How to drill through water pipes?

No, true enough. We don't even know if you have dirty laundry. :-) I was acting on Alan's behalf there, considering he's been quiet lately; someone needed to allude to you in an oblique manner.

You miss my point, however. I wasn't talking about EI specifically, but any manufacturer who thinks about participating here. You will agree that even if you're feeling ambivalent about what a vendor says here there will be others that will take unfair jabs at whatever vendor poster they don't like, right? And how is that vendor poster to respond?


Yes, there are some stand-up guys on this forum.


No argument. However, all of the ones you cited are not core electronics or (in the case of EI) automation companies. How excited can you really get on a wire vendor's claims? Or a speaker vendor? If Denon, Marantz, Crestron, Fujistu or other biggies has a presence here they would be hammered every day by posters that were made because of some technical problem, a slow response to a voice mail, failure to drop prices enough to meet the market, and the list goes on.

lol

I completely agree that if I were a manufacturer I would under no circumstances allow employees to post as representatives. To do so is the equivalent of allowing an installer to make cold sales calls (pick your analogy) without company approval. I might allow some to post and they would be people who had been specifically appointed and been deemed suitable for the task.

I think the only point where we I disagreed was that there can be an upside and that someone who knows how to represent the company can do good.

It's worth noting that I believe Steve that was posting here was the VP of sales...one would hope he meet the necessary criteria to receive approval from LF :-).

WOW.. What a thread.. Unfortunately I don't have the time to read all 18 pages of this thread but I've managed to read 50% thoroughly and the last 50% I skimmed. I feel I'm experiencing Deja Vu. Seven years ago I purchased a Pocket PC device a Jornada 560. I sat in the newsgroups and read posts and listened to every Palm advocate make sacastic remarks from how many taps it takes to get somewhere to who wants music on there pda. This was a educating experience for me as I watched Palm nose dive to almost nothing. I'm not saying what EI and MS are doing will make Crestron and AMX go out of business, but I do find it interesting that both of these companies are already shifting they product line to provide an easier product to implement. Isn't this what EI is doing? I come from the IT side of things and I'm very interested in EI and their concept. I have not adopted it, yet, but I will not turn my back on a product that will make my job easier and allow me to spend more quality time with my clients. Yes, quality time. The more quality time I spend with them the more money they spend with me. It's a fine line that works very well. I currentyl have 5 builders that are so fed up with Crestron they don't even want to hear the word anymore. I believe that this is due to the lack of quality in the integrators but I have to tell you these builders did not use the same company/companies. We will be visiting Ohio to see if they're interested in using EI for their future builds. If they are then I'll have a new product to sell to my customers.

Be cautious when mocking someone like Microsoft and their concept of wanting to control the living room and or the house. If they want it they'll get it. It may not be this year or next but MS is very patient and stubborn.

Damn, might have lost a deal to a Lifeware dealer. Not sure yet. I had spec'd a relatively modest AV distribution system for their new home. Some dealer, from another State or possibly a Lifeware rep, called the builder trying to get them to sign on for the dealer program.

I explained the differences between them and the real control systems and told him to do some research about the product line. This is the first time I have ran into them as a competitor so we will see how it turns out.

This has been a customer of mine for a couple years, so hopefully I can overcome whatever BS the rep tells him today. I did basically tell him if he goes this route, I would not be working at his new home.

Have your opinions of EI changed over the last few months or are they still offering an unstable product? I admit I haven't spent a lot of time researching their product. When I get ready to offer automation, I will look at one of the two established systems.

I'm no more or less impressed By Lifeware now than I was then or when I first saw it. Good marketing department, lots of money, beyond that...

This very well may be the death of Lifeware:

[Link: cepro.com]