Elecraft UK Distribution. No Thank You!

[Rowland-8]

Julian G4ILO wrote

I have decided to get my order in before one of the
UK dealers asks for exclusive UK distribution rights and we all end up
having to pay twice the price.

I certainly hope not Julian. That must have been a bad dream about the K3 you had last night!
That in my opinion would be a retrograde step for Elecraft.
My experiences with dealers and distributors in the UK have not been good in the main part.
It would put me off purchasing. I would rather deal direct any time.
Elecraft seem to have it right for me with what they are doing at present. PLEASE DON'T GO DOWN THAT ROAD
I have no experience of the German appointed distributor however.
I hope you have sweeter dreams tonight Julian.
73 to all on the list.

Rowland
G4APO K2/236, K1 & KX1




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[Peter Howson]

I completely agree.

If it aint broke - don't fix it.

Peter
GM8GAX
K2 #4027

> Julian G4ILO wrote
>
> I have decided to get my order in before one of the UK dealers asks for
> exclusive UK distribution rights and we all end up having to pay twice the
> price.
>
> I certainly hope not Julian. That must have been a bad dream about the K3
> you had last night!
> That in my opinion would be a retrograde step for Elecraft.
> My experiences with dealers and distributors in the UK have not been good
> in the main part.
> It would put me off purchasing. I would rather deal direct any time.
> Elecraft seem to have it right for me with what they are doing at present.
> PLEASE DON'T GO DOWN THAT ROAD
> I have no experience of the German appointed distributor however.
> I hope you have sweeter dreams tonight Julian.
> 73 to all on the list.
>
> Rowland
> G4APO K2/236, K1 & KX1
>
>
>
>
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> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>

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[Dominic G4SLW]

This little thread has got me alarmed. In fact when I looked once more
on the Elecraft site (to see if I could in fact theoretically afford a
K3) I now see that Japanese orders can ONLY be made through the
official Japanese distributor.
"Note: All Japan orders (including K3) must be placed through our
distributor: EDC"
I urge Elecraft NOT to enter into any exclusive deal with a UK based
radio dealer. I suspect that many K3 orders will be initially for the
basic unit but with a view to adding (many) extras over time. If I
thought that a UK dealer would be the only outlet for Elecraft K3
accessories in the future it would stop me from even not ordering the
basic unit in the first place. In the USA you earn considerably more
than us in England and it is a sad fact that out dealers (albeit they
provide a service so I am not just making a cheap criticism of them)
still charge the same in £ as you pay in $. Effectively twice the
price. There is no escaping the fact that here in England a K3 even at
your current prices is a luxury product likely to be bought by those
who would otherwise desire, but be perhaps unable to afford, an Orion
II (currently $7,200 with ATU though to a US citizen ordering from the
Ten-Tec site direct the price is $4,395). If you make an exclusive
deal with a dealer here I think you will kill the market entirely:
Kill it stone dead. To make matters worse, unless you are able to
reassure potential customers now that they can add extras to be bought
directly from you in the future then sales to the UK will be further
reduced.
When I saw the reference to orders from Japan it stopped me in my
tracks. I cannot afford a K3 right now (although I was considering a
transverter kit) so you have not actually lost a K3 sale but I believe
that you will lose many sales (maybe even most of them) if you follow
the Japanese route.
I am not just being a miserable doom merchant. I have no regrets at
buying my K2 from you and would consider the K3 in the future (if I
have the money). I wish your company every success.

Dominic G4SLW
K2 #3071
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[Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ]

We will not be entering into any exclusive dealer relationships in
Europe. Regardless of who may be selling K3s Europe, we will always
accept direct Internet orders.

73, Eric  WA6HHQ
Elecraft


Dominic G4SLW wrote:
> I urge Elecraft NOT to enter into any exclusive deal with a UK based
> radio dealer. ...
> Dominic G4SLW
> K2 #3071
>
>  
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[Mario Lorenz]

Folks,

> We will not be entering into any exclusive dealer relationships in
> Europe. Regardless of who may be selling K3s Europe, we will always
> accept direct Internet orders.

With the K3 now being in partly preassembled or fully reassembled,
Elecraft  ought to double-check on the rules to sell to end-users to the EU.
That includes the more or less basic stuff (CE mark), the hype
stuff (ROHS -- is the K3 compliant?), to the electronic waste stuff
(WEEE). If a dealer imports the stuff, its his responsibility.

That, the VAT (which usually is included in EU prices), electronics waste
handling, stricter than US warranty rules all add up to the sales cost.

Thad said, there is little justifying a 100% markup, but
be aware that importing yourself also bears a certain risk and could
become more expensive than originally thought. For example, here in
Germany, now that (thankfully) USPS does not ship via GLS anymore, but
Deutsche Post seems to not to like going through the hassle of doing
the customs work, but rather find any excuse to just dump the goods to
the customs office and sending you a notification to deal with it
yourself (perhaps having to drive to a quite remote customs office to
pick it up).

So the quote you get from your local dealer might not entirely have just
the purpose of ripping you off...

Regards,

Mario
(not affiliated to any dealer, and always having ordered directly from
Elecraft)

--
Mario Lorenz                            Internet:    <[hidden email]>
                                        Ham Radio:   DL5MLO@DB0ERF.#THR.DEU.EU
Trust the computer industry to shorten "Year 2000" to Y2K.  It was this kind
of thinking that caused the problem in the first place.
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