It is true that over the next 4 months we will be moving to a direct-only model in the United States.
The world is changing in retail, and rather dramatically. While there are still some excellent dealers offering more than just an ability to order products—like advice, technical support, setup, etc.—an increasing number of sales in the United States are handled by online or catalog merchants (the Amazon Effect). While this “Home Depot” model of price-first and service and support second works well in some industries, we don’t think it serves our community as well as they deserve.
Our customers demand better. The only way we can ensure the same high level of advice, help, easy trial at home, and generous trade-in allowance for all our products is by moving to a direct model over the remaining months in 2019. What that means for our customers will be consistently better service, better advice, same-day-shipping, our industry leading trade-in program where we pay full retail for your used equipment, a whole raft of new initiatives and programs we’ve yet to roll out, and some exciting new products making their way into the world soon.
I am excited. Stay tuned.