Robert L Bass said:
I checked on that. I suspect the notice was put there to placate
installing dealers of the sort found in ASA. You may have noticed there's
a lot of hostility on the part of some "professional" dealers toward DIY.
The notice also gives ELK a legitimate out should someone who hasn't a clue
try to spend 3 hours on the phone with them.
ELK has never charged any of my clients for tech support. They do want
customers to seek help through the dealer that sold them the product. I
usually can answer any questions my DIY customers have. When I don't know
something I make a 3-way call and let ELK answer. Then my client knows
and so do I for the next customer.
No matter how this plays out long term I will of course act as a go
between for clients needing tech support from ELK just as I do with every
other manufacturer we carry. To be clear though, no one I know of has
ever been charged for ELK tech support.
Robbert,
Originally I was strongly leaning toward Elk based on their willingness
to communicate directly with DIY users. I recently went to their site
to gather some additional information, and was very disappointed to
read their support information which clearly indicated that technical
support to non dealers was on a fee based basis only. This would seem
to contradict your comments. I have been reconsidering my choice as a
result of this policy. If this is indeed not the case, then you should
communicate to them that their website is communicating the wrong
attitude and could be losing them customers as a result. I really need
to get this clarified before making my decision.
Dennis Raher
