I worked for Tandy in the UK a few years ago and lots of people
came in to look at a shortwave receiver, a DX360, and got some
technical info from me. It transpired that Dixons "seemed" to be
selling exactly the same model, albeit with their own "saisho"
brand name on it, for £50 less than us which seemed strange at
best. Tandy have/had a policy of sourcing products from far eastern
manufacturers and requesting working prototypes for evaluation
purposes. Once the product had been tested, not one manufacturer
ever had a standard model approved, so needed to make significant
improvements to the final product and then needed re-approval of
the specs. Tandy had detailed the specs for the DX360 and once
approved, ordered 5000 units. The manufacturer had the cheek to
ship 5000 units of the pre-approved specs, hoping no-one would
notice, but since Tandy check individual consignments of products,
discovered the deception and rejected the whole lot. Then they got
the proper, high spec units and shipped them to the stores. The
manufacturer then had 5000 lower spec units which they had to move
and along came the Dixons group and bought them. I was very proud
to work for Tandy and own a lot of very good hi-fi equipment which
after 20 years, is still going strong.
I prefer to buy from outlets which exhibit and demonstrate good
product knowledge and who believe in the things they sell. For Joe
Public, Dixons is great but for the discernible punter, go for the
experts.
The above tale is absolutely true.
--
It's an L of a life, this photography lark
