Sweetwaters' Competition

Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 7:01 am

I go for package 1 as well...................<--- To much period!

Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:25 am

I'd Ebay either package and buy some better drums.
For the amount it would cost for pre's, converters and storage. Or, pre's and a lathe. I can get hours and hours in a studio.

I might like that matched pair of Earthworks QTC40's.
They'd go well with my Edirol. Razz

But I can't win. I'm not American.

*phones up Sweetwater*

That was one polite and helpful salesperson. If I were to want to buy those microphones, they would have no problem selling them to me, or arranging shipment to Australia.

Seriously though, once I started talking to the guys there... No one gives service like that in Australia... Makes me kinda less jingoistic. Razz

Where was I?

RO Admin Joined: Mar 20, 2000 Posts: 4352 Location: Canada

To see how this worked, I followed the link, filled the form out for my oldest daughter, ( from Canada BTW). She would love to win all those googies.
The form shows other areas of Canada, however, never accepted her province code, so I put in IL. In a hurry, I didn't realize the rules were only for USA . Seems pretty lame to exclude the rest of us. They are a good company.

The day after she received a marketing call from SW.

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 11:09 am

bigtree wrote:

To see how this worked, I followed the link, filled the form out for my oldest daughter, ( from Canada BTW). She would love to win all those googies.
The form shows other areas of Canada, however, never accepted her province code, so I put in IL. In a hurry, I didn't realize the rules were only for USA . Seems pretty lame to exclude the rest of us. They are a good company.

The day after she received a marketing call from SW.

That is pure scum spam.

I did notice when I called SW the guy who was so helpfull pushed for my full name and phone number and when I dodged that he pushed hard for an email, I refused he came at it three different ways until I polity told him to have a nice day and hung up.
They are hella polite. But the sales team are as professional as it gets (read slick as dog shit, kind of white shoe brigade level of sprucking). They farm info for potential clients really well...

This is a plus and a minus. I'm aware of it so it shits me, however I'm also aware that they make a lot of money and there for have the resources to provide an awesome shopping experience... Which is appreciate. I like to impulse buy.

Where do you draw the line?

I'd say the line is drawn when they decide to only promote and give away to the home team yet spam the globe...

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:51 pm

Sure, that's all well and fine. But what the heck does "damn. -d +t " mean?

Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 8:07 am

I had the same thought, Program. I'd prefer package 1, and if I won Package 2 I'd probably sell half of it off, perhaps after a little experimentation.

As for Sweetwater; They're unbelievably efficient and NICE. I have a sales rep assigned to my account #, and he calls whenever an order is shipped just to follow up and make sure all's well. We actually have conversations from time to time, about gear, people, etc. I like the fact that they call AFTER I buy, mostly to say "Thanks" instead of bugging me up front.

THey leave me alone till I'm ready to buy, and only butt in if there's a need, like suggesting I get a memory chip card to go along with my M-Audio MicroTrack II (which ships with NO memory. I would have been seriously pissed, otherwise). Brilliant strategy.

I could buy from a variety of others, but since they're insanely good and so damn efficient, they usually get all my biz now, if I can't find something locally. If I order on a Monday, I usually have it by Wed., even using normal ground UPS.

Prices are about the same all over for most of these places, so I think Sweetwater has figured out how to do a better job, the old fashioned way: with SERVICE and real people.

I'm going to go register for the mic contest as well, I'll check out the "USA" line too.

RO Admin Joined: Mar 20, 2000 Posts: 4352 Location: Canada

Good to read your post Joe, no wonder they are doing so well, and why RO supports them. I expect less and dealers will survive the internet unless they can mirror the Sweetwater model. From where I live, less and less time is going into customer service.

We have a poll that's getting interesting. Its an open discussion. http://recording.org/survey-45.html

If all dealers were like Sweetwater, I suppose this poll wouldn't be so strong in favor for direct sales from manufacturers.
Basic question is. Is great service worth paying 20%, 30% maybe as much as 50% more added to a product you could buy direct. Save $750.00 for a product you end up paying $1500.00.

Insane shipping costs must add a big chunk to the overall cost of any product that has to go through 3 hands before it gets to the consumer. Chain of events: ( manufacturer to distributor, distributor to dealer, dealer to local pick-up, consumer drive to pick it up). To me this is a total out dated process and a complete waste of efficiency and resources.
Can we buy ( high end) products direct, and have it delivered in the same time frame?
This would avoid extra pollution and unnecessary middle man commissions. Other considerations. If they do stock it... Middle man tends to by quantity to make more profit. How many times have we bought old stock that's been updated?

It does make me think about what I am actually paying for when I buy high end.

Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 1:44 pm

Space wrote:

Sure, that's all well and fine. But what the heck does "damn. -d +t " mean?

I said Erradic. Somone decided that was something worth talking about so I figured I would correct it (in a way) to end that dead end conversation. I responded by saying -d +t...meaning in the word Erradic take away the d and add in a t.

Very Happy

And to address the "Only in America" aspect of the competition...There are likely many factors for them making the contest available only in America. My guess is there are probably lots of legal hurdles and possibly even some logistical ones. Does it suck? Yes.

Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 2:27 pm

bigtree wrote:

Good to read your post Joe, no wonder they are doing so well, and why RO supports them. I expect less and dealers will survive the internet unless they can mirror the Sweetwater model. From where I live, less and less time is going into customer service.

We have a poll that's getting interesting. Its an open discussion. http://recording.org/survey-45.html

If all dealers were like Sweetwater, I suppose this poll wouldn't be so strong in favor for direct sales from manufacturers.
Basic question is. Is great service worth paying 20%, 30% maybe as much as 50% more added to a product you could buy direct. Save $750.00 for a product you end up paying $1500.00.

Insane shipping costs must add a big chunk to the overall cost of any product that has to go through 3 hands before it gets to the consumer. Chain of events: ( manufacturer to distributor, distributor to dealer, dealer to local pick-up, consumer drive to pick it up). To me this is a total out dated process and a complete waste of efficiency and resources.
Can we buy ( high end) products direct, and have it delivered in the same time frame?
This would avoid extra pollution and unnecessary middle man commissions. Other considerations. If they do stock it... Middle man tends to by quantity to make more profit. How many times have we bought old stock that's been updated?

It does make me think about what I am actually paying for when I buy high end.

This is so on the money.

Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 4:06 pm

Well the competition is over.
Suffice to say I didn't win?
Was it because my entry wasn't the best?
Was it because it wasn't my turn to be lucky and drawn from the barrel?

Okay, enough with the aggressive questions.

I want to know who won, what their entry was and indeed what they intend to use it for. You'd think giving away 25grand for publicity would get some... Publicity...

I can't find any information on the sweetwater site.

Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 5:21 am

They have a winners page. Heres the previous winners:
2008 Winners
» October's Customer Review winner of $250 in Sweetwater Bucks is Ray Van Der Heijden.
» October's Customer Review winner of $150 in Sweetwater Bucks is Vance Collins.
» October's Customer Review winner of $100 in Sweetwater Bucks is Joshua Lovvorn.
» October's winner of microphone package #1 is William Kavanagh.
» October's winner of microphone package #2 is is Kristian Stout.
» September's winner of the Euphonix MC Control and MC Mix is Phillippe "Des" Desloovere.
» August's winner of the Randall Kirk Hammett Limited Edition Half Stack Amp is Dave Boyer.
» July's winner of the ReValver MKIII Amp & Peavey HP Special with custom graphics is Steve Baber.
» June's winner of a Complete Pro Tools System is Robin Stehwien.
» April's winner of the Live Sound Package #1 is Philip Leonard.
» April's winner of the Live Sound Package #2 is Bob Demartino.
» April's winner of the Live Sound Package #3 is David Herrman.
» March's winner of the Yamaha Motif XS6 is Matt Westfield.
» February's winner of the Pro DAW Recording Package is Michael Varela.
» January's winner of the PreSonus Recording Rig is Steve Stumbo.

the mic packages are 4th and 5th on the list.... I didn't win either Confused

Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 5:48 am

I wonder what their entries were.

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