| Jesse,
Congratulations on winning the contest, however I think it's a bit rich for someone who is being given a new Eclipse trumpet to be criticising anyone's payment plan to the extent you are! Have a look at your own "signature" line at the bottom of your posts:
"What do we have that we did not receive..." - indeed!!
Maybe you should give the buyers of musical instruments some credit for being able to decide whether they can afford the purchase in the first place. If they can and it helps to be able to pay it off interest free, I'm sure they appreciate it. Not everyone can win a new trumpet for their kids.
I sold a new ZeuS trumpet to a student this week after he tried a demo horn I sent him - he is very excited about getting a trumpet that plays so well for a fraction of the price of a new Bach or anything else similar here. Bach trumpets are not just 50% more expensive than the ZeuS over here - it is more like 100% minimum. This is because the limited number of dealers think they've got a captive market and price their products accordingly. Sure people can get on the internet and buy these instruments from the USA etc, however not everyone feels comfortable doing it and I can understand why. I was able to sell him a brand new ZeuS trumpet for hardly anything more than some dealers are selling Yamaha 2... series student trumpets. If you want something to criticise, then get onto the Yamaha dealers in this part of the world!
The "customer base you appeal to with your cheap trumpets" line is hardly fair either - are you implying inferior quality? Are you categorising anyone who owns a ZeuS into a lower socio-economic group? Or do you resent the fact that people can buy high quality instruments for a reasonable price?
If you felt so "dirty" posting in the ZeuS forum (what a stupid remark to make in the first place...!), then why did you make 2 more posts after bidding farewell??
I notice "everyone's best friend" Liad gave up his anti-ZeuS crusade after constantly shooting himself in the foot with stupid comments and lies. Funny how he disappeared right around the time he didn't win the Eclipse contest - however I digress...Please don't become like him. If you don't like ZeuS, or you hate Alex, or whatever reasons you have - just ignore the ZeuS forum. However, be aware that they are not going away just because you and a few others don't like them!
Enjoy your new Eclipse trumpet - I haven't played one and it's doubtful I will get the chance any time soon. A dealer here looked at importing them but decided not to go ahead because of the price they would be selling for and the limited number of sales he would likely make in a considerably smaller market than the US. The Wild Thing dealer here stopped importing them for the same reason - they only sold a couple and it wasn't worth it. I'm not knocking the other makes (I actually owned a Wild Thing cornet) however in this particular market the ZeuS is exceptional value and unless I start to sell 100 of them a month, I suppose the other makes will continue to sell for much more than they're actually worth!
__________________
Where words fail, music speaks
- Hans Christian Anderson |