whats with fender amp pricing in this country? are we being ripped off

Keira-WitherKay · 2011-04-15T08:29:44+00:00

sure you all read my post looking for a Fender princeton reverb reissue amp .here in sa the retail is 20 K and after discount it seems 13K is about the be...

whats with fender amp pricing in this country? are we being ripped off

Wizard

Market price is based on "willing buyer / willing seller" basis.
If you're going to fly overseas and bring back a shipment of Custom Strats, at your own risk, with your own financing ... won't you bring me one please?

Sean

Wizard wrote: Market price is based on "willing buyer / willing seller" basis.
If you're going to fly overseas and bring back a shipment of Custom Strats, at your own risk, with your own financing ... won't you bring me one please?

LOL ?

selbydoodl

Yawn!
Oh dear, not another why does it cost more here than in the States! ! !

If it bothers you so much then go to the trouble of importing it yourself: -

Voltage change
Cost of step down transformer
Import permit
Cost of freight
Import duty,
Clearing and other charges
WARRANTY ISSUES!
Arrival at your home not working.
Cost of T/T for payment.

Do I make my point??

Instead of whinging about the price either buy it or shut up.

bassmanwa

Well mate we have the same problem in Australia, Fender have a policy that dictates the pricing, don't blame the retailer you can bet if they could sell it cheaper they would that is what is called making quick money policy, you would be better to go through UK prices are better and if you are going on holiday to USA or Hawaii then you can buy cheap, a good secret if it is a guitar is to buy something super cheap put in a case and make sure you get letter from customs you are taking a guitar out of the country, ditch the old one somewhere and put your new Fender.Gretch. Ephiphone, Rickenbacker or wahtever in the case and go back home no taxes etc will be charged as you are only returning with your own declared guitar, can'y be done with an amp though.

vic

selbydoodl wrote: Yawn!
Oh dear, not another why does it cost more here than in the States! ! !

If it bothers you so much then go to the trouble of importing it yourself: -

Voltage change
Cost of step down transformer
Import permit
Cost of freight
Import duty,
Clearing and other charges
WARRANTY ISSUES!
Arrival at your home not working.
Cost of T/T for payment.

Do I make my point??Instead of whinging about the price either buy it or shut up.

LOL.... ? You put it so elegantly.... ?

vic

bassmanwa wrote: Well mate we have the same problem in Australia, Fender have a policy that dictates the pricing, don't blame the retailer you can bet if they could sell it cheaper they would that is what is called making quick money policy, you would be better to go through UK prices are better and if you are going on holiday to Uget letter SA or Hawaii then you can buy cheap, a good secret if it is a guitar is to buy something super cheap put in a case and make sure you from customs you are taking a guitar out of the country, ditch the old one somewhere and put your new Fender.Gretch. Ephiphone, Rickenbacker or wahtever in the case and go back home no taxes etc will be charged as you are only returning with your own declared guitar, can'y be done with an amp though.

??? mmmhh...I work for Customs....THIS IS VEEEERY SERIOUS......I need to get your details

?

Norman86

there are NO import duties on guitars or guitar amps!
There are duties on guitar amp parts or guitar parts however!

AlanRatcliffe

selbydoodl wrote: Do I make my point??

Admirably! Thank you.

bassmanwa wrote: Well mate we have the same problem in Australia, Fender have a policy that dictates the pricing

Exactly.

a good secret if it is a guitar is to buy something super cheap put in a case and make sure you get letter from customs you are taking a guitar out of the country, ditch the old one somewhere and put your new Fender.Gretch. Ephiphone, Rickenbacker or wahtever in the case and go back home

Oh, they were wise to that one years ago - they note make, model and serial # these days. Safer to simply declare it and pay the VAT, rather than risk fines and other repercussions - you still save on shipping and the distribution cost.

PeteM wrote: Sounds great... what guarantees will you offer and what will your back-up policy be?

Exactly the requirements demanded by bigger companies like Roland and Fender before they appoint a distributor. You have to have your own full workshop capable of repairing everything from valve to modern SMD devices before they will even consider you. Running it is at your expense too (one of those "overhead" thingies that no-one bothers considering).

Jack-Flash-Jr

selbydoodl wrote: Yawn!
Oh dear, not another why does it cost more here than in the States! ! !

If it bothers you so much then go to the trouble of importing it yourself: -

Voltage change
Cost of step down transformer
Import permit
Cost of freight
Import duty,
Clearing and other charges
WARRANTY ISSUES!
Arrival at your home not working.
Cost of T/T for payment.

Do I make my point??

Instead of whinging about the price either buy it or shut up.

No, point not made ?
You are comparing me importing a guitar vs me buying from a local dealer.
The issue is Fender Amps vs Most Other Amps bought at a local dealer.
Fender appears to ratchet up prices higher than Marshall or Vox for whatever reason (policy, middle men, supply chain logistics convolutions)... If it is a policy issue then whinging in a forum that is frequented by sellers might actually help... if there is nothing Fender can do about it, well c'est la vie.

Norman86

They probably COULD do something about it...
but why bother when you're making a killing and there are fools prepared to pay the exorbitant prices instead of questioning why this is happening???

no no, lets not make a fuss, we'll just make excuses as to why we are being raped, and then continue to allow it to happen!
Its a south african consumer thing in general. but BS if you ask me! :-\

Bob-Dubery

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
PeteM wrote: Sounds great... what guarantees will you offer and what will your back-up policy be?
Exactly the requirements demanded by bigger companies like Roland and Fender before they appoint a distributor. You have to have your own full workshop capable of repairing everything from valve to modern SMD devices before they will even consider you. Running it is at your expense too (one of those "overhead" thingies that no-one bothers considering).

Exactly. Many years ago I worked for a company who were the official, sole Casio distributors for Africa south of the equator. As part of that deal we had to have workshops with equipment of a quality that Casio stipulated (this went all the way to having solder with a certain minimum percentage of silver for use on the watches). There was a minimum inventory of spares that had to be maintained (and paid for by the local company) and which had to be maintained for X years after a product was discontinued. They gave us specs for the mulitmeters that we were to use (which effectively forced us to use one expensive brand as nobody else had a meter that met Casio's requirements).

There were grey importers bringing Casio watches into the country at the time. What they didn't declare to the retailers (or what the retailers didn't declare to the customers, or what the customers didn't ask) was that they had no backup, no workshops nothing. So sure, they could beat us on price (or on wholesale price, the retailers didn't necessarily pass the saving on to the customer), but if a "grey" watch failed during what would the customer believed was the guarantee period there were problem. We would, actually, fix the watch. We couldn't refuse to fix it (a condition of having the franchise) but we didn't have to fix it for free.

Note that this drove costs up for everybody except the grey importers because we had to put in place procedures for checking serial numbers to see if it was a watch that we'd bought in or not. This was in the early 1980s when computer networks were not as common and widely used as they are now, so this process was labour intensive.

It's never as simple (for official wholesalers) as off-loading stuff from planes, adding a markup and getting it to the shops.

Jack-Flash-Jr

Norman86 wrote: They probably COULD do something about it...
but why bother when you're making a killing and there are fools prepared to pay the exorbitant prices instead of questioning why this is happening???

no no, lets not make a fuss, we'll just make excuses as to why we are being raped, and then continue to allow it to happen!
Its a south african consumer thing in general. but BS if you ask me! :-\

Well, it's not "rape" if you can just choose not to buy and I'm sure there's good reasons for the pricing (in addition to wanting to make as much money as possible), but in the long run it's not good business sense for Fender to be seen as marking up amps more drastically than other brands do.

Norman86

Jack, its not just Fender, its many products...

But yeah, people DO start looking elsewhere!
Which is a pity.

Wizard

Looks like it's time for a Fender person to chime in ... since this fervour is growing in a pretty one-sided kind of way

Bob-Dubery

Wizard wrote: Looks like it's time for a Fender person to chime in ...

Assuming there are any here on this forum they may not chime in - rules and all that.

since this fervour is growing in a pretty one-sided kind of way

Not so. There are clearly at least two schools of thought here.

Keira-WitherKay

well i started this thread .. so heres the result .......... and it seems at the moment unless plans change ........fender have lost my bussiness

cos a few weeks ago i was only too ready to part with my hard earned cash for a fender bf amp i so love till i discovered this pricing issue........ and as i mentioned in a previous post of mine..... if the amp here would after discount cost me 13K then in states it retails for 6K i assumed the cost of the actual amps components must be a mere 3 K give or take .......so this irked me........

and i did some asking around with the local techs and while doing so i had an established local amp builder ( not someone making his first build or an attempt but a tracable track record) approach me and say they can build me what i want tonally and with the mods i woulda done to the one i bought stock and i was right that the cost of the compoments is that low ....... and yes in this case the amp builder is being very generous with labour costs ........ but it seems that cos the tube amp technology is so old and easily built by many people locally , i reckened thats the route to go............

i will not divulge full costs cos i do believe i am being done a favour and in turn will punt this persons product ...... so a bit of a sponsorship/endorsement deal here

but yes it seems maybe for items that are not the latest technology as in packed with electronics...and chips.........one should look locally ....... and one might be quite surprised.......

so if this comes off i will have a 15 -18W bf type design amp with reverb and tremelo and a 12 " all for a fraction of the cost

now who was it on the forum that was building tele's locally ?

Norman86

Congrats Kiera ?
At least you're getting what you want, without having to pay the premium!

And if it bothers you, you could always get a fender bf logo to stick on the amp ?

Keira-WitherKay

Norman86 wrote: And if it bothers you, you could always get a fender bf logo to stick on the amp ?

not a chance............. now if this goes to plan and i am always cautious so i say if..........but i actually want people to see the amp hear way cool bf tones tone and see some other name on the amp......... instead of the usual fender logo ....... and the mission is complete if they then ask about the amp and the builder........

but don't worry i am not having the amp builder just do their thing this is a specific bf build........ to the specs i want ..... as in a small lightweight combo amp 15 -18W amp with 12 " speaker ,fender type spring reverb and tremelo .........very exciting project

Bob-Dubery

Norman86 wrote: Congrats Kiera ?
At least you're getting what you want, without having to pay the premium!

And if it bothers you, you could always get a fender bf logo to stick on the amp ?

The logo is often the thing you pay most for. Fender, Gibson, Martin etc - you pay something just for the name.

Tokai-SA

X-rated Bob wrote:
Wizard wrote: Looks like it's time for a Fender person to chime in ...
Assuming there are any here on this forum they may not chime in - rules and all that.

You can't have a rule like that, Bob, where people can say whatever they want about a company/brand/distributor, and then say it's against 'the rules' for a rep of that company to chime in and provide the correct information.

Perhaps you should add a "dealers" section to the forum and allow dealers, in fact, invite dealers/distributors to provide information/answer questions posed by the members.

Times they are a changing, the internet, online buying, etc, etc, is here, and it's only going to grow in the future.
Music stores, distributors, dealers, etc, have to CHANGE their ways and start doing things in a new/better way.