The Secondary Market

[Mike]

I think you are mixing subjects. An initial defect when purchased from an authorized dealer in my experience is never an issue.

unless it’s simaudio, then it’s still the customer’s fault.

 

[W9TR]

This among many other reasons is why McIntosh has one of the best resale values of any manufacture. I have sold several pieces of gear over the years. The pieces that always seem to sell almost immediately are McIntosh.

The Mcintosh amps and preamps I've owned have zero cost of ownership. I can sell them for more than I bought them for. To my knowledge no other brand has pulled this off. We don't talk about their Pre/Pros, whose values drop like a rock. But that's true for every manufacturer.

What does McIntosh do differently? They stock a lot of parts. They sell service manuals for all their gear. They have a decent network of warranty service centers in addition to the factory. They keep models in the line for a long time. My MC 2301's were introduced in 2008, 16 years ago. For non-warranty repairs, they don't care how you came to possess the gear needing service. They just fix it.

They are far from perfect. Their distribution is totally screwed up. For warranty work, they are sticklers. If you didn't buy it from a dealer, you are SOL. Like a lot of other manufacturers., they have a hard time with parts obsolescence. Things like optical drives come to mind.

This thread has helped me better understand how the manufacturer/dealer network operates. Thanks to all.

 

[Randy Myers]

I agree and will add that their quality and customer experience is critical to them. They understand this more so than any other company I have dealt with. I have previously related my experience with a now ex-dealer committing fraud on a new amplifier I ordered. They stepped in and went as far as having a dealer from three hours away drive to my home and install the amplifier (of course they compensated the dealer).

After a short time one of the meters was not acting right. It would not come on until the amp was warmed up. Not a huge deal, but McIntosh reply was telling. He said every piece new out of our factory we expect to be perfect. Anything but this is unacceptable for us. He arranged to send a new one to the dealer and paid them to bring it down to my home and exchange it in my rack for me.

They even followed up by sending me one of their gorgeous books on their history (not a cheap book), as their apologized for the issue I experienced. Yes, with this deal they made nothing, obviously. However, they benefited and I am sure gained a lot in the long run. I told the story to the president of the audio club I was in back in California. He was amazed and said his respect for McIntosh was off the charts after hearing this.

 

[sleepysurf]

Resale of goods offers no value whatsoever to the manufacturer - despite whatever you may think. Let me give you a real world example:

Let’s assume a CD player manufacturer does allow the transfer of warranty. The original owner received it via freight - on a pallet. He then sells it to someone over the internet and ships it Fedex. The fedex sorting station has conveyor belts which always causes a tumbling of the box. The tumbling motion is destructive to the transport mechanism. The new owner gets it and it has issues loading the CD. He calls the manufacturer to repair under warranty. Fair? No.

The warranty is extended to the original purchaser only in many (most) cases.

If you want warranty, buy new. Otherwise you live with the tail light warranty in most cases.

I had a similar real world experience, but had superb support from the manufacturer.

~10 yrs ago I decided to purchase a Conrad Johnson Premier 350 amp. They were no longer in production, so I purchased a "lightly used" one from a dealer out West, but it arrived with something rattling around inside and wouldn't turn on. The dealer contacted C-J, and they had me ship the amp directly back to them. Turns out a capacitor had sheared off during shipping. Conrad Johnson repaired it, confirmed there was no other damage, and shipped it back to me. That degree of support convinced me to later purchase a NEW C-J CT-5 preamp from the same dealer.

Martin Logan is another manufacturer with a reputation for providing excellent support even if you purchased used. Unfortunately, I'll be testing ML's current customer service, as one of my old BalancedForce 210 subs went kaput yesterday.