Canadian Customer Service & Market Base

Drenis · February 2012

You know, I have to vent for a moment.

I was looking at the LSiM bookies contemplating whether I wanted to move to a smaller but better direction in my rig and it got me thinking, I wonder when polk will have more Canadian retailers selling their gear and if there were any other retailers not listed on the website because as I've recently read, some information has yet to be updated as far as authorized retailers and what not. So I call up polk CS and patiently wait for a few moments and start chatting to a young guy. I begin asking my question and you know what I'm told? "Well I can't actually help you with that". He began to tell me that I needed to contact the Canadian rep as to which I piped up and mentioned Walter Moser's name. The guy said yup! I mentioned I already had his number and thanks very much.

So here's my rant:

1. That kind of information, should be posted on the website. If this is the plan for the redesign I've read about, great. If not, incorporate it. Something as simple as a disclaimer to point out that Canadian inquiries (And any other countries if applicable. unsure about that) need to contact so and so or be directed to where we can submit our inquiries. Calling one man long distance to ask questions to is something I don't agree with and that brings me to my second point...

2. Why does polk make Walter look after everything? I know I had to contact him regarding some pieces when I bought my speakers but I don't find it fair to have him answer for everything and anything related to Canada export for polk products. I'm firm on this because I know how busy he is and what the time frame is for a response.

I guess my biggest issue is in the last year, I've seen less and less polk for sale in Canada. We have two store chains in Canada (Future Shop & Visions) that sell polk gear. No one sells any LSi, LSiM or VM equipment here at all. You can't find the Monitor line up anymore that used to be sold on newegg.ca. All you can get is the TSi line up and that's somewhat limited. Subwoofers? Well NONE of the MicroPro's can be found here or the DSW's. PSW series is easy to spot though locally. Hell I can even go look at and listen to the in wall/ceiling lines. As far as I know, there isn't anyone else who sells polk gear.

I'm not going to bug Walter about it as I know he's busy enough handling ALL duties for an entire COUNTRY. I thought he handled warranty issues only.

Anyways...
/end rant

heiney9 · February 2012

Are you talking about B and M stores? Because the US is in the same boat. I haven't seen a Polk product locally (3rd largest city in Illinois) in over 6 years. Warranty work, no place here to do warranty work.

The brick and morter stores are a dying breed and the ones left are usually very small speciality stores that sell really high end gear and not much of it. Canada is not unique in this.

H9

Drenis · February 2012

Yeah I guess that's what you would call them. We don't use that term up here.

I was quite frustrated when I wrote that. I guess I just wanted to try new things. I really want to hear the LSi's.

heiney9 · February 2012

You know how I heard my LSi 9's? I bought them off Ebay. There was nowhere around here (again 3rd largest city in IL) to hear them. I spent some time with them and ultimately moved them down the road.

Dealer's and auditioning is dying and pretty much dead. I have a friend here who I used to work with in Audio a long time ago and he has opened a very small shop with very targeted gear. Mostly Sonos and other computer/whole house solutions. He carries a couple speaker brands and a couple receivers for display. He works basically out of his house and local art gallery. His strict focus is iPod and whole house solutions via computer mostly Mac's. He isn't even making a profit to make it worth it. He does it mostly for fun on the side. He would do it full time if he could make a living at it, but the market just isn't there for enough volume.

It's a hard game to break into now, and it's dying.

H9

TECHNOKID · February 2012

B&M stores unfortunately do not sell large speakers any longer (especially chain type stores). What makes money/sell for them now are SoundBars, SurroundBars and satellites. From cheap Sony, Samsung, LG to more expensive such as Bose, Polk and so on. We actually experienced the death of one of our B&M last year (Auditronic/Dumoulin) so to survive, the remaining chains must adapt and sell only products that goes off the shelves.

Stores that carries minimal Polk products;

The Brick has a few in store products such as the blackstone along with a few more online products.

I've seen Blackstone also at COSTCO (mainly package I believe)

I also believe I've seen the Blackstone at Future Shop and they still carry towers in store. You can also get some Polk products online from FS.

Crutchfield.ca is also a source for Polk products.

Our Canadian laws and the industry ruling makes it harder for Polk to keep a good presence in Canada. You also have to keep in mind our Canadian market is rather small for a company to go trough all this trouble.

You are very fortunate to have Visions out west as this a Canadian chain that only appears in the west and the ROC is stuck with only FS and BB (which does not carry Polk at all in Canada).

I"m with you with wanting better Canadian representation from our belove speaker company but IMHO, Polk is not solely to blame for this. There are none of the Canadian manufactured speakers that interest you?

ViperZ · February 2012

One of the main reasons I upgraded to different speakers than Polk when I was ready to upgrade from my RT1000p/CS400/R15 setup. I read all these wonderful reviews and rants about LSi. Really wanted to get my ears on LSi15 or 25, and got nowhere.

Drenis · February 2012

Thanks for the kind works folks. I just needed to vent. I agree with all of what has been said.

Rivrrat · February 2012

Here in Tucson, I haven't seen one good b&m audio store. When I was younger up in Seattle I used to hang out at what I've learned was the holy trinity....The one and only, original Magnolia Hi Fi, Speakerlab (when it was really Speakerlab), and Difinitive Audio (the really hi end shop), all in the same block.

Those were the days.

Systems · February 2012

Not a lot of companies realize Canada even has internet capabilities.:cheesygrin:
I am just kidding.:cheesygrin:
I think it is the same everywhere, people buy the cheap HTIB BS and that is it.
Nearest B&M store to me is 150 miles.
There is one closer, but they sell crap so I don't even consider them.
Maybe some day they will resurface, but I doubt it, and until then, it is basically the web that will be supplying what you and I want, or at the very least want to listen to.
Those days are gone my friend.:evil:

ViperZ · February 2012

pepster wrote: »

Not a lot of companies realize Canada even has internet capabilities.:cheesygrin:
I am just kidding.:cheesygrin:
I think it is the same everywhere, people buy the cheap HTIB BS and that is it.
Nearest B&M store to me is 150 miles.
There is one closer, but they sell crap so I don't even consider them.
Maybe some day they will resurface, but I doubt it, and until then, it is basically the web that will be supplying what you and I want, or at the very least want to listen to.
Those days are gone my friend.:evil:

The problem with the "web" is that not many vendors from US will ship to Canada, and when they do, we either get dinged with ridiculous "brokerage fees" (i.e. UPS and FedEx), or the shipping will cost an arm and a leg (USPS, but still less than retarded brokerage fees from UPS). And of course it doesn't solve the problem of listening to the speakers before buying them. So we have to resort to our great Canadian speaker brands like Paradigm, Energy, etc.

Canadian Customer Service & Market Base

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