Klarinet Archive - Posting 001091.txt from 2004/07

From: ormondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] Feeling like Yamaha is one stupidly run company!
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 12:36:20 -0400

Here is some hard data, always useful when discussing an issue.

In WW & BW's Spring-Summer 2004 catalog (I don't have anyone else's
recent catalog), it is only *Buffet* --- not Yamaha --- that is shown
with "MAP" prices.

So perhaps the wrong company is being accused of going the MAP route.

David's original post in this thread included:

> So you see the retail price along side of "purchase
> it for only" which is the same high cost.

The words above stimulated my original post because they imply that the
printed price is the dealer's lowest price and thus is deceptive
advertising.

For Yamaha, WW & BW prints a "PlayNow" price and in much smaller print a
"List" price, Since they don't print the number of months, they aren't
announcing their total price, even if you were willing to guess the
financing charge. They also print the words "Our Price" in red ink
against a bright yellow background, but there's no number to go along
with these words. The presumed implication is "We have a different
price, but we aren't printing it here, so please take the hint and call
us".

This is much different from the manufacturer requiring the dealer to
print a high price as their best price (as several other people have
already commented). The fact that they are neither announcing their
own price nor explicitly asking you to call for a better price does not
bother me.

For Buffet, WW & BW uses a similar strategy of "PlayNow" monthly price
without stating the number of months and a blank "Our price" and (as I
wrote above) a "MAP' price.

Once again, this is much different than requiring the dealer to print a
high price as their best price.

For Leblanc, WW & BW prints an explicit "Call for Price" along with
"List" price" and "PlayNow" price without the number of months.

Selmer is the only brand for whom WW & BW shows their own price plus the
"List" and "PlayNow" prices. This gives the careful reader a clear
statement that a $5140 Selmer Recital A can be purchased for $2899.

As I've commented twice in this message already, an intelligent reader
can't help but infer from all of this that WW & BW sells below "List"
and "MAP" prices, if only the reader will pick up the phone and call ---
which is quite different from how this thread began.

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