Woot! Official word on Asus Z70 REFRESH!! - Page 5

Nothing you did or said is dishonest; neither is your offering of the presale unit. The problem lies in the fact that nobody really knows when its coming out... all the information that has been released hasn't come from an official source. Basically, Beantown referenced somebody who said it was going to hit shores July 27th. Not only is this a shaky prediction--especially since this person may or may not know whats going on--but its also not taking into account customs, distrobution, and so on and so forth. So in a way, the problem is not really against you, its more of how to protect the buyers who don't know all the facts.

But I'm curious... I was away for a few days, but I noticed somebody saying that the sales were made final (charged) in the preorder. That is a little iffy... not only is the final release date completely unknown, but you're also charging. That's like constructing a building on top of a foundation you know is crumbling. Its not wrong or immoral of you to be doing this, but its a little difficult to claim that they know what's coming when you have absolutely no dates or plausible warnings on your site; for all I know, the majority of people making the preorder are under the impression that it'll be out in a week.

To tell you the truth (and I am by no means telling you how you think), it sounds like you're trying to sucker them in to making the purchase--and then trapping them with the restocking fee. At the very least, you should offer the preorder and then charge the credit card when the laptop is ready to be shipped. Considering the fact that most people would probably feel pretty uncomfortable with $2000 basically sitting stagnant for a month or two, I'd say you have probably made a few users doubting their purchase. Plus, would you feel safe knowing you've spent two grand and have nothing to show for it except an iffy confirmation?

Rick nobody accused of providing a diservice. I my self have been talking about the x700 since you had it go on preorder. The complication here is taking a paid preorder is not a smart idea. Ok fine the people on this forum know about it. Great! Hope you people wait for it as it seems to be a killer machine from what i "HEAR". I had to take 5 cancellations for the current model the weekend after the friday you launched it. I was pretty steamed you did that. I got over it fast. I think you will come to realize that disclosing honest and usefull info to callers and inquiring minds is alot different then making money and locking in a sale 2 whole months before a product may or may not arive. Rule of thumb by the way? Add atleast 15 days to whatever date asus gives you especially if you do a paid preorder 2 months before. Other then that i welcome healthy competition that provide great service for the product we sell too. I made the same unwise mistakes even worse in my first half year selling whitebooks. Now i can sit here and tell you its not a good move to advertise what you have on you site 2 months before a posible release! I may get booed here as this is largely your fan base on these parts but this is the thruth. If you want to attract attention of resellers keep doing what you are doing. Try not to screw over other resellers in the future. You will notice nobody else has a paid preorder for the "refresh". Do you think nobody has enough time to make one? Or can it be that its just not a good idea to do it? What do you plan to do with the intel pricedrop? What will you do when your advertised specs (provided by asus) are not correct? Guessing you will have to do a partial refund? Why have a preorder anyways? Order as many units as you need and sell em. Paid preorders dont get it there faster then regular orders. I just dont see the point. all this did is raise a bunch of hype and eyebrows. I try not to raise eyebrows expecially in this cutthroat market as someone has already mentioned. We are all in the same boat here. If it docks on July 27th you can bragg all you want. I hope you are right we can all use a new product faster. Dont take my advise ....but anouncing eta 2 months before in a live forum is just nutty. Advertising a paid preorder on your site 2 months before is digging your own grave. Its a very very ballsy move.

Red
I dont think any suckering was intended here. I made some bad decisions in my time. I dont think there was any conspiracy on Ricks behalf. But your right a paid preorder is a risky move. Rick i hope you consider this in the future when chrismas season comes along. Anouncing laptops comming in on december on your site 2 months before in october is just not a smart move. Talking about them on a forum or email or phone is one thing taking paid preorders is....I cant belive you did not get a call from asus cursing at you in tai for doing this. I make a bad review of a notebook and i get a call the same day almost threatening me. You screw up sales for everyone and asus dont even send you an email? You must have someone there in your pocket

Settle down, folks! Ay caramba! Here's what I got from the last few pages:
1. Rick mentioned in a side conversation that the Z70v was due for a "refresh" model
2. That person took it upon themselves to post that info on a public forum
3. Rick then got several requests to offer a presale option
4. He complied, which had the side effect of causing sale cancellations for the current Z70v at various resellers
5. Rick stated the provisional info he got from Asus in this forum, with the stipulation that it was not guaranteed
6. Forum members ignored the last part, and hyped the info as confirmed fact
7. Forum members called Rick into question for offering the presale
repeat steps 5-7

Whether or not it was a good business decision to offer the refresh unit for presale, Rick did so and stated his reasons. No one is forced to accept these reasons as legitimate, but regardless Rick has to deal with the consequences either way.

I remember preordering the Z71v and getting rather restless when it was delayed. But the extra wait was part of the preorder process, and I had to deal with it. Likewise, presale buyers of the Z70v refresh should know that the specs may not be exactly what Asus reported them to be. If you feel that preordering is worth that risk, go ahead! If you don't, don't do it. It's that simple.

I know a forum is here to get info out in the open... but I think that should have been done in a private message. But then again, thats just my opinion.

I believe Eddie's general idea was that the initial statement that there was a refresh coming should have been kept to those who were actually buying a Z70v from Rick in the first place, and not posted on a public forum.

Unless every single one of those eight questions were rhetorical (even then), it should have gone in a PM. If he wanted to say what you just said... he would of said it (unless he wasn't thinking clearly).

Unless I'm interpreting it wrong...

Is this really necessary?

No... no it isn't... I was hoping after my fiasco was over, we could move onto "Bigger and BADDER" things... I guess someone was mad and wanted to bring up some more crap. Oh well... *sigh*

heheh...

Guess who is back heheheeh

Yo!

Guys Guys Guys.....

Let's all take a step back. This forum is a discussion forum on helping people with their problem, not to teach each other how to run their business.

If one like to conduct it a certain way and it is going well for them, good for them. But let's not get into deep in a discussion relating one business practice vs the other.

The last thing this forum (asus) needs is a battle between resellers. Similar to a few I've seen on other forums. Let's keep this clean.

It is one thing to post a word of warning against a reseller, but it is another thing to start a few thread discussion about how to run a business.

Both Djembe_Rob and I like to run a loose shop here, but let's not get too loose. .

Thanks.
--SPK

Well said smile. I'd give you a kiss right now if you wern't not in this room (srrry about the double negative. Its just that I don't know where you live lol)

Hey
I dont think i said anything here that breates anyone. There is nothing here that escapes common sence. Rob thats not exactly what i said. I have nothing against speaking the truth. I do it plenty on our forums. I ll freely condemn a notebook becuase i feel its poor quality depsite knowing it may cause heat to come down on me. I ll freely tell people dont buy this a new one is comming out. What i will not do is post it on our site where people come and go to compare specs and prices. That is borderline unfair trade practice. You just should not parade a product thats in its infancy of inception only weeks after its predacesor came out. Though i am sure some customers may appreciate this info, in my oppinion this info should be available for anyone that wants to research it or any inquiring mind. Why is this bad? Its sparks more unfair trade. If all the big dealers started doing this there would be no room for the smaller guys. Like i said. We are in the same boat here. If Rick gets a good name then we benefit as well. By the same token if i do a review and its bad i give everyone else problems and surely will raise an eye brow. Disclosing need to know information is ok by me. If i said i did not do it i would be lying. Promoting healthy competition is a good thing. Offering paid preorders 2 months before posible release is not good for anyone not even Rick. I realize he probably did not grasp what effect this can have, but what happen here would be the equivalent of us offering the same preorder 100$ less for free. No payment required. That would be cut throat and downright dirty of me and i will not do it becuase i know the consequence. Fair practice is the name of the game. I would like to get back to it. Only a year ago i did not have to post in online forums. I did not have to visit competitors sites to check if they are playing fair. It was a very easy going nitche market. Times change but i would like to see all asus dealers to play by the rules otherwise we all loose the market to anyone who thinks they can mark up the product 2% and just change their names a year later to avoid support and rma.

Well I think what G2P07 said still fits under the title of this thread. He may have gone on a little tangent, but it still fits in a way. After all, we were talking about ISTNC's "pre-sale", weren't we? He did bring up questions about what will happen with the price drop, if there were a different configuration, etc. I for one, would like to know the actual price of something before I purchase. That's why I didn't buy it. That's why a lot of us didnt do it. Things change in a couple months. Heck, stuff changes in a couple days. I also knew that all the othe sellers will be getting it the same time, but he clarified that even if you pre-order, you're not going to get it any faster than a regular order.
Of course, we aren't forced to buy it, but we are sharing our opinions on it. Just like when someone says the W3 screen sucks, or how the DV1000 gets super hot, or how some people swear never to buy a Dell. It's all opinions and on these forums, people want to hear it. We want to know why it is, and why is that. That's why there are so many questions on these forums and that's why some of us come on- to help others decide or if they think a certain item is crap, you'd want to warn them, right? Whether you listen to the opinions or not, it's still something someone else wants to read about.

Smile
I dont think Rick needs any Advice from me on how to run his biz. Last i checked he is doing a damn fine job of it. I am not teaching or preaching. Just pointing out that what happen and the replies on this forum are not only concerns of consumers but this stuff affects other dealers too. I try to be very carefull about that but lately it seems like i have to resort to questionable sales practices my self to make a presence. I am a simple guy. I like my daily work kept simple. There is no rule book ofcourse in this business. I just expect everyone else to have the same basic business principal everyone else does. Say whatever you want on a forum just dont screw up anyone else business for your own potential benefit. The only thing that gets me steamed is that this move did not help rick in anyway it just hurt others! Llama. i do know how to use pm. I dont need a lesson on it. You need to start earning commission for your service here. I am very serious.

On a lighter note. I did get basically the same date Rick did for the release of the z70v. Only problem i have with it is that it came from Asus. I dont remember the last time or any time where they were on point with eta. It has always been later then sooner. Z71V for example. Delayed for almost a month. Date pushed back atleast a few times. We should have like a pool here. I ll stake 20$ that nobody even sees one of these before the 15th of august. If i am wrong i ll be the first to review it.

The last time I checked the thread title... it was the word about Z70Vr. Where do you see the words "pre-sale"? (not a rhetorical question). I got off track on the previous page, but that was corrected.

Eddie... wow... thats all I have to say. You're at a new level buddy...

It’s time for me to get some sleep guys. I have a Dave Matthews Band concert tomorrow *high five to the DMB fans* and a Busch Gardens trip the day after. Lets try not to do this anymore okay guys? I can't see any benefit to any of this at all whatsoever to the public. I hope we're talking about computer when I get back (not what reseller is doing what).

Goodnight.

Why am i on a new level.? I think you promote asus product more then any dealer on a single forum. If i were asus marketing i would hire you or atleast send you a marketing kit. Good Job....I do pay attention even though i dont post here that much. Someone reffered to llamas post sometime back on a phone convo with me. If i said i didnt know who you were i would be full of i$ht. What is it that you dont like about my compliment to you? and why are the mods here still allowing me to post. I should be on g2p08 by now. Everyone must be sleeping.
Llama i dont know your name and i am sorry if i call you by whats i belive is a middleastern goat. Surprised you know my name though. I must be popular. I for one am against animal cruelty and i never wear sheep prodcts if its any cancellation to you....

Sorry. I was trying to simplify what you said to make it more clear. My apologies that I oversimplified things.
Could you explain this further? I don't understand.
How is the general public of an "inquiring mind" supposed to find information if not from the resellers? We get all our info from you folks!
except if they were wrong about the specs, then their customers would become irate and go somewhere else.
If one is to believe Rick, he didn't offer preorders to be cutthroat, but because he was repeatedly asked to do so. This doesn't seem like an unfair practice to me. Quality shines through. People may be dumb as a group, but I don't think you'll lose the market to upstarts if you provide quality products with good service and the upstarts don't. Part of supply and demand economy is that the rules can change or shift periodically. I think you have a very valid reason why you don't offer preorders, but that doesn't mean that Rick or any other reseller doesn't have equally valid reasons why they do. Just my 2 cents worth on the matter.

I'm with you on that one! Asus has lousy prediction reliability.