Re: [Harp-L] When will Suzuki raise prices / start bubble

[Vern <jevern@xxxxxxx>]

Commercial success depends on three things,,,quality, price, and customer service. IBM never had the best computers or the lowest prices, but they did have orders-of-magnitude better customer service!

At one time, I was ready to use Herings for Hands-Free-Chromatics.  Unfortunately, drilling and tapping cracked their brittle clear-plastic combs.  Aside from that, the quality was good.

The following is just my personal opinion, based on my observations and experience in buying over a hundred 12-hole chromatics over a 20-year period.

Hering has always done well on quality and price.  However,  their customer service has been abysmal.

The Hering customers are like Bill Price and Joe Leone.  They like the low price, are willing to wait for sporadic availability, and are able to deal with any problems themselves.

The availability of their products in the US has never been consistent. 
Relationships with their US dealers and service providers have been troubled.
Harmonica warranty service has been mostly non-existent.
Their president regularly shows up at SPAH, learns nothing, then returns to Brazil and continues with his contemptuous disregard for the US market.
Their approaches to the US market have been characterized my many new beginnings that soon fizzle.

It seems to me that Hering has almost deliberately passed up opportunities to become a major harmonica provider in the US. They don't seem to care about competing in the US.  They may have decided that good customer service would be so costly that they would lose their price advantage.

My opinion only.

Vern

On Jan 26, 2010, at 9:53 PM, joe leone wrote:

> 
> On Jan 26, 2010, at 10:54 PM, Bill Kumpe wrote:
> 
>> 
>> The dark horse is Hering.  They could really shine in this market
>> 
>> Bill Kumpe
>> Tulsa, OK
>> 
>> _Hering already makes a superior chromo :)
> smo-joe
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