HP Marketing...

[Jim Rice]

Okay, so now I'm being pissy, and I formally repent.

[Eve Kendal]

Once again I am amazed at the attitude of HP Marketing. Looking at the link above I have to question that most of the products they sell are even relavent today to all but a very limited specialized market. Yet they seem to go out of their way to alienate a very small and getting smaller community. Sounds like the last desperate gasps of a dying business.

Scott I can understand how you feel, but it is not all that bleak, used photographic items are cheap and plentiful. As for new I like Schneider much better myself. There are many choices out there in the free world, don't look back.

[Kirk Gittings]

Kerry said:

"So when they ask, "Is that a Hasselblad?", just tell them"Yes, yes it is". "

Very Funny, I have actually done exactly that except it was in Santa Fe shooting rich peoples multi-million dollar houses. For commercial shooting I use an old Calumet Wide Field ($175 used) which I have had powder coated black. "What are you shooting, a Hassleblad?" What else?

[Bob._3483]

Hey, I have a solution: get your congressman to agitate for the US to join the European Union (a.k.a. the E.E.C.) - then this would be anti-competitive practice and therefore illegal as any warranty in one EU country must be honoured in another....

Just trying to be helpfull...

Cheers, Bob.

[Pete Watkins]

'cmon Bob, the EEC has enough problems worrying about straight bananas without having to sort out the problems in the US.

[Dan Fromm]

Ils sont fous, ces americains.

[Ellis Vener]

Scott,

You write:

: " i am not trying to hurt hp. i am simply choosing to not to use those products.

But at the top of this thread you also wrote:

"thanks, don.



all those lines, eh?



that's a real shame. i'm a huge linhof/rodenstock/heliopan fan. i'm really going to miss my TK45S and APO-Sironar-S lenses, though I doubt i'll notice any difference in arca/schneider/b+w products."

No offense meant here. I understand your position: I too question the commercial wisdom of HP Marketing/Marflex (etc.) in not agreeing to take on your repair work since you are willing to pay for it. This is also information that you could have found by using any internet search engine, but instead you decided to make your beef public.

So you seem to want to have your moral high ground cake and eat it too.

Have you considered that perhaps the problem is not that HP Marketing forced Linhof's parent company to agree that in exchange for the marking rights to in the USA, that perhaps Linhof (or the parent company) made this a clause in the distribution contract to protect their markets in other parts of the world like Asia or Europe, etc. . Currency values go up and down. Right now it might be cheaper for someone in France to buy a TK45s from an authorized USA dealer than from an authorized French dealer. Two years from now year, who knows (besides maybe Alan Greenspan)? My point is that contracts like this are written up and agreed to by both parties.

[Paul Butzi]

"This is also information that you could have found by using any internet search engine"

Actually, I've been trying to find decent info on this via the web search engines, and haven't really met with much success except for finding similar threads in various forums.

" but instead you decided to make your beef public."

And what, that's bad? I think you're wrong. The best thing to do in a situation like this is drag it out into the open.

If this policy is dictated by Linhof all Bob has to do to deflect the heat is state that's so publicly.

HP Marketing are free to run their business as they please. By the same token, customers are free to kvetch in public, loudly. I don't see a problem on either side. Companies choose how to run their business, customers vote with their wallet.

If a company doesn't like the fact that customers who complain can now voice their irritation to tens of thousands of potential customers - well, tough.

[Ellis Vener]

If this policy is dictated by Linhof all Bob has to do to deflect the heat is state that's so publicly.

I'm not tryingto deflect any heat from Bob or HP, but he may not be at liberty to iscuss the contract between HP & the Linhof mothership. I don't know what the story is either but I am rying to point outthat there may be another aspect that none of you seem to have considered.

"And what, that's bad? I think you're wrong.

I didn't say it was bad. I think it is healthy. But I did feel obliged to point out a certain disconnect in what Scott is doing. He says he doesn't want to hurt HP yet if he didn't wantto influence other people's thinking towards buying the products that HP Marketing imports into the USA why would he make a public stink about this, especially i forum that has had several threads and posts that are anti HP marketing? Are you saying that I am behaving badly by pointing out this inconsistency between what his words are and his apparent actions by starting this thread are?

[Steve Hamley]

Paul and Ellis both have good points, and I have noticed Bob Salomon's silence here, which could indicate some Business Sensitive information on which he cannot comment (or just good sense). Bob's been accused of all sorts of faults in the forums, but I think we can all agree that bashfulness isn't one of them...

Steve