Sonos & Costco

Wow, thats good to know, thanks for informing us Mike.

So does this mean that costco does not actually have any units to ship/sell...seems odd for a company of that size/recognition would offer for sale merchandise that it cannot fullfill.

If they can fulfill it then I am not sure exactly what the earlier statement that sonos will not fulfill the orders means.

Please clarify.

Mike is probably referring to the warranty, though I'd like to know how Costco is obtaining the product if not from Sonos!?

Funny thing is, Crutchfield, who is an authorized reseller, hasn't had stock on the intro bundle for the last couple of weeks (at least).

The problem for Sonos with Costco selling the unit is that by rejecting support and warranty coverage, they risk giving their product a bad name. Of course, that hasn't stopped other audio companies either, but I'm not sure it's good business.

Costco even mentions that they are not an authorized dealer and that the product may not be covered by the manufacturer's warranty. They do offer their guarantee to refund your purchase price if you are not completely satisfied - anybody know what time period, if any, this applies to?

Frank

Costco has a very generous return policy, for at least one year after purchase they will refund your money if you have any problems.

This would seem to be a good option for a Sonos purchase, and I don't see a downside for Sonos, but perhaps I'm missing something. 😕

Can someone from Sonos explain why a Costco purchase is not as good as a direct purchase?

Isn't the warranty provided by the manufacturer not the retailler? Is costco selling 2nds then? Is Sonos selling the products to Costco or is the manufactorer of the device for Sonos selling directly to Costco?

[font=Verdana][size=2]Costco sounds like the outlet to purchase a bundle to tear apart for mods. If you destroy it in a year they will take it back for refund. And since they are not the manufacturer they won't know it was tampered with, just that it was not satisfactory.[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=2]Hey...don't worry...I might be devious enough to think this but I am way to stupid to know what I was looking at when I opened one.[/size][/font]

Can someone from Sonos explain why a Costco purchase is not as good as a direct purchase?


Costco is a good company, with a great return policy. But the bottom line is that they are not an authorized reseller.

That means that they have received no training and are not capable of supporting you in your purchase of Sonos products.

Additionally, products purchased from an unauthorized reseller are not assured of receiving:

warranty repair service
technical support
future upgrades

thanks, chris

Gray market stuff is always disrupting to the market.

The official distributer invests a lot of time and energy (money) developing a product and introducing it into the market. There are advertising, trade shows, dealer education, sending units to reviewers, website, etc. expenses. The distributor may have been investing money into their product for years before the first unit was sold. Typically the warranty is funded by the distrubuter in each country or region. Everybody knows that a few units will fail and part of the selling price is reserved for honoring the warranty promise. The warranty is an incentive for the customer to purchase a unit. Warranties vary by region. US warranties are somewhat longer than others.

The gray marketer somehow obtains popular units and, since he has not incurred any of the expenses the developing company, typically not funding any sort of warranty, can easily undercut the distributor's price and make a fast sale.

None of this activity is particularly illegal or immoral -- after all, capitalism is supposed to deliver the lowest possible price to the consumer. However, asking the original distributer to provide warranty service for a unit it never sold is not quite fair.

If the gray marketer does a really good job of selling lots of cheap units, he could put the original distributor out of business. At that point the gray marketer loses interest in the unit, because without advertising and support the product is no longer attractive -- gray marketers want easy sales. The gray marketer then moves on to the next hot item, and the original product, distributor, and product support fade into history.

I still don't get where they obtain these "gray market" units from? I'd imagine that Sonos is having them built overseas, but if they own the product and the rights, no one else should be able to sell them w/o their authorization. They are the manufacturer and distributor, so to speak.

Maybe somebody from Sonos could care to enlighten us here?

Frank

I have to admit I'm still confused.

I get that Costco are not 'authorized' and so they back the product themselves. What I don't understand, like Anjrober, is where Costco is getting their Sonos units from?

"Grey market" is usually applied to goods that are not intended for sale in a region. So there are people selling Sonos systems in the UK, that would be considered grey market as Sonos doesn't sell in Europe yet. But that's generally in ones & twos, or at best a dozen. People are able to purchase in the US, take them to Europe and sell for a premium.

That's not the case with Costco, who are selling in North America, and Costco generally sells Volume. I also don't understand how Costco selling 1000 units, for example, is a bad thing for Sonos. I mean at some point thay had to be purchased from Sonos? 😕 Frankly if even I bought from Crutchfield I would probably still come to this site for support, so I don't see that the retailer has a large after-sale support requirement. On most electronics I go back to the manufacturer for support, not the retailer.

I'm seriously looking to get a Sonos, and I am a Costco customer, but I certainly don't want to do anything that is bad for Sonos....