Yes it's in Jersey.
B&C USA distribution is drop shipping for them, the same as the majority of online retailers.
It's also the reason it's futile to request a shipping quote.
If B&C USA distridution is out of stock your order will likely be cancelled.
I don't think you'll have any problems with your transaction, FWIW...
B&C USA distribution is drop shipping for them, the same as the majority of online retailers.
It's also the reason it's futile to request a shipping quote.
If B&C USA distridution is out of stock your order will likely be cancelled.
I don't think you'll have any problems with your transaction, FWIW...
Pro Sound Service have given me excellent customer service on all the orders I've placed with them. I guess you get what you pay for.
I don't think so, the only "contact" option is their contact form, which unfortunately doesn't provide any email record of sent inquiries.
After resending my inquiry yesterday I did get a quick email saying he's working on it but still have not received any answers.
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The email I got from B&C LLC NA says they are authorized but not a North American distributor. I'm not sure what that means, but maybe they ship from a South American distribution center? Guangui says they ship from New Jersey but I'm not sure how he knows that.
It's hard to guess exactly what is going on. The poor communication from the website in question isn't helping, but if this does work out, I imagine they will become very popular due to their pricing.
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LOL, you are not even a customer. It's simple really; wasting time answering questions like these takes time. Time = Money. If you want answers to questions, call PSS or somebody who has time for customer service. The other guy is too busy counting his money while the folks at B&C USA distribution are also busy putting actual UPS labels on boxes to care about getting you a quote.
time = money
but
no sale = no money
If they can't take 30 seconds to give me a quote they won't be getting any money from me. If they don't want to take time on shipping quotes the shipping costs should be included in the price.
Besides, at some point they need to know how much it will cost, otherwise how are they going to know what to charge me?
This isn't rocket science, I don't see the problem. I have a feeling that if I complete my order, selecting shipping to Canada for two 40 pound boxes for $20 as per the shopping cart info, the order is not going to be accepted. Then what? It's going to take them exponentially longer to deal with processing, cancelling the order and refunding my money than it would have taken to get me a shipping quote.
This is a good opportunity to get a lot of good exposure and positive feedback for their company. It could go the other way too...
but
no sale = no money
If they can't take 30 seconds to give me a quote they won't be getting any money from me. If they don't want to take time on shipping quotes the shipping costs should be included in the price.
Besides, at some point they need to know how much it will cost, otherwise how are they going to know what to charge me?
This isn't rocket science, I don't see the problem. I have a feeling that if I complete my order, selecting shipping to Canada for two 40 pound boxes for $20 as per the shopping cart info, the order is not going to be accepted. Then what? It's going to take them exponentially longer to deal with processing, cancelling the order and refunding my money than it would have taken to get me a shipping quote.
This is a good opportunity to get a lot of good exposure and positive feedback for their company. It could go the other way too...
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I agree with your previous statement about brokerage and customs, you'd have be crazy to ship UPS into Kanuckistan. I have friends in Canada who ship to the US side UPS store and cross the border to pick up packages the all the time. If there is no UPS store near your border crossing OPEN ONE UP it's a gold mine!
You should know by now that basically NOBODY wants your business if you are a cross border shipment. International shipping is a total PITA.
You should know by now that basically NOBODY wants your business if you are a cross border shipment. International shipping is a total PITA.
I e-mailed them (their only contact means provided) requesting an address and phone number. They replied with a poorly written canned statement in broken English without providing an address or phone number. That was enough to keep me away. If it's too good to be true, then it probably is.
Technology has marched on...
This is all handled via computer now, nobody needs to waist time dealing with it.
You already have the one piece of information you need to know, B&C knows who they are and did not warn you from doing business with them. If these guys grow to the point where they disrupt business for important US B&C accounts, B&C will cut them off or raise their cost to cut their margin effectively restoring balance to the street pricing.
Yes, I know. That's why I have access to a postal delivery service on the US side of the border. When it's worth the effort, I bring my own packages across the border.
Anyway, I think I've got this figured out now. The $20 shipping fee is only available for certain products (as clearly stated in the attached pic) but the shopping cart actually lets you select this option anyway, and promotes it as the "best option".
But I think the only option they will actually accept and process is the second option, which is obviously much more expensive.
This is the understanding that I'm going to stick with for now. This puts this dealer on par with total costs from other dealers (assuming the other dealers all provide free shipping to continental USA), and overall a worse deal than the ebay listing that I found for this model.
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Sorry if I sound like a high school teacher...Guys, you need to learn to read the posts completely. I gave tons of info on them. They don't have a phone listed for CelectronicsUSA, but they do have a number for Corcovada Electronics, the parent company. Call and ask for Manuel Cruz, the owner. I actually received an e-mail from the owner of the company and we talked. Apparently their English is not the very best, their office is located in Hatillo, a small coastal city in the North of the island, mainly known for dairy cattle (many wealthy farmers in the area).
Did any of you read my posts saying that Corcovada is the parent company. If you would have done a google search you would have found B&C SPEAKERS, phone number 1-787-544-6153 (001-787-544-6153 for those of you outside North America and countries with those 20 characters long phone numbers). PR is Atlantic Time, so 1 hr. ahead of Eastern Time. We don't have daylight savings, so when the time changes again for those with daylight savings time, then Atlantic Time will be the same as Eastern Time.
No, they don't ship from no South American distribution center. PR is a territory of the USA and receives shipments directly from USA. B&C uses a contracted logistics warehouse in NJ, and ships for CelectronicsUSA. For those of you who don't know what a logistics warehouse is, that is another school class.
They are a three or four person office, so don't expect quick answers. Customer Service culture in PR is not the best one, which drives me nuts. But, they are honest businesspeople.
Yes, I fully agree with this statement. They have been a B&C distributor for Puerto Rico for many, many years. In the car and pro audio distribution and brick and mortar store for 26 years. They are taking advantage of the special relationship of PR with USA, so there are no interstate commerce laws in the USA to protect other distributors, unless specifically mentioned and written in the distribution contract. For example, I bought my PSB speakers for HT from Saturday Audio in Chicago, because the whole set was about $300.00 less expensive, including shipping, than the local dealer in PR. I really wanted Monitor Audio, but MA's contract with Saturday Audio prohibits for them to sell in US States and territories where there is established MA dealers. In PR Bonnin Electronics is the MA dealer. I wasn't going to pay full list price to Bonnin, and Saturday Audio straight out refused to sell MA to me, as to not break their contract. PSB has no such contract clause with Saturday Audio. MA does allow Saturday Audio to sell factory surplus, factory B-Stock, and factory Refurbished products anywhere in the USA, including PR. That is why Saturday Audio is Monitor Audio factory authorized liquidation center for North America.
Who knows, maybe Celectronics just uses the same logistics warehouse, place a PO with B&C, B&C transfer the product from their warehouse to Celectronics warehouse (same building and private logistics company), and the logistics company ships on behalf of Celectronics.
There are tens of ways to do this, I have been in import/export since 17 yrs old (44 yrs old now), and for 12 yrs. Director of Operations for thee largest PVF (Pipes, Valves, and Fittings) distributor in the Caribbean and Central America, for 6 yrs. Director of Operations for a large ornamental plants operation (90% export), and many other sales, customer service, and operations positions. These days semi-retired dealing in real estate and business investment and acquisitions, plus business adviser to three of my former employers and a PR government corporation.
Having said all that...some of you are making much about nothing. Just try it, if you don't get your product (use PayPal), let me know and I will give you Manuel's personal e-mail, address, and how to bug him.
School is over....😀
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I read every word very carefully and appreciate your input.
Unless I had a serious problem it would never occur to me to try to find a phone number for a website from their parent company. If they wanted to be contacted by phone there would be a phone number on the website. Besides, when you said "parent company" I pictured something a bit different than one guy with several different businesses.
That's fine, you obviously have a lot more info than I do so I'll trust you.
As I understand it currently they are offering wholesale (or near wholesale) prices but making up most of the difference in high shipping costs. I'm not scared to deal with them but they don't seem to have the best total price (price + shipping cost), they don't have my item in stock, and they don't seem too interested in emailing me back so they probably won't get an order from me.
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Thanks but I didn't ask for a phone number.
I did ask for a shipping quote. Four business days ago.
I'm not sure if you read through all this, but in case you didn't here are the issues.
1. 4 days ago I was not prepared to create an account giving all my personal info just so I could get a shipping quote. That's why I requested a quote. It's not reasonable to ask for personal information just to get a shipping quote.
2. Guangui stated your shipping is free to the US. He seems to know a lot about your business so I didn't question him on that point.
3. Yesterday I got tired of waiting so I created a bogus account just to get shipping info from the shopping cart. Your shopping cart allows you to choose $20 shipping, even to Canada and for brands not mentioned as eligible. I assume you won't honor that and if not it shouldn't be an available option. The other option is over $90 to ship 2 woofers to the USA. This is extremely high cost to ship from New Jersey to Michigan.
4. If this is your final answer you could have told me that 4 days ago.
At this point I wouldn't order from you even if you had the best prices. Your customer service is terrible. And this is for a sales inquiry, I can't imagine how hard it would be to try to get an answer if I had a problem after the sale.
The US market is very connected, thousands of people visit these forums, we trust each other's recommendations and we expect excellent customer service. So good luck, you are going to need it.
1. 4 days ago I was not prepared to create an account giving all my personal info just so I could get a shipping quote. That's why I requested a quote. It's not reasonable to ask for personal information just to get a shipping quote.
2. Guangui stated your shipping is free to the US. He seems to know a lot about your business so I didn't question him on that point.
3. Yesterday I got tired of waiting so I created a bogus account just to get shipping info from the shopping cart. Your shopping cart allows you to choose $20 shipping, even to Canada and for brands not mentioned as eligible. I assume you won't honor that and if not it shouldn't be an available option. The other option is over $90 to ship 2 woofers to the USA. This is extremely high cost to ship from New Jersey to Michigan.
4. If this is your final answer you could have told me that 4 days ago.
At this point I wouldn't order from you even if you had the best prices. Your customer service is terrible. And this is for a sales inquiry, I can't imagine how hard it would be to try to get an answer if I had a problem after the sale.
The US market is very connected, thousands of people visit these forums, we trust each other's recommendations and we expect excellent customer service. So good luck, you are going to need it.
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I think that's a bit harsh but everyone is entitled to their needs and desires. It's a different culture down there, so you can't expect them to behave the same way as Nordstrom's. A simple phone call could have cleared this up.
I also think that $90 is not terrible for shipping two huge woofers up to Canada. The cross border shipping to your country is notoriously expensive, and stuff often gets lost. Yes, I've had that happen before.
I also think that $90 is not terrible for shipping two huge woofers up to Canada. The cross border shipping to your country is notoriously expensive, and stuff often gets lost. Yes, I've had that happen before.
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Compare and contrast.
I emailed loudspeakers.ca. I got an answer within a couple of hours. They stated that they did not carry that model but they would be more than happy to order it for me. They gave detailed pricing info for 1 or multiple units. They thanked me for contacting them and offered local pickup since I indicated that I am local.
I emailed partsexpress.com. I got an answer within an hour. They stated they they did not carry that model but they would be more than happy to order it for me. They sent me a form to fill out asking how many units I need and what I expect to pay for them. They thanked me for contacting them.
I emailed celectronicusa.com 4 days ago because I refuse to give up all my personal info to get a shipping quote. Still no return correspondence except for a forum post today telling me I can buy it and find out.
As far as I'm concerned I went out of my way to give these guys a chance. Every society has different culture but you have to cater to your market if you want to make a sale.
$90 is shipping from New Jersey to Michigan. Shipping to Canada (including duty, brokerage and fees) will be $200 minimum, probably closer to $300 if they use UPS.
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I think that Just-A-Guy is right, but at the same time wrong. He is better of buying from places he feels comfortable doing sales with. I am in PR, but used to dealing with pharmaceuticals, energy industry, government agencies, and large agricultural multi-national companies; a different business culture. At the same time the above mentioned companies are multi-million and multi-billion $$$ companies, that don't keep looking everywhere for best price; like most of us in this hobby do. They pay what you ask, as long as you provide the product fast, and give them excellent service.
Then he talks about Parts-Express and Loudspeakers.ca. They cater to extremely large markets, don't know about Loudspeakers.ca, but PE sells millions $$$ a year. Celectronics probably sells $100K. PE can afford a customer service team with the latest technology. Celectronics can afford 1-2 people that not only have to take care of the website inquiries, but also of local dealers, and walk-in business.
The question is do you want a good deal or not? Obviously you are not interested in the good deal, or you would have ordered already. You want the whole experience, the service, the fancy easy to navigate website with more products than Walmart, the fair price, the order confirmation and order has shipped e-mails, the tracking link with the shipping company, etc. Nothing bad with that.
There are trade-offs, and with Celectronics you trade great price for so-so customer service. You are the customer, and it's up to you what to do. But, taking in consideration what I just mentioned you are being not harsh, but rude and behaving like a $10K order corporate customer. After all it's 85 Deg. F here, and some of us rather be in the beach or at a small local open-air bar (chinchorro), tons of those around, enjoying the weather and friendly people that are joking with you, and not complaining. Who knows, if you would have purchased 4 days ago, the drivers would have been at your doorstep already. In business I learned that grabbing the phone and calling (human touch) gives you a better feel of who you are dealing with; they don't teach this at Yale, Harvard, Wharton or Bentley. Dirkwright is right when he says a simple phone call would have suffice; a concept difficult to grasp in the internet e-business era.
If there is something that I have learned in the last year is to stop, take a deep breath, relax, lay back, and smell the fresh air. I never did that for 25 yrs., and feels so good. But, to each his own.
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