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RV Industry News Online Community
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Greg Gerber
Posts:6
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| 03/18/2008 3:55 PM |
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| Tim Wegge raised a valid point a few weeks ago when he suggested that RV dealers who invest heavily in creating an infrastructure to service customers should be able to make moeny to pay for that investment. I also agree with his contention that dealers who sell units online and deliver them to a customer do create a burden for the servicing dealer. Most dealers I talk to have a hard enough time keeping their own customers happy. If they have 10 bays that are fully occupied with units owned by their customers, how can they justify turning away an established relationship to service some other dealer's orphaned owner?
Keith Conard's argument that consumers are already researching units online and, therefore, should be allowed to buy them online also makes sense. I also agree that manufacturers cannot set Internet prices. The market must be allowed to do that. It does not cost a dealer in Nebraska nearly as much money in overhead as it does someone selling on an Interstate location in Southern California. So, if the manufacturer set prices, the Nebraska dealer would make far more profit than the California dealer. Regulating prices sounds like a can of worms that shouldn't be opened by manufacturers.
What I don't understand is why a dealer would not want to put prices for units online. Better yet, who do those dealers who put "call for price" on their units expect buyers to call at 9 p.m. or 1 a.m. when they are surfing the dealer's site?
The best idea I have heard so far concerns a boat manufacturer who allows any boat dealer to sell the product. However, if the consumer buys a boat from a dealer outside of his hometown, whichever dealer services the boat gets a service rebate from the manufacturer to entice him to adopt the consumer. Therefore, if I buy a boat online from a dealer in Kentucky and tow it back to Wisconsin, the dealer I visit for service in Wisconsin would get a rebate. |
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