I hate proprietary distribution. Any big system of any kind seems to be proprietary in their distribution. Intercom, phone, fire. Doesn't matter. Anyway, I had a contact with a client who seems to be having some problems with Bogen and other intercoms. I contacted Bogen and determined their big intercom is yet another proprietary dealer only system, and the rep (Mark Smale) for the company is not even interested in any other companies for Arizona.
That's fine but it puts the big screw job to the customer as the closest of the four who do service Arizona is 180 miles away. Basically at the current price of fuel, and the fact that because of proprietary dealerships they can command any rate they want. This puts the price of the simplest service call in the $300 range. Tighten a loose screw, replace a bad speaker, whatever.
On top of that the customer has had difficulty getting timely service, and the companies who have been performing service don't seem to be able to fix their problems.
The customer is at the point of looking something other than Bogen because of this.
Since Mark Smale basically told me to kiss his *ss, I have to recommend to the customer that they try a different one of the four service companies for their service work or go with somebody else. That is a huge amount of money. Not just a few thousand either even on just one site, much less on several sites.
Of course I could tackle it blind or try and chase down some manuals through the secondary market... but I can see where I could get in way over my head without ever being able to complete the first service call.
Of course Mr. Smale didn't endear me to Bogen when he attempted to one up me on everything I said too. Oh well, "Have a nice day sir." Click. I had been considering Bogen for some of my other applications, but TOA makes a better amplifier and I can buy those pretty competitively. I guess I'll just stay with TOA for my amps.
A. The customer's option is look at budgeting to remove the Bogen Systems. In which case, what systems would be available that would not leave them in this boat?
B. Stick with what they have and work their way down the list of four companies who do service hoping to find one that will at least come in a timely fashion and fix their problems the first time.
C. Hope I can find a secondary source of manuals and take care of them. Not likely.
P.S. The only useful information (sorta) I got out of Mr. Mark Smale was that Bogen expects a minimum of 100K every year out of their proprietary dealers. That basically shuts out most of us little guys. Oh, well. I guess it must be working for them.
In My Opinion, "All small dealers should bear this in mind when picking product lines. Bogen does not want the business of small dealers."