[Adam]

As far as I'm aware, big retails have a dedicated team of "buyers" that are constantly negotiate with suppliers (i.e. Pentax) to secure the most advantageous deals wholesale purchases. Pentax must be treating different retailers differently, likely based on past or future agreements.

After a 3-day removal of the Q from B&H's inventory, the Q is now back at the new $499 price tag:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forward/88/

I am still investigating while the camera disappeared from their site over the weekend...

Adam
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[RKKS08]

Would have been strange, because in the Pentax newsletter 4/2012 for German customers which I received today they announced a limited version of the Q.
A very rough translation to English:

PENTAX RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. offers, in co-operation with the Spanish luxury brand LOEWE, a limited number of a special design of Pentax Q for the Japanese market only. It will be on sale from April 28th through May 6th, 2012. Price is Yen 69.800 (including standard prime lens). It is pink and has a golden "Oro" filter. Additionally offers are a LOEWE Amazona hand bag (special version) at Yen 82.950 and a separate lens bag in pink at Yen 66.150.

So the lens bag is nearly as expensive as the Q+lens, and the hand bag is much more expensive!

[monochrome]

Interesting. Just yesterday Adam posted the announcement of the Instant Rebate lowering the Q price to $499. This is how UPP is supposed to work. Adorama has it on their website with the $499 price. Maybe B&H hasn't fully adjusted to the new policies.

Well we Americans are rather Amero-centric.

Arrived back home this morning, from another in a series of doctor appointments, to find B&H now has the “discontinued” Pentax Q back in stock, along with the new, lower, prices. Well, except for the 02 lens, which is still $300 at B&H and $253 at Adorama.
Interestingly, my saga began because I decided to purchase a camera for our daughter (MAK) to begin using for herself, rather than using Mommy’s iPhone to take pictures. My requirements for my MAK’s camera: small, easy to use, has both an LCD screen and a viewfinder, and preferably available in two color schemes.
MAK doesn’t NEED a viewfinder; she is quite capable of using the screen on Mommy’s iPhone to take pics. I wanted the viewfinder and two color schemes because I need to have the same camera to learn to use it and thus be able to teach MAK how to use it. My eyes need a viewfinder. As for the two color schemes, I won’t let MAK use MY Pentax equipment and therefore I will not use HER camera. A different color scheme prevents any argument about whom is using whose camera.
The Pentax Q checked a lot of boxes and I began considering the Pentax Q based on the experimentation with it and various lenses posted by brandrx in another forum. The new pricing of the Q galvanized me into action and I called B&H to make a purchase. The salesman had some incentive to find out when the Q would be back in stock, as he was looking at a $2,000 sale.
Being told the Pentax Q was “discontinued by the manufacturer” by the B&H salesman was a little shocking to me and I posted this information online. When Adam posted he had talked to B&H and was told B&H was unable to get the new, lower Q pricing… Well, that was another shocker considering what I have read concerning Pentax’s new marketing strategy.
So, the final outcome… Pentax loses my purchase of two Q systems.
As for MAK’s camera… she gets TWO cameras and a viewfinder for only $50 more than the Q system with two lenses and a viewfinder.
RayGunn

I fail to understand this entire thread. The camera at the promotional price was readily available at Adorama, as well as many other locations as was replied immediately after your post. You liked the camera. An ill-infomred salesman gave you bad information. You asked, we answered. Did you buy something else at B&H?

Why, then, did you buy something else - and why rub our noses in it here? B&H made the error.

I think my posts on this thread have been eminently reasonable and helpful.

You asked a question. We tried to direct you to a source to get the camera you wanted. Sorry we misunderstood the reason for your post, whatever it was.

[RayGunn]

You asked a question.

Yep, the last line of my original post:

… So, the question I now have is: Is the Q completely discontinued or will there be a new model?

We tried to direct you to a source to get the camera you wanted.

Well, thank you, but I didn’t ask for another source. I am perfectly capable of doing my own research.

Sorry we misunderstood the reason for your post, whatever it was.

Apology accepted and I hope the above cleared up your confusion.

[wanderography]

I thank you, Kryscendo, for providing a response which is a little more considered than your previous response. Since I am still unclear about a few things, I have some questions for which I would appreciate an answer from you.

You wrote:

If you will take the time to read my original post, you will find I DID, IN FACT, indicate the sales person’s use of the words “out of stock”. When I pressed for when it might be IN STOCK, the sales person, after putting me on hold to “check with my manager”, came back on the line to relate the “discontinued” status. Did the sales person lie to me about checking with his manager? I don’t KNOW but I BELIEVE he did not. If the sales person correctly related his manager’s response, did the manager fail to give the correct information to the sales person? I don’t KNOW but I see no reason not to BELIEVE what I was told.
Do you have some knowledge which allows you to KNOW the sales person and/or the manger lied to me?

You wrote:

Well, in and of itself, that statement is kind of a truism, don’t you think? My question for you is, since I did not identify the sales person, how do you KNOW the sales person is a “part time sales person”?

You wrote:

Well, that’s good to hear as I was beginning to wonder about it.

You wrote:

It might interest you to KNOW… The ONLY thing which influences my purchase of Pentax equipment is the photos posted on various forums. Ads nowadays seem to be only sound bites and video bites. If you don’t like online ads, and you use the Firefox browser, here’s a suggestion for you: install the NoScript addon to Firefox.

You wrote:

I don’t need your explanation. I understand them at least as well as you, if not better. Nowhere in any of the forums in which I participate will you find any post complaining about Pentax’s new pricing policy.
You WILL find posts of mine indicating my complete dissatisfaction with Pentax’s increased lens prices WITHOUT A CORRESPONDING INCREASE IN THE LENGTH OF THEIR LENS WARRANTIES. Nothing you, or anyone else, can do, or say, will make me back down from that dissatisfaction.

You wrote, about unilateral pricing agreements:

Would you agree with me, Kryscendo, that the intent of Pentax’s new marketing strategy includes making their dealers “equal” to one another? If you agree with me on that, would you also agree with me that Adam, when he posted:

does, in fact, have access to upper management at B&H that you and I do not have, and that what Adam was told was NOT a lie, and that Adam correctly posted what B&H upper management told him?
If you do agree with me on those items, my question for you is: Why was B&H not yet able to secure the new, lower pricing which other dealers already obtained? And my add-on question: Does Pentax marketing deal with their dealers in such a way as to make one, or more, dealers “more equal” than other dealers?
From the very first SRT101 SLR I purchased many, many years ago, until this week, I have been an SLR/DSLR snob. Until brandrx posted his experiments last week with the Q, using long lenses, I would not have looked at, nor considered purchasing a camera which was not an SLR/DSLR.
Brandrx’s photos from the Q made me stop and take a look at the Q. The above answer from Adam, the only one which made sense to me at the time, caused me to examine other options for my daughter’s camera.
I do not understand what was going on between Pentax and B&H. Had the Q kits been in stock at B&H, as well as Adorama, my daughter and I would be Q owners. I certainly don’t see that as the fault of B&H, nor anyone at B&H, and I certainly see no rational reason for you to keep indicating people at B&H were lying.

I'm not even gonna read this, I just want you to see this huge post again to see how pathetic you are, you took all this time to argue on a message board of a camera you dont even own??? WTF!!! Dude seriously you goin through a mid life crisis and dont have any friends? You got lied too, point blank period... They were wrong there is no defense, no one likes you here go and leave now... bye... ignore button activated...

[MrPetkus]

I wouldn't call the OP him/herself pathetic. Better to say the extended back and forth over differences in semantics and minute detail was pathetic. And all who participated in that exchange were responsible.

I'm not even gonna read this, I just want you to see this huge post again to see how pathetic you are, you took all this time to argue on a message board of a camera you dont even own??? WTF!!! Dude seriously you goin through a mid life crisis and dont have any friends? You got lied too, point blank period... They were wrong there is no defense, no one likes you here go and leave now... bye... ignore button activated...

[Wheatfield]

.
I choose to purchase my new equipment, whether it be Pentax or another brand, from B&H Photo because B&H has provided me with superior customer service for well over three years.

Superior customer service apparently includes lying to (or at least passing on false information) to their customers?
This by you is superior customer service?
I'd wonder exactly what a retailer would have to do to annoy you? Kill a kitten or something?

[MrPetkus]

Wheatfield...