New portable keyboard.. not so fast!
#[rant] So my Edirol PCR-M1 is broken. It\'s not completely fubar but it would take some proper engineering and redesigning to make it last. So i figured I\'m replacing it with something better.
:::
Turns out getting a Novation product isn\'t too easy in Bulgaria. For starters, there aren\'t any shops that stock Novation\'s entire line. Fair enough, there is no official dealer. But this is where it gets interesting.
I pick up the phone and call this company in Plovdiv, that\'s some 300km from where I am, and some 160km from where I normally live. Guy on the phone goes \"erm, this one in particular is out of stock.\", so naturally I ask when one will be available. \"- Ermm, you know August is a bit slow, so we\'ll be stocking in about three weeks, so please call us again then\". I wait 20 days, and call again. Now get this: \"Right, we\'ve just ordered some stock, but we didn\'t get this particular model\"
...... !!! (the rage!) ...
I\'m not at the height of my happiness, you know. Normally if a customer requests something, you try to sell the product to them, even if you haven\'t got it in stock. Now let me tell you about the quote. It was some 30% higher than the list price at, say, dv247.com. Mind, they order multiple items so there shouldn\'t be much shipping overhead.. So with myself expressing interest, despite the markup, I was told to wait 20 days, then call again, and when I called again, I was told it will take another 20 days.
Guys, next time take my phone number, phone your partners, and see if you can get this thing shipped fast. Or when you can have it, then phone me back. It\'s a no-brainer!!
Not in Bulgaria. In the end, I browsed dv247, sent them an email, got a quote, made an order, paid online with a debit card, and it took 36 hours to ship my product via UPS, give me a tracking number, and all of this at roughly the same price I was initially offered in Bulgaria... Minus the 40 day wait.
Fscking hell! When is this place getting fixed?
[/rant]