Hi Mary - Scott (below) speaks the truth. These programs ultimately have to make sense for both the manufacturer AND the dealer, but its not always the same thing, as I suspect you know. The brand acceptance and good will that is (hopefully) gained for the manufacturer by making their instruments available to a concentrated group of tomorrow's purchasers does not necessarily translate into an acceptable bottom line for the dealer today. What are the particular institution's reasons for contemplating such an arrangement at this time? One way to answer your question re choice of manufacturer might be to determine which you would choose to buy, or be working on. Regards- David Skolnik skolnik@attglobal.net 212 222-2394 At 02:03 PM 10/13/2000 -0500, Scott wrote: >Hi Mary, > >As Fred mentions, the programs vary and are negotiable. > >We had a loan program here at MSU with Yamaha for several years that worked >out pretty well. We never had any out of pocket expenses on our >arrangement with the Yamaha dealer. I work for a different school that had >a deal with Baldwin pianos for a while where they paid for the moving >expenses as well as part of the financing charges. The major drawback for >me on these deals was always the sale. In our case (and most I am aware >of) the dealer brought in a lot of low end stuff to sell along with the >pianos on loan to us. Some buyers were more or less allowed to believe >that ALL the pianos offered at the sale were from university inventory, or >part of the loan program. I felt like this made us look kind of bad, but no >one else seemed to mind it much. Our upper administration finally killed >our deal for reasons known only to them. > >There is a fair amount of information on this subject in an old CAUT >Newsletter from 1997 of which I was the editor, and it is available on-line >on the CAUT pages. > >Here is a link direct to the '97 issue: >http://www.mursuky.edu/caut.php/newsletter/2_97/newsindex.htm > >Link to the Newsletter area: >http://www.mursuky.edu/caut.php/newsindex.htm > >CAUT Main page: >http://www.mursuky.edu/caut.php/homepage.htm > >Hope you find what you need Mary, > >Scott >------------- > > > >At 01:39 PM 10/13/00 -0400, you wrote: >>To: University technicians >> Re: University program under which a dealer loans a University pianos >>for a year culminating with a sale of the instruments on campus. >> >> My questions are: Are there any usage fees or moving costs charged to >>the University by the Dealer? Which manufacturer has the best program? >>Thanks for your responses. >> >>Mary Schwendeman >
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