Great service?? I would call this a great diservice? This one incident no longer makes them a protected line. They committed the unforgivable sin. They jeopardized their customer base in an already struggling economy. Somebody at the top must have approved this so it's apparent that selling boxes supercedes any claim to loyalty.

They haven't reached the same status as say Crestron where you just have to live with some of their decisions.

They're just another company that sells stuff. And there are alot out there to choose from

this doesnt help the fact that they accept anyone that knows the right things to say. Hell if they say the right things they get a free pair of speakers for "trying" them out. They dont even require a tax ID number/resellers certificate, hell even PETRA requires that. this was incredibly stupid and i am contemplating beginning to remove my self from this company, even though i have received good customer support this is one of the 7 deadly sins of distribution and i can certainly purchase most of the same products or slightly different elsewhere.

I think the only way to make this right, for our sakes is they initiate IMMEDIATELY a dealer wide sweep requiring Tax ID numbers, Resellers certificates etc to weed out the extreme diy'ers/trunk slammers that may have signed up or will quickly once they see this ad.

will this happen, i doubt it because after this ad it tells me that they are just in the business to move boxes, they over extended them selves moving into that behemoth building and their overhead is now substantial. Rather then raise prices slightly they rather just sell to everyone. That is my take on whats really going on. anyone care to disagree?

I do have to say that OF COURSE THEY ARE JUST IN THE BUSINESS TO MOVE BOXES. Their profits coming from moving boxes. Bottom line. 

Of course, great service and support means that dealers will keep coming back, meaning they move more boxes long term, but lets not ignore that their business model requires them to move boxes to be profitable. 

Cant believe they did this....I am done with them.

Of course they're in business to move boxes...that's a given...BUT.....to pull a Bafoon move like this is unconscionable. One of the biggest problems with the AV industry is that dealers have this notion that they have to keep their mouths shut and not rock the boat with manufacturers and distributors for fear of losing the line or losing favour with said vendors.

That's bunk, in my opinion. You and I are the customer. These companies need to know that when they make bad decisions as serious as this; it's going to hurt their bottom line.

I drop a couple of new vendors every year. Why? Because I'm the customer and if you don't live up to the expectations that you sold me on; then good riddance.

My customers would do the same so why are we any different?

I'm not going to stop using them after one slip up. I think it's a little overreactive to scream "I will never use them again!" I just hope they learn from their mistakes and we can all move on.

They might let people become a dealer who can sweet talk their way in but I don't care. It's not going to cause my business to suffer if someone can pick up a HDMI matrix or cables. I will never work for a homeowner who will provide SnapAV products because it indicates a huge red flag before we even begin our relationship.

I think what they did was a huge mistake but not one that will cause me to not use them. Adam Levy (VP) responded to my email with 24 hours which is a huge thing in my book. He owned up to what happened is I believe is commited to making Snap better. It's better than RTI's constant ignoring certain conversions or having a very sharp tone in their responses. It's why I'm moving on from RTI and will continue to support Snap (where they fit in).

Thats not where im coming from, and your right it would be a huge RED FLAG if a customer purchased Snap products. What i am concerned about when i go and have to spec this product and they do their digging and find out what i pay then comes the inevitable conversation of why its marked up so much, then i have to explain the whole overhead running a business conversation. Even without model numbers (i dont even list brand names most of the time now) they can still come across things and ask why i cant use "this" product because it costs 1/3 less then what im charging.

i think this is grounds for "firing" them on my part. customers dont give us a second change like GMAN said why should we? will i fire them? probably not for the only reason of customer support, but i am already looking for different suppliers for the second and last stike. i hope this is a one time deal but whats troubling is its wasnt accidental; rather intentional. :(

and the whole tax ID thing really bothers me, maybe it shouldnt but man is this one thing that urks me on top of the fact they plaster "engineered by snap av" on every thing

Even though they published prices on some products, it doesn't necessarily mean that anyone can buy them. 2 completely different things.

I assume that they did so, to try and convince more dealers to join SnapAV. It's a decision that they went with.

When I became a dealer, they did require me to fax over my reseller cert. and business license to be approved. As well as a call from them to talk about myself and my background.

I am not going to jump ship because of this. As long as some nefarius person doesn't scan and post the prices on the web, I'm not going to worry about it too much.

I just googled several options and could NOT come up with anything relating to a price on "snapav", "hdmi" or "cost".

I agree this was a dumb, dumb, dumb thing to do.  But let's not make mountains out of mole hills.  The effect that this might have on your business is pretty slim.  

You obviously know about it, so you can easily throw away the mag (sorry Julie) or rip out the offending advertisement.  The odds of your customer base subscribing to CEPro is pretty slim.  Since they're not CEPro's.  

However, I originally signed up with Snap for all of the same reasons everyone else did,  that includes Price Protection.  If Snap decides that this is the new business model, I'll be happy to show them my new business model.  

Additionally, as some of you've mentioned Snap has great customer service, and they also have a presence on RC.  So where are they now?  I'd like to hear a reply and possibly a "Sorry 'bout that" from them on the forum. 

SnapAV, just being perfectly honest,  I'm not going to break up with you.  But I don't trust you as much as I did yesterday.  
 

This isnt the issue. The issue is that clients will know what we pay for it and use it as leverage. "You only paid $300 for it why should i pay $500" or "Can you work with me on price and meet me around $350?"

So what are we supposed to do? Say "sure...please lube up and wear a condom while you are back there"? Or spend a day explaining why product margin is an important part of the economy? Or tell the clients to go buy it all on Amazon and just charge them labor to install it. And again to service it. And again to service it. The ad was discussing HDMI... imagine a client paying for every service call to make that crap work.

+1 Million
It's a matter of principal...Do what's best for your business, guys but I'm buying all my cables from Asian Ho from now on...HaHa

Found the add. I'm a little shocked that they published their newest additions. I think so many guys were waiting for these to come out and they do this?

Honestly, I probably won't sell many of these from SNap anyway because I think there a better solutions that I'm willing to put my reputation with, but this still pisses me off. 

I'm not jumping ship as I've been very happy with Snap up until now and have steered many guys in their direction, but if this becomes the norm, I may just move on. 

I have a feeling it will be in the next email blast....you know the one they send out where they own up to issues or give business advice. Which is one of the emails I actually enjoy reading. Though I'm not sure how much business advice I'd take from an executive that let this happen. Maybe we should write a group letter and send it to them. Or maybe this thread is doing just that. I have a feeling there are a few eyeballs on this thread at Snap corporate currently performing the Picard facepalm and wishing this would disappear.

I agree with this..  I'm not thrilled about this either but at least it was CEPro n
not another mag.  I wont drop them for this blunder as long as its a one time
bad decision.

Wow! WTF?
I just logged in tonight hoping to see a response by Snap saying "Sorry, we f***ed up".
It happens, I understand.
Yes this was epic and no it doesn't sit well but they need to come forward and say it wont happen again. Leaving us hanging is absolutely the wrong thing. Especially when someone says it was purposely done.

Please SnapAV, Tell us we have nothing to worry about. I just specd a ton of your product into a very large project and need to hear that this will not happen again.