Rip off Britain

[Anonymous]

With the drop in commodity prices, I wonder whether the cost of manufacturing AV equipment has actually come down despite the strengthening US$.

I find it really ironic that everyone still pours their money into US$ even though the US economy itself has been tanking...

In terms of quality, I still have a slight bias towards products that are manufactured in Japan. Somehow, the manufactured in Japan seal does inspice a certain degree of confidence that the product meets certain quality standards.

Does anyone know where Onkyos are manufactured?

 

[Andrew Everard]

seakingadvice:Does anyone know where Onkyos are manufactured?

High end models in Japan, others elsewhere.

 

[Anonymous]

So looks like Denon has the edge in terms of having the "Made in Japan" seal of quality assurance on most of their AV Receivers... Pioneer Kuro is another brand that proudly carries that seal. Even though technically, it shouldn't really make any difference in terms of quality wherever the product is produced if the company adheres to the same quality standards globally.

 

[Andrew Everard]

No, it doesn't make any difference.

 

[Anonymous]

I think there difference is more psychological in the minds of consumers. China made products have been getting a lot of bad press lately, particularly food products. BTW, I think I recall the WHF Team visiting the Onkyo plant or something a while back. Has the team also visited the Yamaha, Denon, Pioneer facilities as well? Any comment on what you saw?

 

[Andrew Everard]

I think very few people worry too much about where their products are made, and are certainly not that worried about them being made in China.

Yes, we have visited production facilities in Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, France, Germany, the Czech Republic and others (including the UK), and in each case have been impressed by the quality control systems in place to ensure the products are built to a consistently high standard.

Most of the Japanese companies making products overseas, for example, have their own factory/production management teams onsite, and indeed many Chinese manufacturers employ senior production management staff who previously worked for Japanese companies.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules with this subject, and there are alwaysÿanomaliesÿto be found in each territory....

I've, generally, enjoyed the benefits of being in Asia and the majority of products I purchase being cheaper in comparison to UK RRP, especially if locally produced. This obviously makes sense. But I've also been surprised by certain 'imports' too - Apple computers being a fair bit cheaper here than UK, until very recently. Even Leica cameras, imported from Germany, whilst no cheaper, certainly are no more expensive than when sourced from Europe or UK...

But then there are glaring exceptions. Pioneer Thailand wanted theÿequivalentÿof over £4k for the KRP 50" Kuro - that's getting on for twice as much ! I basically laughed out loud in the store. My usual port of call, Singapore, whilst much more in line with UK RRP, wasn't the usual saving either......So, I ordered it from the UK, and the 15% VAT refund will pay for the freight...

I've never been completely convinced the 'supply and demand' theory explains the complete picture with pricing.....

 

[Anonymous]

Hi SC, how did you order it from the UK? Did you just order online from a retailer that was willing to ship the Pioneer Kuro to you? And how did you claim the 15% VAT refund? What about the warranty?

Besides suppy and demand, exchange rates, internal profit targets, etc...also has a strong influence on pricing. The problem with most brick and motar companies is that they still don't seem to realise or don't care that consumers these days are much more savvy and global information is available at the click of a mouse. Also, I believe that AV Products being big ticket items are still not being ordered widely by global customers online as compared to other smaller items like books, CDs, etc. Hopefully, that will change in time and we can all reap the benefits of getting the lowest possible price globally!

 

[Anonymous]

I'm from the UK, so just dealt direct with one of the dealers that used to be local to me from a few years back...TV was sent to my parents address, from where I'll organise the freighting....As for VAT, is just a case of requesting a VAT refund form from the dealer, this gets stamped and returned when the product leaves the country....

 

[Anonymous]

Ahhh, I see. I think that's the problem. I think dealers are not allowed to ship products internationally so us consumers will need someone on the ground to do the buying and shipping if we intent to buy AV equipment. Bummer. :-(