Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Last week RIC listed three dealers in North Carolina under the dealers section on their website. Today there's only one. What exactly does a dealer have to do to get the pink slip from RIC? Is it just a matter of not paying their bill?

Mr John Hall gives a couple of pointers in this thread...
http://www.rickresource.com/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi?pg=prev&topic=5&page=151246

supply and demand ... as the demand goes up the supply goes down ... fewer being made and fewer dealers ... it is getting harder to find a Rickenbacker ... at this rate the only places to find a Ric will be the music connection and Pick of the Ricks ... I remember the good old days when I could walk into a music store and see several Rics hanging on the wall ...

...and good deals on evilbay!

Those days are loooooooooooooooooong gone...It is a rare treat to find a deal anymore. Snap them when you get them...

Two of the three dealers were Sam Ash (who bought out the old Mars stores) and they have apparently been removed from the dealer list (from the thread referenced above this may be temporary? I thought JH said the account was suspended but not cancelled). We're still better off than SC, which has none. I bought my vintage bass case from the Myrtle Beach Edwards (through the branch in my home town) in 99, and they've been off the list for a while.

My opinion is so; As long as the Hall family is in charge of RIC, we'll all be just fine.

The iffy dealers get knocked out and the cream will rise to the top.


Keep the faith John!

And as an addendum, as long as people like Mike at the Rick page, Chris at Pick of the Ricks, Gary at North Coast Music and Ken at Grayson's Tune Town continue to do business, we will not suffer one bit!

Three cheers to JH for his vigilance!

Hear, hear, Ray!

JimK

I understood that Sam Ash had been given a last chance.

I would suppose that dealers, besides having their contracts revisited upon infractions being discovered, would also undergo periodic reviews, and I'm sure that RIC's accounting system keeps track of how their invoices are "aged", too. Too much fast and loose, and it's bye-bye.

Thanks for the responses! I've got a couple of Ricks on order with Mike at the Rick page so I was a little nervous when I saw the other dealers in NC vanish. I hadn't heard about the Sam Ash situation so now I'm feeling much better. I'm glad that JH keeps a close watch over these kinds of things. Just another reason that RIC is such a great company.

Paul, we really don't have many invoices aged over 30 days- we simply don't let it get that way! That's why we didn't get burned with Mars or Music 123 or some other smaller stores.

Note also that our dealer guide on the website is dynamic, i.e. it's generated each time you view it. The dealer must be strictly within terms and meet some other criteria to be displayed. As a result, what you see may change when you look at it 10 minutes later.

This is a pretty good incentive for dealers to keep their accounts current with us.

The recent shipments list, by the way, is also governed in a similar manner. No pay- no display!

I was extremely sad when Quigley Music closed their doors here in Kansas City, they were the only local dealer here.

Mr. Hall - are there any dealers on the horizon for KC?

John, thanks for the clarification. I should have known that RIC would be right up to date in their dealer accounting methods!

Quigley's is closed? I bought my first 4001FG there back in '78. I still have the laminated discount card they sent me. That was a nice store. I meant to drop by last year when I was in KC but couldn't fit it in. Remember Irish Music? Now all you have left is Big Dudes Music City.