General Forum

Re: B&O UK closed?

meandmyshadow — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:30:40 GMT

beobilly1:

My new dealer has just informed me that any new products I order will take 4 - 6 weeks instead of the usual 7 - 10 day's. A pain for me but a real worry to the dealer.

Does anyone know if this is across all the UK and if it's because B&O have REALLY slowed down production ?

He also mentioned that B&O had called an emergency meeting. Not sure if he ment ''had'' or ''are''.

I want to order a set of speakers for my 3200 but cant help but feel I should either not bother or wait for the ''fire sale''...?

This is not exactly true, B&O were holding upto 4000 stock items at any one time, this will be reduced to around 400. More stock costs money so the reason behind it is to not commit so much money at stock levels. Delivery of regular products such as TV's, Audio, Speakers etc will be around 14 days, only low demand varients such as red or blue options or BV4 103" will take 4-6 weeks and the new gold colours are annodised to order so will take upto 12 weeks.

Re: B&O UK closed?

Puncher — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:42:17 GMT

Also, according to a post elsewhere, the gold stuff which is produced to order has a premium attached for that very reason.

Re: B&O UK closed?

moxxey — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:28:15 GMT

beobilly1:

My new dealer has just informed me that any new products I order will take 4 - 6 weeks instead of the usual 7 - 10 day's. A pain for me but a real worry to the dealer.

I'm not sure how that works. In order to bring costs down, manufacturers have to mass-produce some products. Ok, B&O only produce a small number of products, but if they are going to produce them 'on demand', this is going to prove very expensive and time consuming. 6 weeks is a long time to wait for a pair of speakers.

The second hard market is going to be far more 'profitable' in future. At least you can walk away with your B&O products..

Re: B&O UK closed?

Puncher — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:48:27 GMT

That'll be "Just-in-(6 weeks)-Time", then

Re: B&O UK closed?

PhilLondon — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:13:53 GMT

It was said that B&O will stop producing too much stock, but will produce at the moment you order.

Re: B&O UK closed?

beobilly1 — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:03:20 GMT

My new dealer has just informed me that any new products I order will take 4 - 6 weeks instead of the usual 7 - 10 day's. A pain for me but a real worry to the dealer.

Does anyone know if this is across all the UK and if it's because B&O have REALLY slowed down production ?

He also mentioned that B&O had called an emergency meeting. Not sure if he ment ''had'' or ''are''.

I want to order a set of speakers for my 3200 but cant help but feel I should either not bother or wait for the ''fire sale''...?

Re: B&O UK closed?

beobilly1 — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:59:30 GMT

Wait...

B&O UK seems to be disappearing and B&O USA own the London stores ?!? What's going on...

Re: B&O UK closed?

moxxey — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:23:02 GMT

PhilLondon:

Some of the London store are privately owned.

Yes, but they have to be 'managed' by someone above the shop owners and that job is B&O USA. ie. they handle the franchised/owned shop direction.

Re: B&O UK closed?

PhilLondon — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 14:16:51 GMT

Some of the London store are privately owned.

Re: B&O UK closed?

moxxey — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 13:58:32 GMT

Bizarrely, I was told the other day that the London stores are now owned by.....B&O USA!! Only the London stores. The reason? They have more experience handling retail stores than B&O UK.

Has anyone heard anything similar?

BTW there's absolutely no way that the B&O stores are going to disappear. They are some of the most profitable in the B&O portfolio. However, perhaps B&O Struer have lost some faith in the way they've handled the UK market, which is why the London stores are managed by another territory, 1000's of miles away...

Re: B&O UK closed?

Pushkin — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 13:44:32 GMT

Interesting - I walk past my local B&O dealer (Brompton Rd, Knightsbridge) most days and up until Christmas there was usually one or two people browsing - for Jan and first part of Feb, I have not seen a single person in the store. I wonder, given how many stores there are in London, whether a consolidation may take place.

Re: B&O UK closed?

beobilly1 — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 11:32:18 GMT

Quick update...

My new (local !?!) dealer expressed his own worries to me when I introduced myself this week. He tell's me that all B&O's UK sales rep's have just been made redundant. This is another big worry, more so to the dealer, and I cant see how such wholesale dessimation of the UK network is anything other than a sure sign of a total pullout of the UK... If so who do we turn to for service, let alone sales?

Re: B&O UK closed?

j0hnbarker — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:33:55 GMT

Peter :

The same is now seen in medicine - nurses are given protocols to follow with a step by step approach. In the past, you would see a doctor who could draw on experience and having been taught how to think logically through a differential diagnosis.

Peter - have you been following some of the 'noctor' threads on DNUK? Certainly some strong opinions have been roused!

Re: B&O UK closed?

beobilly1 — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:52:30 GMT

I called B&O to ask about the situation and was told that my nearest dealer (now 80 miles away) would service my out of guarantee products "at his discretion" and any guarantee work may well need to be sent to Denmark. They did'nt seem sure of the in's and out's at all. It was suggested that as I bought my TV's from another (now defunct) dealer I may need to take them to the dealer or pay for collection ! When I think how much I paid for them I cant believe I'm looking at Littlewoods catalogue type of service. I realise a dealer going bust is "unusual circumstances" but I would have thought a Top Dollar company would know how to cope. They certainly know how to charge!!!

Re: B&O UK closed?

beoaus — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:14:37 GMT

In Aus the B&O service centre shutdown some time ago. It is now a seperate contracted business run by those that worked for B&O before. I hope there remains enough work for the service guys to keep their businesses and this service model going. I also hope that B&O offer the same or better levels of training and support in this model to keep these contracted businesses going...

Beoaus.