[tonyli3]

Quote:

Originally Posted by egokun This, you would call a "solution"? C'mon, cheap philosophy doesn't apply in marketing issues. The "if you can't/don't want to, then don't do it" answer is really getting old, and I guess it hasn't saved a single buck so far

I agree egokun,not a solution if you REALLY!!! want E500's.It's just that as i get older[maybe not wiser] walking into something with my eyes open and still managing to get ripped off sometimes get a little annoying

I also feel that VAT[value added tax] should be scrapped in the EU and replaced with an excessive tax on womans clothes and shoes as for the life of me i don't understand why they need so many

 

[juzmister]

can one of the shure reps comment on this?

 

[Jonny G]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bahamaman To elaborate further on jjcha's excellent post: The answer is a simple one. Shure has appointed an exclusive distributor in Canada. Manufacturers want to protect their distributors. By prohibiting a sale from a retailer in the U.S. to a Canadian purchaser, it ensures that Canadian buyers will only be able to purchase from the Canadian distributor (or through Canadian retailers it designates as authorized retailers). Ultimately, exclusive distributorships such as these cause prices to rise, as they reduce availability from alternate sources. OTOH, exclusive distributorships are useful in the sense that they provide some price protection to the distributor and thereby encourage it to invest the requisite money in developing an effective distribution system that will generate a profit and provide consumers with service after the sale. You are merely a witness to one of the great tensions that exists in international business - the struggle between the borderless internet and the dogged attempt of manufactures to "wall off" markets from one another and prevent the sale of gray market goods.

Thats exactly it. Shure has a distributor in Canada, SF Marketing. They have been appointed the exclusive distributor for Shure products in the territory of Canada.

According to their contract (if it is at all similar to mine with Ultrasone), they can ONLY sell Shure products in Canada, and they probably also have an agreement with their resellers that THEY can only sell to Canadians.

And the same goes for SHURE USA. In order not to compete with SF Marketing, they must also have an agreement not to sell to Canadian resellers/individuals, and also their own resellers in the US must agree not to sell to markets other than the US.

It is to protect the distributors market...otherwise, all Canadians will start buying from the US, and put SF out of business. Same goes for other markets.

If a product is $60 US stateside, and 100 EUR in Germany, and all the Germans started buying from the US, then their German distribution will be losing business.

Granted, with all that said, it should be up to the distributor to keep their retail prices similar to their competing markets.

For instance, in the US, an Ultrasone HFI-15G retails for $99.00 USD. In Canada, we have it listed at $115.00 CAD.

According to current exchange rates, these prices are roughly even and Canadians dont have much of a reason to buy from the US, and vice versa. Because of this price structure, we dont have to impose that type of agreement with our resellers, restricting who they can sell to.

If you would like to contact the Canadian distributor for SHURE, their info is at www.sfm.ca (consumer section).

 

[muckshot]

If Shure had made their position clear when they announced the product, then people outside the US wouldn't have placed pre-orders from US distributors and as such wouldn't have had anything to complain about.

 

[DarkJC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by muckshot If Shure had made their position clear when they announced the product, then people outside the US wouldn't have placed pre-orders from US distributors and as such wouldn't have had anything to complain about.

Agreed, I have no problem with companies limiting territories to certain distributors, but that policy should be in place before accepting pre-orders for the product. Whether this was the fault of Shure for giving short notice or the fault of the stores for accepting pre-orders before authorized I'm not sure.

 

[chrisfromalbany]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkJC Agreed, I have no problem with companies limiting territories to certain distributors, but that policy should be in place before accepting pre-orders for the product. Whether this was the fault of Shure for giving short notice or the fault of the stores for accepting pre-orders before authorized I'm not sure.

Where is the blame. I thinking Shure..

 

[ken36]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjcha But in some places at least, there is a clear rational basis for such policies.

Thank you Jason, makes a lot of sense.

 

[Dr.Sade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spinrite which other canadian head-fier here got a email from the Shure E500 retailer, saying that a USA retailer cannot ship the E500s outside the US? I just got a email from earphonesolutions.com and here the email quote. I've been on the waiting list for the E500s since early this year, i was probably one of the first 10 to put my preorder in and to get this email today saying they cant deliver...really pi**** me off. theres gotta be a way around this. i was wondering if a US member of head-fi could recieve my purchase to a US residence and then forward it to me, of course i'll pay for the extra shipping cost? all i can say is this..SUCKS. We have just been advised by Shure that we will not be allowed to ship the E500 outside the US. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you want we can find out from Shure who will be handling the E500 distribution in your country and let you know. We can also ship the new Triple X Triple Driver Earphones by Ultimate Ears (available in August) and all earphones made by UE and Westone. We can also ship your Shure E500 to an address in the US. Perhaps a friend or relative. Again please accept our apologies but unfortunately it's beyond our control. Thank you, FMASOLUTIONS.com 1-888-473-9661 EarphoneSolutions.com MicrophoneSolutions.com WirelessMicrophoneSolutions.com

See if the Canadian Shure DISTRIBUTER for London Drugs, Best Buy, etc., can get them for you.

Better yet, ask Shure which, if any, Canadian distributer can get them for you.

 

[dr.morton]

Quote:

And then, this is a last-second deliberation. There's people who've had the E500 on pre-order for months, and now they're left without their long-awaited purchase, with not so much as a warning.

Yes, this is not very nice. I have to agree.
But my guess is, that this was not a last minute call by Shure but that they rather got a reminder by their distributors to honor their deal.

 

[skev13]

oh too bad... looks like i'll have to stick with my E4c's.

 

[Flavio T]

Clarification:

That email was sent to some of our customers with a confidentiality disclaimer at the bottom of the email.

We take full responsibility for the delay in letting our international customers know that the E500 could not be shipped outside the US. It was not a recent decision made by Shure. It is their policy.

We have an automated system that receives all orders and if a product is not in stock, the order is not prompted to be acted upon. Yesterday, when we received confirmation from Shure that some E500 were shipped to us, we started to work on the list and we were left with the task of telling our customers that the item could not be shipped to their country from the US.

We did a poor job on acting on those orders and in writing that email and apologize for any inconvenience we might have caused our customers (some repeat customers) that we value more than any other asset we have. We also apologize to Shure if this has also caused any inconvenience to anyone there.

The email offered 3 alternatives:

1) FIRST, we offered to help our customers to locate an authorized Shure dealer in their countries. It's part of our service and we are happy to do it. Our company has been an Authorized Shure dealer for ten years and we proud ourselves in trying our best to offer the best service possible without keeping the mind on the money alone but to simply help those who seek our help.

2) We also let our customers know that we can ship Westone and Ultimate Ears to their countries, although we know that an E500 prospect buyer knows what he/she wants.

3) We also let our customers know that we could still ship their E500 to an address in the US. Perhaps a relative or a friend, even if they used their international credit card with an international billing address.

Again we apologize for not being very clear and we take full responsibility for it. Shure did not "just let us know about it". Shure is a company that fully support their customers and the only company that replaces earphones that have been chewed by a cat or ran over by a SUV.

Thank you for all your support and once more, to our international customers, we apologize for this inconvenience. We will work closely with Shure, providing them with a list of customers and their countries so that ALL customers that want to buy an E500 can do so in their countries from a local authorized dealer for a good price.

 

[Jonny G]

Online stores should have a disclaimer on their site stating that it cannot sell certain products to certain markets, and should refuse any orders from these markets.

EDIT: oops...posted too soon. Well, it seems that they were nice enough to e-mail their customers about the mixup!

 

[countach]

Ok, so, knowing that here in Spain nobody knows anything about IEMs but Apple Stores, (Shure E3 --> 200 Euro), I think I'm gonna buy that Etys ER4P from you again; I wanna have those since a long time ago 'cause I can't find the detail I want in the UM2... and I need to know what's about that ety's sound everybody is talking about...

E500 can wait, in fact, they are like the UM2. (its shape... LOL)

 

[Flavio T]

We had a small disclaimer on the product's pages and we made it bigger now. It still will not stop anyone from placing an order because the shopping cart is open and we have no control over what comes through. We are commited now to let our customers know within 48 hours when their orders cannot be fulfilled. It is usually the norm but in this case we had a fast growing waiting list on a product that was open for pre-orders back in February and that just now is being shipped. We also have to deal with all day by day orders and customer service inquiries, etc, and we are a small company. That is not an excuse for what happened and again we take full responsibility and we are trully sorry. Shure is *NOT* to be blamed. We are.

 

[kichu1979]

Just a suugestion...

I live in Poland and I often buy stuff in the US. For the good that can't be shipped directly to my country I use US based company that acts as the third party - they order on my behalf and they ship the items to me. The only drawback is their 20% fee, but well when there is no other way it's better than nothing.

I wont give the address info here as Im not sure about the forum
policy, if anyone needs contact information for the company just
send me an email -> kgb (at) dione (dot) ids (dot) pl

And I really don't like Shure for this... my pre-order was there too

You are not right Flavio, it's them to be blamed, not your company.
It's really bad practive to change things like that in last minute...