Korg Forums

After another long phone call with my reseller I have decided to set a personal limit to Korg's respectless and impertinent behavior towards non-US customers. While midst of June is coming, Korg Germany show themselves STILL UNCAPABLE no name either price or delivery date. I was told that MANY German customers are VERY UPSET meanwhile, and that Korg doesn't seem to grasp the consequences.

When I come back from my vacation in Southern France and I have no definitive Korg delivery mail, containing a decent price, from my reseller, I will cancel all my Kronos plans despite liking the synth very much, and order a Nord Stage 2 right on the spot.

My consideration is to support a European synth company like Clavia very counscious now. If Japanese companies (Korg is the second after Roland) show themselves as respectless and incapable of halfway decent business behavior towards Europeans, as they constantly do, they obviously don't need and don't want us European customers, or they think we would swallow any impertinent behavior without reaction. No way, guys!

This way I still get an excellent instrument, even if not in the Kronos league. And I get the feeling to support a company which is worth having a European future at all.

I wonder if other European launch of other Korg products were like this ?

It's just a keyboard...

I don't remember any big Korg product launch which was such a European mess as this one. Perhaps others do, but I don't.
Completely insane!

Yes, BillW, completely right.
"It's just a keyboard", and therefore will get a big kick to nowhere land over here, if the company goes on behaving like that. Really simple.

Jim

I guess it is not the reseller's fault that Korg in Germany (or other countries in Europe) are not releasing prices - it is Korg EU.

I think it would be a shame that you finally decide not to buy a Kronos which I think you agree is a fantastic piece of kit because of this. I wonder if you should try to talk from Korg Europe (rather than resellers) to let them know about the issues we have in Europe. I agree with you that they have been extremely clumsy (I put it down to incompetence rather than arrogance) with their approach especially when we all think the machine is a real killer synth.

Even though they have now got some suggested RRPs out in the UK (evem DV are quoting similar prices to Bonners) - I think they are still overpriced by about 20% - this is going to make me think a while (unless I can get a deal from DV when I phone them this weekend) and maybe watch Korg squirm when sales are lower in Europe than they've forecast. The EU marketing team really are not firing on all cylinders - maybe you should tell them this as well.

Don't give up on the Kronos - I still think its excellent even if a little over priced.

RKFan, completely agree: I don't blame the reseller at all.

The whole blame goes to Korg, and not just to Korg Europe, but to Korg Japan as well.

My decision is not based on instrument preference any more in this case.
There is a limit for bad behavior towards customers, and beyond I completely ignore a company, no matter how good their products may be.

I've literally just got off the phone with DV24 & whilst they're not totally sure of the release date they did at least say their advertised prices are set.

The thing is that I don't think Korg will squirm at all - the interest in this keyboard is such that the orders placed will happen anyway.

The only thing WILL happen is that Korg will be slagged off all over Europe. And the bad press regarding the pricing/availability will be put down to events in Japan (smokescreen or otherwise).
Regardless, the Kronos will sell. And sell well.

Just a point to pick up on, is there such an entity as "Korg Europe"? I don't think there is, rather it was my understanding that each of the European state reseller/distributors i.e. Korg UK, Korg&More in Germany, ALGAM in France, Letusa S.A. in Spain, Eko Music Group in Italy etc. all deal directly and individually with Korg Corporate in Japan for info, pricing and ordering.

There is a product manager for Korg Europe, as far as I understood.
There is a common currency for most of the countries.

And even if they dealt individually (according to my information they coordinate), they all were unsuccessful?
Seriously, this is not the first instrument that has ever been sold to European countries.
Come on, this is one of the biggest lamer shows I have seen in years.


@ScoobyDoo: I'm sure they will sell well.
But they will loose more well paying customers than just me, be sure from what I hear, and that will be well paying customers with a good memory and a long term perspective of buying musical gear (not just the Kronos) - elsewhere.

True Jim, but I'm sure we've all seen this type of selling model before (mobile phone companies are NOTORIOUS for it) - where existing customers are not a priority, only new ones.....

IF that's the case, then it may explain a bit.....

Not saying it's right either way.

Dan

While you name mobile phone companies and a certain business model - ever heard of a company named Nokia?

you can see the interest of the People from korg europe (Product Manager or responsible People from Distributors) very good in this Forum. As far as i know nobody of them is listed here. If you see the good Job of the Guys from the US, the Job of the european people is ashamed!

It's not wise to be an early adopter. If I were to buy a Kronos, I'd buy one next year.

Chriskk wrote:It's not wise to be an early adopter. If I were to buy a Kronos, I'd buy one next year.

^ This is true of all new tech be it music workstation, computer, cars, etc. Usually when something new rolls down and hit the market it had a high chance of being buggy. After it being on the market for a while and users have discovered the bugs/defects, the manufacturers/developers can then get the time to iron out those kinks and make the product better.