What can be done to bring our electronics price tags to comparable global levels?

Folks,
Awaiting inputs from the dealers and from people in the know.

I am a newbie here and have pretty much exhausted most of the forum, Its good to see people who are so well informed regarding AV gear. Its a revelation in many ways.
Like most of you, prices remain a huge concern from me, I've been pining for a full-featured AV system but prices remain a deterrent.
Like other brothers here, I also do a cost analysis on the net when I need to know prices for any equipment. AVR 2807 has caught my fancy, and I was referring to other websites - which quote prices from 700$(some refurbished) to 1100$. If I take the regular price to be around 1000$ (correct me if I am wrong here), and we pay around 74k here in India, we end up paying almost 70% over the actual value. For the well-informed here, is it a reasonable price or is it over the top? If I assume a 10% duty, and 4% VAT, it amounts to around 46000. Moreover, if the dealer margin is 20% (Which I assume is reasonable), the cost still comes to around 55k.
I am curious to know what you think? Is there a way to confirm the import duties and overhead charges, so we can actually find out the relevant range and plan accordingly. The more informed we are, the better deals we can get, I am sure

Hi all ,

Its nice to be in this forum , I had an experience when i was about to purchase Denon 3806 along with Denon DVD 1930 , the price in the dealer place was Rs.99,000/- for the AV receiver and 31,000/- for the player . Since i was not in that budget i decided to look for some other model. When i had a chance to go to singapore reg my office work , i met a dealer in Sim lim who offered me 1,100 singapore dollars for Denon 3806 that means Rs.30250/- , i immediately purchased the product and paid Rs.350/kg for cargo charges and the total cost came to around Rs.40,000/-.
Denon Dvd 1930 i purchased for Rs.17,000/- in grey market. Not all dealers have these price difference , The jbl for instance is available in India for the same price as in Singapore and the Marantz CD player which i enquired in my city is of the same price as in Singapore ( around 5 to 10% costiler) which is acceptable.

Regards
mohan

I think this is a great idea.
Dealers should do something to bring prices at a level where they can cater to the huge untaped market right now. I guess these dealers make huge margins on a single sale therefore they are not doing anything with regards to bringing down the prices.
Right now the HT, Speakers, av recieves etc are being offered to only top end of the society.
Actually we need to have more of local manufacturers to improve the situation. Local manufacturers would bring down the prices and would need to pay heed to quality control as well coz they would be competing with high end brands. But if you look at Sonodyne they hardly have any distributor. they don't market their product. So you see its complacency on part of Indian manufacturers and indifference by the current distributors that is keeping us in this rut of high price scenario.

Cheers,
Aryan.

Aryan, I truly agree with what you have written, and than the worst is when dealers and related over charge you, for example when I checked for the dnp screen, one famous dealer quoted me at 1,75,000/- the same screen I got for 1,45,000/- than for the projector the dealer quoted me 1,45,000/- I got for 1,30,000/-, I can give more examples. Furthermore you will be surprised to know that I wanted the acoustic treatment done for my mini theatre, and guess what, he said that will be 25,000/- bucks, please be guided that this money is only for consultation.

Aryan, furthermore what happens is many of the dealers, who stock only av equipments and related, they themselves do not have a fine knowledge of the products they are selling, when people are new to these gadgets, if they are guided wrongly by the dealers itself than it is shocking, some may say who needs the advice from the dealer, but one forgets what about the people who are new to these gadgets.

I belive if one is making a very good home theatre or music room from the scratch, it would be idle to get the maximum items from abroad, it works out much cheaper, and than for free you get to travel, as how much you would save with the cheaper prices, and let us not forget we get the latest model. I call this Home Theatre Oversea's Tourism.

Vinay.

Hi vinay, I like the phare "Home Theatre Oversea's Tourism" .
vinay I would be very intreasted to know if it really works out cheaper to import these products, most of us, i guess would be under the impression that taking in to a/c the import duty, taxes n all, it would be expensive or not advisable to get the products from abroad.
I wish all of us could go to US for our shopping , with latest models and prices it would be awesome ! really good advise for the people who can afford it and then it would break the monopoly of the distributors here as well.
You made a very valid point about the distributors being dud-heads and giving wrong advise to the people. Well most of us do take there advise when we are assessing a system. I hope you let the distributor who was overcharging you, know that he missed on a sale coz of his greed and bad selling practice.
one thing that i have noticed about us and the people abroad is that most of the people outside are very aware of the technology as campared to people here, most of us depend of distributor to educate us on a product.
Anyway, take care have fun, enjoy ur hometheater.

Cheers,
Aryan.

Hi to all,
I agree with all of u about the dual pricing in most products by most distributors/dealers
I am buying the 805S which are retailing here at 179000/- and the US price is 2800 USD which works out to about 70000/- cheaper so am trying out a few options.
The problem when buying from abroad is the reluctance to give service here with things blow. Have had terrible experience a few years back.Also the headache of carrying a bulky and heavy speaker carton back to India. I had a friend who got the B&W 703 and a lovely audio rack from the US only to find the shelves of the rack cracked. Would u like to take a chance on the speakers getting damaged in transit? I would be hesitant.
I recently brought back a Denon tuner from London but that was small and light and very easy to carry on me.

As regards information on the products why would u rely on the dealers here for that. There are tons of forums and web sites that give tons of info. If only one would do a little bit of research.

Most dealers here just want to sell u stuff and they may or may not want to share all they know with u.

At least times are changing now and all these brands are available thru a regular dealer network which was not the case till a few years back when u bought only what little came through here in the grey market.Give a little time and the prices too will be on par(as they already have in a few cases)

Regards to all.

Hi Aryan,

In reference to cheaper, sure it does be cheaper in getting the av equipments and accessores from abroad, because the wholesalers who import they also have to pay duty, It is a open knowledge that getting from abroad works much cheaper, even after paying the duties, and mind you with the Indian customs one can adjust so much with the duties, we have to keep in mind about the international warranties, and use a good shipping agent and liner, so that the things reach safely, and let’s say if something goes wrong, that could happen while buying in India too, and also let me add the most fragile things like glass are imported, and av equipments are solid.

I have experienced right left centre, the wrong advices which one get’s from dealers, in-fact there will be people on this site, also who will guide you the wrong way, or talk on zero sense levels, but I must say that there are many of them on this site, they really know a lot about the av equipments, and they guide you just too well.

I feel for getting the advice, it is better to see the detailed writing in What Hifi Magazine, they are very genuine which I find, and let us not forget there are many of them on this site, who give very good advice.

Indeed I have told the dealers, how they have lost the business because of their greed and crook related attitudes, in-fact you will not belive that there are dealers who are talking about that they can construct a home theatre, and the pictures which they display on their site of the home theatre, are the one’s which are flicked from a foreign site, which means they have not constructed a sound theatre till date, otherwise they would have pasted those pictures and not the flick one’s. Having said this, there is this sound of music, they have made some very good home theatre’s I have seen the pictures.

Please do come home sometime to see my mini theatre, in-fact today there is a shoot at my place, by the 4th magazine, who are covering it. I hope you have seen the article in 2 magazines, which I have put up on this site.

Best Regards
Vinay.

Vinay,

You are right about the wrong advice from the dealer.

This weekend, I went to the AVEXPO which is on at Chennai.

I found that many many customers are being given all bull* explanations by the errand boys who stand there. I am sometimes surprised that these boys are employed when they can't even understand the terms like "monitors", AVR etc.

Many customers were confused about the amplifiers, receivers etc. They didn't know that these did not have the DVD players.

Even for knowledgeable crowd, the dealers were talking crap. In Jamo Shop, there was an attendant who looked like a driver, who accidently was standing there (his name was Shankara Lingam). He tried to justify the high cost of some models by saying this this is made of "pure wood" and therefore costly. I smiled and walked away!!! God help our customers in India.

Jay

Jay, for what you wrote over the experience at the exhibition, on similar lines, i have seen when they hold the exhibitions in Mumbai. Indeed some of them holding the stalls are very good in all respects.

So moral of the story is that let the av equipments price come down later, first let the dealers knoweldge go up backed with their ethics over the prices which they offer and related.

Vinay.