Response to YCA's letter

[Sunny]

With reference to Wally's post at: http://cvpug.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=942

Thanks, Wally, for posting YCA's response to some of our concerns (specifically about the US warranty issue).

So, Yamaha USA does monitor this forum. Very well, then.... But have you noticed how YCA's response is so self-centered? Its primary concern seems to be focused on NOT losing any market share to those so-called gray market dealers. How about addressing the other concerns posted by CVPUG members?

Firstly, regarding the "positive shopping experience". If YCA dealers could provide that positive shopping experience, why were there so many postings from disgruntled and frustrated buyers in US? (Strange -- very few complaints from outside of US market, eh?) If YCA could really provide that "positive shopping experience" through its dealers, prospective buyers would not be driven away to those gray market dealers in the first place. This is definitely an area where YCA should concentrate on improving first.

Secondly, I think many users may have been unwittingly duped into registering online just to be on "Yamaha's distribution lists for marketing information". This is akin to volunteering to sign up on Yamaha's spam list! Although Yamaha may not have spammed its user list yet, at least Yamaha could have used the list to do something positive for its users. For a start, how about informing its registered users about the availability and the purpose of the firmware upgrades? This would at least be an incentive for users to register with Yamaha (if it's not for warranty purposes).

There were many other issues posted by various members previously. Perhaps this is your opportunity to vent? (... now that we know YCA is at least listening quietly, if not addressing our concerns directly...)

[PEPyle]

a. If you purchase a Clavinova that was not built for the US market, it may be constructed to run on 220/240v, and may come with a power cord that does not fit US outlets. Using a power converter, and/or a plug adapter, may cause the unit not to operate correctly, and will void whatever foreign warranty coverage may otherwise have existed.
I guess YCA thinks all their customers are imbeciles. The manuals do leave a lot to be desired, but the owner’s manuals for the international versions clearly show how to set the voltage selector for local voltage and state that a plug adaptor may be required.

It is possible that YCA may not help owners of the international versions with warranty service. It is also possible that they won’t be of very much real help to owners of the US versions.

(I expect my local dealer will provide any service needed under warranty of the CVP that he sold me. But I wouldn’t be surprised to have problems if I move, or if the dealer closes.)

[Kayna486]

Dear Yamaha:

You should improve Piano voice quality and keyboard action.

1. Increase the Piano Rom Sampling Size! The CLP-990 has the highest Rom Sampling Size, which is only 80.4 megabytes. Come on! Memory is cheap; the piano sound should be 200-300 megabytes (at least) - or better yet, a gigabyte or more in the next generation of Clavinovas and CLPs.

Note: Check out Gigastudio and Ilio's Ivory for Mac & PC (way better than the Clavinova or CLP sound)

2. Improve the keyboard action! Phase out “Graded Hammer” and replace it with “Graded Hammer 3” in all Clavinovas and CLPs or a better technology. Introduce more models with natural wooden keys.

3. I don’t need the accompaniments, LCD, hundreds of voices, or even a floppy drive. I don’t need the “bells and whistles.” You should sell models with just a few high quality voices and high quality keyboard action or else classical pianists, like myself, will keep our acoustic pianos & tuners.

4. Lower prices and I agree with the previous posts on this thread.

Best,
Kayna

[Steve]

a. If you purchase a Clavinova that was not built for the US
market, it may be constructed to run on 220/240v, and may come with a
power cord that does not fit US outlets. Using a power converter,
and/or a plug adapter, may cause the unit not to operate correctly, and
will void whatever foreign warranty coverage may otherwise have existed.



My CVP-303 has a power selector for 220/240/127/110v. The selector for 110 is for the US Power supply. The CVP also came with a plug adaptor for a US outlet. Clearly it was designed to be used in the US(as well as other countries with alternate power sources). But Yamaha knows this - After all, they built the darn thing!:mad: It is interesting how Yamaha omitted the 110volt option from their post to make it appear that it was not designed to run on US power... A clear attempt to mislead!

I was Called at work 2 days ago by Best Price and asked about my buying experience(they wanted to be sure I had a positive one). At this time, I asked them to confirm once again that I had a valid Warranty. My warranty was once again Confirmed.

So lets get to the real point of YCA's post. They know that BEST PRICE, INC is selling their products and claiming that they will be warrantied by YCA, yet they are taking NO ACTION to stop it!

YAMAHA. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS ???
Please Respond.

[CountJS]

Hi
A quick little thought:

regarding voltage selectors - the US models DO NOT have this feature. Also, as you can read from previous posts, YCA does bend over backwards to help consumers with their Clavinova issues. If your dealer closed, or if you moved to a different state/city - darn right you will be still covered and serviced. I think I posted the 800# here many times.

> Kayna486 - I think the CLP-170 is the perfect instrument for you, that or a C3 grand.

It's difficult for me to post here when a lot of the information posted is wrong, or misleading. But, I will continue to post positive information, and at least help all of you enjoy your current Clavinova.

-JS

[tomz17]

I'll agree with the Count... While I haven't had any experience with YCA service, from what I read here, it does seem as if people are satisfied. (Remember the whole thing about them replacing keyboards for free??)

Furthermore, blindly increasing sample size does not mean an automatic indrease in quality, nor is it automatically feasible because memory prices are cheap. Unfortunately, it's not enough to store a sample in memory, but you have to move it around the system and process it when it is played. This requires more powerful "circuitry" for lack of a better word here. Look at the minimum requirements for the products you mention. They both require relatively modern computers.




In any case, my arguments against Yamahas letters are as follow :


#1) We (at least most of us) are aware of the fact that you do not get a warranty unless the piano is purchased from a Yamaha authorized dealer.

However, I purchased my clavinova from Canada knowing fully well that it would not be covered by warranty. Here is what I was thinking...

My US dealer wanted over $2,000 more for the same model (across the entire range of current models), and would not budge on price. That is almost a 50% price increase in my case. My clavinova has parts that fall under 2 categories, mechanical and solid state. Solid state electronics rarely fail, so I'm willing to take a gamble. The mechanical parts (like keys, floppy drive, etc., I can probably fix myself for the cost of a service manual). In either case, in the UNLIKELY event that my piano breaks, I do not see myself paying anywhere near $2,000 for repairs, even if I have to buy the parts myself and pay someone else for labor!!! If you look at it this way, I virtually have an unlimited warranty, because I now have an additional $2,000 in my pocket with which to potentially fix my piano at any point in the future! And best of all, chances are that it will not break within the time period in which I intend to keep it, and I will have saved $2,000!!!

#2) The USA upgrade is a load of balogna!!! It includes 40 something (very) mediocre voices (based on already existing voices in the piano), a few sample songs (which most USA users will move off to a floppy disk anyway), and a colorful bitmap. Furthermore, I have been able (mostly out of curiosity) to aquire all of these components separately on the internet, and could probably put together my own functionally equivalent USA edition floppy disk.

On top of that, I have not found a single dealer that has been able to coherently explain to me what the USA edition is exactly, other than the BEST UPGRADE SINCE SLICED BREAD! I don't know whether or not it's intentional, but if the people on this board could tell me EXACTLY what the USA upgrade is why couldn't the people trying to sell me the product!?!?


#3) the bench is kind of snazzy... I would be upset if my piano didn't have a matching bench, but not $2,000 worth of upset! Besides, many of the gray market products we've heard about here do come with benches... If not it's a couple dollars at the local music store or ebay.


If you are listening Yamaha, these are the things that *could* be done to ensure that my next yamaha clavinova comes from a USA dealer.

- Competitive pricing. Let your dealers compete on price. I **WILL NEVER** buy a product for several thousand dollars without shopping around first. You make this exceedingly difficult for me to do, and that accomplishes nothing more than wasting my time and pissing me off.

- A major attitude shift. Every dealer i've talked to has the "I'm the only one who can sell you a clavinova" attitude.

- Consistant and/or public pricing.... You cannot vary prices wildly across the country and expect people not to notice! The very fact that you don't let dealers give out prices over the phone or the internet is testament to the fact that you have something to hide! Anyone that does a tiny bit of research into your marketing practices comes away believing you're the evil empire, trying to suck its customers dry out of every penny you think they can afford.

- A tangible benefit over a gray market piano. If you cannot do any of the above, at least make a USA version piano worth the extra money. The warranty alone does not do it (for reasons explained above), nor does a snazzy bench. The USA upgrade as it stands now is a joke.


-Tom


Originally posted by CountJS
Hi
A quick little thought:

regarding voltage selectors - the US models DO NOT have this feature. Also, as you can read from previous posts, YCA does bend over backwards to help consumers with their Clavinova issues. If your dealer closed, or if you moved to a different state/city - darn right you will be still covered and serviced. I think I posted the 800# here many times.

> Kayna486 - I think the CLP-170 is the perfect instrument for you, that or a C3 grand.

It's difficult for me to post here when a lot of the information posted is wrong, or misleading. But, I will continue to post positive information, and at least help all of you enjoy your current Clavinova.

-JS