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So I'm not too sure how things work on this forum, but I had a thread regarding a dealer in the DC area. I found that dealers requirements.. off putting. Now the thread is deleted. Is this because the dealer in question asked for it's removal? A recommendation on a dealer is just as valuable as problems encountered by customers with dealers. If this is indeed a public community, and my comments were purely factual, why would the thread be deleted?

Weird.

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Send a PM to JBS (moderator)

I am sure he can explain

As usual, I'll kick this one over to Dan. I don't delete threads except for spam. I responded to Dave that he'd need to raise the question with Dan. I and one other person posted negative experiences about a DC based dealer, but nothing that struck me as inappropriate or abusive.

--Jason

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Hi All,

As you know we almost never moderate this forum. This particular circumstance I recommended a friend of ours in that particular area, which someone here had an non-typical situation with.

It turned a good gesture into a bad one and I didn't want to be responsible for that. I absolutely understand both sides of this business, obviously especially on the dealer side as running an Automation Integration Firm is no easy task. The costs, customers and responsibilities truly mold what a company must do to survive as well as be successful.

So after watching what went down I almost wished I never said anything. I definitely want everyone to have the best information available to them which is the fundamental to a site like this.

Dave I do see you are a new member here and this is an a-typical situation. I would definitely recommend you use the dealer locator on the control4 website and try to find a dealer that way. It may yield better results.

Dan

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Hi Dan,

Thanks for letting me know. I'm new to this site but not new to forums. Typically as long as you aren't being rude, off topic or spamming the forum censorship isn't typical. As a natural part of the discussion I, as a consumer and future user, asked a pertinent question: "Is it typical to be required to pay a design fee in order to get a proposal?" (I have the emails from Bethesda Systems, Md - I'm not making up this scenario). Real life situation. Throughout this forum there are all types of cost, dealer and best practices discussions. This is no different I think.

Anyways, I'll drop it, just wanted to get my 2 cents in and ask one question if I may. Did Bethesda Systems ask you to delete the thread?

Cheers

Dave

PS Jon - the Owner of Bethesda Systems contacted me and he seems like a first class guy. He explained their position, and while I don't agree, I understand. I will be meeting with him to discuss the project further.

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Dave - it depends...

Certainly on a smaller project I would say no. On larger projects - we currently DO NOT charge for them, but are looking strongly at it - as a 50k project (for example) a good amount of planning and research goes into it... I'd say easily 8 - 12 hours to make sure the solution is good, it's what the customer wanted, it works etc... and we're starting to consider on those projects to charge for them - as we've found people simple taking all our hard work and bringing it to someone else that under bids us. Of course that's not normally a customer we want anyways - but the fact that all that work is lost is starting to add up.

I would CERTAINLY say that if we did start charging for them - it would be a credit back to them when the job is signed off on (ie: we'll take the amount of the proposal off of the cost of doing the job - so it would end up being FREE at that point).

In a tough economy like this - it's getting harder and harder to win - and I understand consumers / end users want the best deal - but they often don't realize the expertise, time and effort that's put into a proposal to make sure it's correct.

Hope this helps!

Shawn

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Plus - if the customer is not interested in paying for it - or is looking to get the cheapest price - then charging for the proposal also keeps that customer from wasting your time.

Quite simple: We're not the cheapest guy out there (we're also not the most expensive) - but we're the best bang for the buck... we stick behind it and make sure it works - always... and the solution is very solid - most of the time better than what our competition comes up with which is patched together technology (at best).

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However unusal it was, the fact remains that a thread was deleted just becasue it contained information which Dan decided we should not have access to. I recognize that Dan may know the dealer, but I am fairly certain that Dan has not had interactions with them as a customer. It is always good to hear from real customers, even though people in general are much better at listing complaints than compliments. Oh well, it's Dan's toy so he can choose how we are allowed to play with it...

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