Re: What would you do? was Gecko burned out ( about tinned leads and other thing

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "jimkunzweiler"
<jimkunzweiler@h...> wrote:

>
> I would offer both kind of drives and let the customer choose.

Lets say half the DIY customers buy the protected drive. Mariss has
said those sales represent 20% of his business, so half would mean 10%
of the sales volume is in the protected drive. At that level you've
lost much of the economy of scale in volume production, plus you have
to recoup all engineering and setup costs associated with the
protection scheme on this smaller amount of product. My wild guess
would be that the protected drive would then cost $200 instead of $110.

Guys like Mariss are in actuality doing the hobby community a favor by
selling us drives in onesy-twosy quantities. There's no question the
support time per drive sale is higher, and the logistics of pulling,
packing, and shipping 3 drives is about the same as it is for a 500 pc
order. The DIY kill rate for drives would be higher than for OE's,
yet there's no doubt Mariss replaces things which he knows were not
defective from the factory just to maintain good customer relations.
We get the benefit of well engineered and proven products which are
used by OE manufacturers on a large scale. If the reliability wasn't
there you can bet the sales to manufacturers would be zippo. If you
randomly pick 20 manufacturers(not resellers) of electronic components
which ARE NOT aimed primarily at the hobbyist, and give them a call
inquiring about buying one or two of their items, you'll be real lucky
to find ONE that will sell you anything less than a few hundred of any
given item.