Just "thank you"

[wally]

Hey folks. A short time ago, I asked Sean (my illustrious webmaster) to add a "Make a Donation to CVPUG" button to the CVPUG home page. I didn't advertise it and it wasn't my intention to make a big deal about it. I just figured that if anyone was interested in helping me support this group from time to time, they would find it and that's all I would do about that. I don't want to come off as "a taker" -- I did it only because this endeavor does require some resources. Well, I can't tell you how much I appreciate the support I've received from you.

I can't believe it's been almost 10 years since I started this group -- first as a simple email list and for about 6 years now as a web site. In the early days, we were fortunate enough to have a real Yamaha CVP expert in the group and other various forms of support from Yamaha. But I guess their dealers in the US really don't like this group (because of the price discussions that allow you to shop around for the best deals), so they put pressure on Yamaha to shut me down, which they couldn't do -- oh yes, they tried. Yamaha's support eroded and then vanished.

Ironically, this group has been directly responsible for persuading hundreds of people to purchase Clavinovas rather than Rolands, Baldwins, Korgs, Casios, Technics, and other brand pianos. Indeed, I would guess that nearly a quarter of our 5,000 members were influenced by this group to purchase one of these wonderful instruments. I sure wish I had an online dealer channel of my own to sell these bad boys! Lol. How cool would that be?!

Anyway, I'm rambling about stupid stuff. I really just wanted to thank those of you (you know who you are!) who have elected to help support the group.

With deepest sincerity and gratitude,

[sbrbot]

I can't believe it's been almost 10 years since I started this group -- first as a simple email list and for about 6 years now as a web site. In the early days, we were fortunate enough to have a real Yamaha CVP expert in the group and other various forms of support from Yamaha. But I guess their dealers in the US really don't like this group (because of the price discussions that allow you to shop around for the best deals), so they put pressure on Yamaha to shut me down, which they couldn't do -- oh yes, they tried. Yamaha's support eroded and then vanished.

I'm suprised to hear that Yamaha do not like you even tried to shut you down, really sounds unbelivable to me. Can you please give us few words about it? What happened?

Ironically, this group has been directly responsible for persuading hundreds of people to purchase Clavinovas rather than Rolands, Baldwins, Korgs, Casios, Technics, and other brand pianos. Indeed, I would guess that nearly a quarter of our 5,000 members were influenced by this group to purchase one of these wonderful instruments. I sure wish I had an online dealer channel of my own to sell these bad boys! Lol. How cool would that be?!

Baldwin? Never head of it before! In my opinion Kawai should be in this list instead of Baldwin.

[wally]

I'm suprised to hear that Yamaha do not like you even tried to shut you down, really sounds unbelivable to me. Can you please give us few words about it? What happened?

Baldwin? Never head of it before! In my opinion Kawai should be in this list instead of Baldwin.

A lot of dealers in the US raised holy hell to Yamaha Corp of America about the CVPUG members openly discussing prices when Yamaha's dealer policy doesn't allow them to advertise prices or even give a price quote over the phone. It was making it difficult for the dealers to sell the Clavinovas at the mark up they wanted to achieve to support their business model. So, while Yamaha recognizes the value of the CVPUG, it is perceived to undermine their dealers' sales stream. And that's what matters the most. No profit = no dealership. So Yamaha has chosen to distance themselves from the CVPUG as far as they possibly can. A real shame -- this group would benefit from having their CVP experts on line with us. We had this support in the early days of the forum before the dealers started complaining and it was terrific!

So far, I've had three run-ins with Yamaha's lawyers. One was very intimidating, one was mildly intimidating, and one was extremely cordial (the latter from the lawyer representing Yamaha in Japan). I expect more to come.

Yes, I should have included Kawai in the list -- an oversight on my part. Baldwin developed what they called a Pianovelle, which was marketed as a competitor to the CVP and the Kawai KR models. I think they stopped making them a few years ago. They were not very good -- it had an extremely bad user interface design.

[Ian J. Evans]

Hi Wally

Did you get the email I sent to you re the message I got from PayPal saying that my donation had not been claimed...? I donated on Sept. 30. I hope it isn't lost in the shuffle.

Ian Evans

[wally]

Hi Wally

Did you get the email I sent to you re the message I got from PayPal saying that my donation had not been claimed...? I donated on Sept. 30. I hope it isn't lost in the shuffle.

Ian Evans

No, I haven't seen an email from you, Ian. What email address did you send it to?

I checked PayPal and there's nothing in there from you.

[Ian J. Evans]

No, I haven't seen an email from you, Ian. What email address did you send it to?

I checked PayPal and there's nothing in there from you.

Wally

I used the CVPUG link "Contact us"...CVPUG.com

I'll see if it is possible to forward the PayPal email to you also.

Ian

[sbrbot]

A lot of dealers in the US raised holy hell to Yamaha Corp of America about the CVPUG members openly discussing prices when Yamaha's dealer policy doesn't allow them to advertise prices or even give a price quote over the phone.
It seems that this is Yamaha's global sales policy. In Croatia Yamaha dealer does not want to publicly represent prices of Yamaha instruments (I really don't know hot it is with Yamaha Motors corp. but this is beyond the scope of it) but upon question via phone they want to say all prices. I asked them why they do not publish their price list on dealer's internet site and they responded that they wont do that. I thought it was dealer's sales policy but now see that it seems that it is Yamaha's global sales policy. This is totally unreasonably thing to me.