranty on any product purchased from unauthorized individual via the internet or any other website seller.
Unauthorized internet sellers often knowingly deceive the consumer by telling them the product is covered by the warranty and that the specific company will continue to support the original purchaser. This is absolutely not the case. We urge you to use caution and select a reputable local installing dealer to make your purchase and install your products.

Here is a link to Velodyne’s internet warning (http://velodyne.com/about/unauthorized.aspx?sid=791r350g)

They go even further addressing transshipping from dealer to unauthorized dealer. Not only does this violate the dealer agreement risking the relationship the authorized dealer has with Velodyne, it again voids the consumer warranty.

So why is this? Is this a plot to keep prices high? Not at all. First, the companies that do this and the dealers they select care about their products and their customers. Many of us spend countless hours in training learning about new products, proper installation of product and how to choose the right product. When I come to your house to look at your project, you can be assured that I will recommend products that I have experience with, products that are suitable for your project and the correct ones for the job. These companies don’t want customers calling up or being disappointed because someone that doesn’t know what they’re doing recommending the wrong product. Universal Remotes made it extremely difficult to get their software because so many consumers were returning or unhappy with the product because they didn’t know how to use the software properly and were messing up the remotes.

So, you might be thinking… okay, I’ll have the expert come evaluate the site, make the recommendations and I’ll save a few bucks buying on the internet and take my chances on the warranty. Aside from the fact that that’s pretty disrespectful to our time, when I bid a job, I usually try to cap installation, or make a “package” discount for everything when equipment is purchased from us. If it’s not, then it’s a straight hourly rate and if the equipment doesn’t work, then you’ll be paying us again to uninstall it and reinstall it once you get it back. Pretty quickly, the money you saved can evaporate.

Finally, we’re all here to make a living. Sure, most of us totally love what we do (it’s a great job) but like everyone else, I have a mortgage, car payments and kids to support and if I can’t make a reasonable amount of money doing this (and I assure you, none of us will hit the fortune 500 doing this) then I’ll have to move on to something else and we already see this happening to several dealers and custom shops. Eventually, there will only be a handful of people left doing this and the places you bought from in the past will be gone. You don’t access to the people that supported you before, the people that worked for that business are out of jobs and most of them will cut back what they spend for services as well. Everyone loses in that scenario.

-Clay Hankins is the CEO of The Audio Guy, LLC located in the Dallas, TX area and serving the Dallas Home Theater and surrounding area markets.