Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/08/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 25/8/00 11:47 AM, Rick Dykstra at rdandcb@cybermac.com.au wrote: > If I was a manufacturer of products with a reputation for (or a > marketing angle for) the highest quality, I would send the stuff that > wasn't quite perfect in some way to the furthest part of the globe, from > where a warranty claim would be a time consuming issue. Like Australia. > Or to a place where consumers might not be as fussy as in (say) the US > or Japan. Like Australia. Hi Rick, I think part of the problem is that there just is not enough inspection of the goods to make such grading feasible: dud stuff seems to turn up all over the place let alone slightly imperfect items. For example the first two R8s I saw in London were demos from Solms and both were broken: this was before you could even buy a new one in the store! Any company that depends on the value of its brand aims to get the best quality in all the products that leave the factory: even employees can only buy discounted first quality goods and not seconds. The sub-par ones are, in any well run company, either rebuilt where cost effective or destroyed. The theory is that the damage to the brand name of letting sub par goods on the market is always too much of a risk. The intellectual property lawyers are kept busy in China where factory overruns or seconds do get out to the markets, let alone the pirated stuff: either way it is not the company's policy to allow such products bearing their brand name to be sold to anyone. Soiled, worn or refurbished demo goods are another matter and usually the responsibility of the import or sales agents, not the manufacturer. I know very well that some of the latter will pass on such items and known faulty items to their sub-agents but again that is beyond the scope of the manufacturer. I believe the Australian agent gets his Leica equipment from Solms rather than through another agent. I am always sceptical about the 'factory refurbished' electronics advertised in the US: are we to believe that the $200 printer has been shipped back to Japan and returned after some kind of tarting up by workers (or robots) taking a break from the production line? Doesn't sound likely to me... Bests Adrian - -- Adrian Bradshaw Corporate and Editorial Photography Beijing, China tel/fax +86 10 6532 5112 mobile +86 139 108 22292 e-mail apbbeijing@yahoo.com OR adrianpeterbradshaw@compuserve.com website: http://www.apbphoto.com Please note my new mobile number (as of August 1st) _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com