Outback dealer protection? [RE-wrenches]

[William Korthof]

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Hmmm...

I'm not sure I feel the same way about this kind of situation. I'm glad 
Outback makes replacment parts readily available, and I want all 
manufactures to make the acquisition of replacement parts as easy as 
possible for everyone. I don't view the direct sale of repair parts to 
customers as a threat. It's nice to retail stuff to customers, but I 
don't like stocking all the different odd inverter parts that fail...
I like it when manufactures make replacment parts more accessible and at 
lower prices.

It does sound like an unfortunate deal... an un-reimbursed service call 
followed by the customer buying the replacement parts elsewhere--a pain.

However, I view these kind of equipment failures in a different way...
we work to set equipment markup at a level that the supports our 
overhead for carrying and supporting the equipment... and we work to set 
our labor markup at a level that supports our labor overhead. When our 
prices are in balance along these lines, it means we don't have a 
built-in business necessity to push equipment (or labor) on customers.

Another side of this is I think our industry does best when the 
inevitable failures/service calls/repairs are minimized in time, effort, 
and cost... that leads to more happy customers and more repeat business.


/wk


David Palumbo, Independent Power & Light wrote:
> Hi Bob,
> 
> That's just sad. OutBack would be wise to look at how they treat their
> dealers like you who are really OB's representative's to the end customer.
> When manufacturers become successful they can fall into the trap of thinking
> that it will always remain that way. When they lose their focus and mistreat
> professional installing dealers it becomes easier for a competitor to come
> in and take market share from them. Why should we have loyalty to them when
> they pull stunts like that on you. Remember what happened to Trace/Xantrex.
> Xantrex's actions, or inactions, made it possible for OutBack to start their
> company and grow rapidly.
> 
> Unfortunately I also had a recent interaction with Out Back that reminded me
> of dealing with Xantrex in the late pre-OB days.
> 
> Service is a vital component in what we as dealer/installers provide to the
> consumer. And service is also equally important for OutBack to provide for
> professionals in the field. OutBack is making a mistake if they value the
> wholesale direct
> seller over the company making the service call. I'm sure all of their sales
> outlets are valuable, but those of us actually dealing with professional
> design, installation and service of their products AND dealing face to face
> with the end buyer/user are critically important to OB. We invariably share
> our opinions with the customer. The opinions that we have formed of Out Back
> Power Systems, not only, from our trust in how their products will do the
> job but also in how well the company treats us with regard to the service
> and business respect that we, as professionals, deserve.
> 
> I think that you deserve a written apology for their actions and
> compensation for the profit on the boards that they deprived you of. They
> also need to train their tech/sales people on conducting their dealings with
> proper business ethics.
> 
> David Palumbo
> NABCEP Certified
> 19 years in business as Independent Power & Light
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Ellison [mailto:ellison at gisco.net]
> Sent: Sunday, July 09, 2006 6:49 PM
> To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
> Subject: Outback dealer protection? [RE-wrenches]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I had an experience the other day that the longer I think about it the more
> it irritates me, here goes.
> I got a call from a customer that had a pair of VFX3648 inverters and took a
> 2 1/2 hour drive to the site,
> 
> He had no lightning cans and took a bad lightning hit, the inverters were
> already off the rack and opened up.. Both inverters were down and he had an
> insurance inspection the following day. Real bad timing. I did not supply or
> install the gear and low buck wholesale never suggested lightning
> protection.
> My regular supplier is at a show so I called Outback to get the boards and
> was informed that we had to send the inverters back. Also the board prices
> were up from $700.00 to $1200.00. and we needed all of them, 2 sets. There
> was no doubt that all the boards were bad, the burns were obvious.
> 
> I was not having any luck getting the boards sent and asked the tech to
> explain to the customer that they had to be sent back. I  found out after he
> got off the very short phone conversation that he had been sold all the
> boards at my cost, and on my dime for the phone call!
> 
> It just ticked me off, I guess the dealers don't have an advantage over the
> customer any more at Outback.
> I didn't expect the customer to get dealer pricing. I could have gotten a
> verbal PO easily or just put it on a card and actually made some money on
> the process instead of the way it worked out.
> 5 hours drive time and a couple on site add up fast towards wasting a day
> real fast.
> 
> Back to packing for Solarfest,
> 
> Bob
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> 
> 
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