I'm not impressed much by that, and can't help but feel like the program is just a way to limit calls so they can operate with a reduced staff. That's a cynical view, yes, but I find it very hard to believe it can be otherwise, considering in the 15 years or so I've dealt with AMX I have never seen such delays.
I would have to agree. Also the BullsEye program in general seems to be geared towards forcing us to use some of the new line. There's a 30% minimum Target Product requirement which I can only assume is to increase sales of products that haven't been able to move on their own.
The demo requirement kind of does the same thing. $10k per for platinum dealers down to $5K for bronze. Evenutally we'll have to buy things we just don't have and once we do we'll have to play with them. If we end up liking them we then might start to spec them in jobs. And if we don't we'll have paper weights or eBay items?
The $5k min for programming services confuses me since I don't know what that means.
The 10-12.5% difference in product cost I guess is fair enough. If you sell more you should be rewarded but the simple fact that one company sells more thatn another doesn't mean the company selling more is in anyway more loyal than the other. To the contrary the company selling more is more likely to be the one that makes decssions based on the bottom line not brand loyalty. Oh, just noticed they also get complimentary ground shipping and up to 10% rebates too. That could add up to over 20% cost differences between the big and small.
Fortunately I believe that business isn't fair and the playing field shouldn't be stacked to make things even for everybody. That's just life, so be it, deal with it and overcome it if you can.
I do wonder what the overall affect on the resi market share this policy will have. How many dealers will be dropped? How many resi dealers will simply run to other products? The larger companies that do mostly large commercial projects with only some resi projects will benefit greatly but the small guys doing just resi might start to re-think loyalty as being a two way street.
While I too have seen an increase in wait times, I do not think they're reducing staff or losing quality in service. Just like any other company who has use-or-lose vacation policies, you'll see an increase of guys leaving the office. That's what I'm chalking it up to be and have not gotten the impression they've reduced staff or are lowering the bar. I'd say it's nothing to worry about.
I'll bet things will be back to normal very soon (if not already).
I would have to agree. Also the BullsEye program in general seems to be geared towards forcing us to use some of the new line. There's a 30% minimum Target Product requirement which I can only assume is to increase sales of products that haven't been able to move on their own.
IMO this sums up the program from a small company viewpoint...it is largely a punitive-based program and not an incentive-based one. A better way to position this would be 'hit the sales target and you move up', and 'oh by the way, if 30% of your purchases are from the Target Product group, we'll give you a 2% bonus discount for the next year'. From the support standpoint, once you've met the training requirement they should waive the $1200. (although in actuality, they should be able to comb through their records and determine which dealers are the tech support abusers and address them individually)
IMO this sums up the program from a small company viewpoint...it is largely a punitive-based program and not an incentive-based one. A better way to position this would be 'hit the sales target and you move up', and 'oh by the way, if 30% of your purchases are from the Target Product group, we'll give you a 2% bonus discount for the next year'. From the support standpoint, once you've met the training requirement they should waive the $1200. (although in actuality, they should be able to comb through their records and determine which dealers are the tech support abusers and address them individually)
Agreed. My $ 0.02:
Bronze Level (which I have kindly been "qualified" for, thanks Walt Megura) forces me to pay 20% _more_ for AMX equipment?!?!? This really does not make sense in this economy. Makes one feel punished for weathering the storm and keeping AMX on-board. One poster made some remarks about "supporting their dealer base" and I see the point of weeding out the chaff, but AMX should be addressing "lame" dealers on a one-by-one basis. This Bullseye program is really forcing me to take a look at Cr*str*n and C*ntr*l 4 (are they done teething?) again.
After re-certifying last year, I am thinking those hours will be chalked-up in the "loss" column.
Annually spending $ 1200 for tech support (excluding warranty calls?) plus $ 5000 in demo gear sure puts a damper on the whole brand. I mean, small businesses don't have $ 6200 laying around, do they?
Keeping up: when are the economies of scale supposed to kick in on the 5-year-old technology like the Modero and NI controllers? Does AMX have a iPhone app yet (no VNC puhleez)?
Farming out the representation to rep-firms is a lousy idea.
How much did it cost to develop, evaluate, and implement this Bullseye program, anyway? Sheesh.AMX: stop flailing around, stop punishing your dealers and lay-off the thick layer of middle management.
I'll stop ranting now. Thanks for you time, ever-loving forum-world.
Adding my $.02 now that the details of this bad idea have filtered down to me.
Bronze level seems to basically price AMX out of being a competitive option for most anything. So now I don't know how long it'll be till I get to program another new AMX system. Instead I get to program lots of Brand C. <Bangs head against wall repeatedly> I HATE programming Brand C! :mad:
I don't really know how AMX can think this could do anything except cost them sales. It's not like any significant portion of the jobs we do are specified as AMX by the customer or architect. Scratch that, I don't think I've ever seen one that was. On the those few occasions when something is specified for control, it has always been Brand C. When the customer has no preference, going with the choice that costs 15-20% more for the same functionality seems to be a good way to lose work. Of course what do I know, I'm just a programmer not a sales/marketing weasel.
After all the work I've put into AMX over the last few years I feel betrayed.
//my first impression is that Bullseye smells dumber than panja
//wow I actually posted an angry/critical post on a forum, that never happens. I usually type then and then decide not to post them
glad to see I'm not the only one taken aback by this. I've had to call support twice in the last two weeks due to hardware failure. Love how the first question I get isn't "how can I help you?" anymore, but instead "what is your account ID." Thankfully they were both hardware failures so I'm still dodging the support fee bullet, but it does seem like a slap in the face when we have aggressively tried to push against "C". It's making it tougher to ignore the calls from the company C rep.
glad to see I'm not the only one taken aback by this. I've had to call support twice in the last two weeks due to hardware failure. Love how the first question I get isn't "how can I help you?" anymore, but instead "what is your account ID." Thankfully they were both hardware failures so I'm still dodging the support fee bullet, but it does seem like a slap in the face when we have aggressively tried to push against "C". It's making it tougher to ignore the calls from the company C rep.
I don't know my account number. I have to ask them to look it up for me.
I don't know my account number. I have to ask them to look it up for me.
Now I wonder if you just picked another company's name who you know has silver or platinum status would they try to verify you're a legitmate employee. I suppose you could fake that too. Or mayby one of the silver or platinum dealers wouldn't mind leasing TS access. They could charge us pee ons $100.00/yr to use their company ID and they can create a fake employee for us to use.
Since times are hard you have to be able to think creatively. Of course when I offered to buy a certication program I only got 1 response, the morals & ethics on this forum might be just too high for this to work.
Now I wonder if you just picked another company's name who you know has silver or platinum status would they try to verify you're a legitmate employee. I suppose you could fake that too. Or mayby one of the silver or platinum dealers wouldn't mind leasing TS access. They could charge us pee ons $100.00/yr to use their company ID and they can create a fake employee for us to use.
Since times are hard you have to be able to think creatively. Of course when I offered to buy a certication program I only got 1 response, the morals & ethics on this forum might be just too high for this to work.
Maybe there could be a black market for company IDs and employee names.
Great! Now we got to worry about the end of the world too. Doesn't that make worrying about ACE recert trivial? Maybe we should be working on life re-certifications and make sure our qualifications for the here after are up to par so on the judgement day we'll be able to pass in under 60 hours. Unless they too allow do afters.
Out of curiosity, is anyone else still awaiting any results of their recerts? I submitted my designer practical on 12/15/09 and haven't heard anything yet. I did my programmer practical a in November, and it only took a couple weeks for grading....
Out of curiosity, is anyone else still awaiting any results of their recerts? I submitted my designer practical on 12/15/09 and haven't heard anything yet. I did my programmer practical a in November, and it only took a couple weeks for grading....
I am still waiting and I did mine about a month before you.
I am still waiting and I did mine about a month before you.
Guess I'll just be patient, then. Was wondering if I should email AMX and ask them if they lost my files or something. Oh well, I hope I pass because I'll have probably lost interest in the whole thing by the time I get the results.
Guess I'll just be patient, then. Was wondering if I should email AMX and ask them if they lost my files or something. Oh well, I hope I pass because I'll have probably lost interest in the whole thing by the time I get the results.
I'm just hoping that my notification about my test isn't some letter asking why I didn't bother to recert...
Comments
The demo requirement kind of does the same thing. $10k per for platinum dealers down to $5K for bronze. Evenutally we'll have to buy things we just don't have and once we do we'll have to play with them. If we end up liking them we then might start to spec them in jobs. And if we don't we'll have paper weights or eBay items?
The $5k min for programming services confuses me since I don't know what that means.
The 10-12.5% difference in product cost I guess is fair enough. If you sell more you should be rewarded but the simple fact that one company sells more thatn another doesn't mean the company selling more is in anyway more loyal than the other. To the contrary the company selling more is more likely to be the one that makes decssions based on the bottom line not brand loyalty. Oh, just noticed they also get complimentary ground shipping and up to 10% rebates too. That could add up to over 20% cost differences between the big and small.
Fortunately I believe that business isn't fair and the playing field shouldn't be stacked to make things even for everybody. That's just life, so be it, deal with it and overcome it if you can.
I do wonder what the overall affect on the resi market share this policy will have. How many dealers will be dropped? How many resi dealers will simply run to other products? The larger companies that do mostly large commercial projects with only some resi projects will benefit greatly but the small guys doing just resi might start to re-think loyalty as being a two way street.
I'll bet things will be back to normal very soon (if not already).
IMO this sums up the program from a small company viewpoint...it is largely a punitive-based program and not an incentive-based one. A better way to position this would be 'hit the sales target and you move up', and 'oh by the way, if 30% of your purchases are from the Target Product group, we'll give you a 2% bonus discount for the next year'. From the support standpoint, once you've met the training requirement they should waive the $1200. (although in actuality, they should be able to comb through their records and determine which dealers are the tech support abusers and address them individually)
Agreed. My $ 0.02:
Bronze Level (which I have kindly been "qualified" for, thanks Walt Megura) forces me to pay 20% _more_ for AMX equipment?!?!? This really does not make sense in this economy. Makes one feel punished for weathering the storm and keeping AMX on-board. One poster made some remarks about "supporting their dealer base" and I see the point of weeding out the chaff, but AMX should be addressing "lame" dealers on a one-by-one basis. This Bullseye program is really forcing me to take a look at Cr*str*n and C*ntr*l 4 (are they done teething?) again.
After re-certifying last year, I am thinking those hours will be chalked-up in the "loss" column.
Annually spending $ 1200 for tech support (excluding warranty calls?) plus $ 5000 in demo gear sure puts a damper on the whole brand. I mean, small businesses don't have $ 6200 laying around, do they?
Keeping up: when are the economies of scale supposed to kick in on the 5-year-old technology like the Modero and NI controllers? Does AMX have a iPhone app yet (no VNC puhleez)?
Farming out the representation to rep-firms is a lousy idea.
How much did it cost to develop, evaluate, and implement this Bullseye program, anyway? Sheesh.AMX: stop flailing around, stop punishing your dealers and lay-off the thick layer of middle management.
I'll stop ranting now. Thanks for you time, ever-loving forum-world.
Adding my $.02 now that the details of this bad idea have filtered down to me.
Bronze level seems to basically price AMX out of being a competitive option for most anything. So now I don't know how long it'll be till I get to program another new AMX system. Instead I get to program lots of Brand C. <Bangs head against wall repeatedly> I HATE programming Brand C! :mad:
I don't really know how AMX can think this could do anything except cost them sales. It's not like any significant portion of the jobs we do are specified as AMX by the customer or architect. Scratch that, I don't think I've ever seen one that was. On the those few occasions when something is specified for control, it has always been Brand C. When the customer has no preference, going with the choice that costs 15-20% more for the same functionality seems to be a good way to lose work. Of course what do I know, I'm just a programmer not a sales/marketing weasel.
After all the work I've put into AMX over the last few years I feel betrayed.
//my first impression is that Bullseye smells dumber than panja
//wow I actually posted an angry/critical post on a forum, that never happens. I usually type then and then decide not to post them
I don't know my account number. I have to ask them to look it up for me.
Since times are hard you have to be able to think creatively.
Maybe there could be a black market for company IDs and employee names.
so they passed you through for a hardware failure? wonder how they'll handle buggy device drivers...
I am still waiting and I did mine about a month before you.
Guess I'll just be patient, then. Was wondering if I should email AMX and ask them if they lost my files or something. Oh well, I hope I pass because I'll have probably lost interest in the whole thing by the time I get the results.
I'm just hoping that my notification about my test isn't some letter asking why I didn't bother to recert...