Chris Townsend wrote:

"Isn't it" was not a negative, but a question. Lost in translation i believe🤒

true ! I read it as "excellent is not" !! silly old me !!!

🙂

MichaelMiles wrote:

There should be more SIS in the Uk. In Germany there are almost an equal amount of SIS to B1. For much of what a B&O customer wants an SIS is more than capable of giving a great service. Where the whole experience is desired then customers will always be happy to travel - they don’t need that once in every one or two year thrill in their local town.

 

 

B1 shops were massively let down by Bang & Olufsen. Since the early 2000’s dealers were shouting loudly to the company about what the market was looking for but B&O in their traditional arrogant manner thought they knew best.

 

 

More B&O dealerships will close & some will be taken over by B&O. Currently on the B&O website Swiss Cottage don’t have a website, Harrogate is listed twice, Cardiff goes back to the B&O.com front page & 9 other dealers still have a promotion on their front page that ended April 31st. What a shambles!

 

 

The Uk could survive with 35 B1’s and a similar amount of SIS. B&O have committed the cardinal business error. You should always cut hard & fast. That way you take the pain & get the company rebuilding again. Instead what we have 6 years on is a very painful, slow death.

I agree a lot with you, most of the successful B&O stores even though they look like B1s are in fact SIS, albeit behind the scenes. Working with other quality products from other manufacturers is not only good for the soul, it increases technical knowledge, awareness of other AV & IT trends, gives extra profitability and enables in our case ultimately to give the B&O customer the best system for their needs.

This following is using Sonos as an example of  why being a B1 sometimes can be so hard  and illustrates that some of B&O business practises have to be questioned;

Some shops have been threatened with losing bonus payments if they sell/demonstrate Sonos. Why disregard one the biggest selling digital music systems in this way, it seems to beggar belief? B&O shops should be able to use Sonos freely then we can contrast and compare in store to other, IMHO superior sounding products. What  the worse case scenario, sell a pair of B&O speakers with a Sonos component or sell no B&O speakers at all?

StUrrock wrote:

 What  the worse case scenario, sell a pair of B&O speakers with a Sonos component or sell no B&O speakers at all?

 

I've often wondered why this has been an issue with B&O...Surely a sale is better than someone walking away!

The stores in Australia are all owned by B&O, so they obviously completely tow the B&O line. They don't compete for business, they don't discount, and they don't trade in. I must admit that I also find I'm done in about 5 minutes because they essentially look the same as they did 15 years ago (except of cours for the fresh coats of paint and the Beoplay stones),

I think B&O would do a lot better in Australia if they had the SIS model rather than one or two stores per city. I really feel that B&O needs more of a 'presence', I know a lot of people who have only heard of them because of me blabbing on about it!

I'm more than happy to buy on line - it certainly hasn't harmed Apple or Amazon

Shame they haven't got much worth buying