On July 4, 2006 at 10:47, davidmj54 said...
Many of the CI's that frequent this forum have
lost their way.
How have we lost our way exactly?
within five hours of his posting he had his answer.
They are upset with a company
called Universal Remote Control (
http://www.universalremote.com/),
because they allow their remotes to be sold on
eBay for about half of what they are charging.
Before I answer this i would like to state i have never sold or programmed a URC remote control. So URC pricing and sales policy makes no differance to me either way.
I think they are more upset with the fact that it is below what they can even legitimatly buy it for.
even if you sell it to the customer at cost looking for the programming labor it gives the customer an impression that you are being dishonest and if the customer buys the remote himself off of Ebay and has a CI install it who is the customer going to go to when the remote breaks, his Ebay seller or the installer? Thanks where do i sign up to support a product that i make absolutly nothing on?
The reason that the CI's did not tell you about
this solution is that the two companies that they
tries to push you toward "Xantech and RTI" are
not selling their products directly to the consumer.
They only sell through the CI.
Xantech and RTI maybe CI only but i believe there are many differant IR repeaters out on the market. Unfortunatly none of the others offer IR routing which is what this guy needs.
As for RTI the reason so many of us reccomend it is because it works really really well. and lets face it even if i posted RTI as the answer to every question that comes up on this board how does that help me exactly? I dont work for RTI. I have my own company to worry about and i really dont think i am going to make a huge jump in proffit just from the jobs i have landed by answering questions on this board. I answer questions on here to help fellow CI's because i have sure as hell been there scratching my head wondering why something wont do what i need it to do to either finish a job or keep a customer happy and it sucks
I can't see why I should have to pay a huge markup
to a custom installer if I am not having him install
the equipment.
You can buy whatever equipment you want and install it however you want
but unfortunatly for you that means you can not have RTI or several other companys products, At least not through legitmate channels.
|There will always be people that
just enjoy spending the time and playing with
the equipment themselves.
And i would think that most of use here think that is great. although it does get a little frustrating answering the same questions over and over again because these hobbiests who are "more then capable" to handle installing these products that are CI only cant seem to get them to work. it wouldnt be so bad if there was any hope of them ever contributing to the site. But they pop on here with their first post asking their question, get the answer and disapear until they need more help.
after all it is called " Custom Installers' Lounge" not "Come get free tech support from pros because your shady ebay seller wont return your emails"
I await the barrage of comments that the bitter
CI's will undoubtedly send my way.
what exactly do i have to be bitter about again?
I make a very nice living doing something that i absolutly love doing, enough so that i spend the time outside of work to try and help others.
The funny thing is that all of the hobbiests that come on here a piss and moan about differant products sales policies and and markup would love to be doing what i am doing and would have a vastly differant opinion if they ever did try to make a living doing Ci work. Bitch all you want about mark up but it is what allows me to keep the lights on so when my customers either need service or upgrades I can service their needs. or should this be a charity industry where i just bust my ass 60 hours a week crawling through attics and sweating my ass off doing a prewire. only to have nothing to show for it at the end of the week?
I tell you what, i can do an entire job for you at cost plus 10%
but it will have no warranty, I will not support the system in any way after the the equipment is installed, which shouldnt be a problem since you will have no way to get a hold of me after my phone service is shut off.
i will not have any insurance so please make sure yours is up to date in case i get hurt working at your house. I will make sure i send my green'est rooky to do your job and make sure that he has no training what so ever.He will not be licensed.
Look i feel sorry that the original poster had a bad experience with his installers/programers. Unfortunatly for him his equipment list is doomed for failure as far as universal remotes goes, I would have a very tough time getting even AMX to control this system reliably and his programmer should have let him know this from the start.
