Originally posted by Docrwm (remember that officials from PRIC said that we are NOT their customers back when Maximum Assured Pricing was inflicted on us).
We're NOT PRAC's customers.
That whole meme plays into Ned's "Distributor" business structure that caused so many local merchants to tell Pentax, "Well, if I'm not important enough that you will call on me directly, then you're not important enough for me to stock." Under Ned, you WERE Pentax's customer and the big internet retailers were just the pipe. Now, not so much.
In the sense of
on whom do the Pentax Sales Reps call and how do they actually earn their commissions, I am not PRAC's customer. I am Amazon's or B&H's or Adorama's or occasionally Henry's or even more rarely Creve Couer Camera's customer. I buy mostly from B&H on the phone because I get the best experience there, price be damned.
I buy Honda Accord EX-L 6-cyl. cars over and over and over. My wife buys Subaru Outback 3.5R Ltd. 6-cyl. cars over and over and over. We buy those cars because the
DEALERS treat us the way we want to be treated, not so much because of the cars. A car is a car. I don't care if it is a Passat or a Taurus or a Sonata or a Malibu or an Accord. They're all about the same. (Subarus are different - and they cost more for basically the same thing - they get me from here to there). But the specific Honda dealer where I buy my cars makes it pleasant and honest and easy and fair - what I want - to buy cars from him, so I keep coming back. I don't even shop the price. I trust that the price is good enough. I probably (certainly) pay more than I absolutely HAVE to pay - but I don't care. I want the experience Mungenast gives me and I don't want to play the Consumer Reports Car Buying Guide, internet dickering, price-trading, screw the salesman for $300 game.
I'm not Honda's customer, I'm Dave Mungenast's customer. It just so happens he has Accords on his lot.
If I was starting from scratch with no history and no K-mount lenses to take into consideration I would buy Nikon from B&H. My local Dealer's (who
does carry a decent complement of Pentax offerings) salesmen constantly subject me to bait and switch to Canon tactics that I just cannot abide. I have literally, in a raised voice, said, "Just show me the damned Pentax lens," ( DA40Ltd.) which I ended up buying on line because he was such a d(*&%^&d.