After visiting carplayer.com and seeing the unbelievable markups, I decided not to support this guy. Sonic blue has limited quantities of the 30gig player which I paid 399 bucks for last week.... this guy wants over 500! Needless to say the markups also go for his faceplate kit... Anyone know where I can get a decent price for a red faceplate?

The empeg store will be open to US customers later this week, selling accessories including faceplates.

I thought the carplayer.com prices were quite reasonable - he didn't get a discount on that stuff.

Rob

I'm new to empeg but not to mp3 audio, I started several years ago using biscuit board pc's for mp3 car audio. This guys been there a while, I've had a few personal experiences with this guy... I've watched him try to cash in on selling plans for MP3 players you could find anywhere online for free, gross markups of the Neo units.... If you go to his site you'll see he even charges for a receipt??? 75 cents if you want the receipt in email format and 1.75 if you want it on paper.... what kind of person charges you for a receipt? And I don't think 200 dollars more is reasonable at all... whats the point? Other than trying to sucker someone in to buying from him and hoping the other places run out of stock... it's just not cool... While I realize his business practices are legal, I do question the ethics. You can read several posts on this site in which he gets caught in a lie and backpedals. Sorry for the rant. Also his faceplate kit with shipping is close to 50 bucks thats almost twice what you'd pay anywhere else... so I'm anxiously waiting these things to go up on the empeg store.

Not running to anyones defense here, but if you will notice it isnt jeremy that at carplayer.com that charges for the receipt it is Kaji, his payment proxy that charges for the receipt. Also I consider his markups perfectly fair. He apid 199 for the 10 gig units and charges 299. 50% mark up is fairly standard in retail, and his prices are still below what you pay on ebay. Remember it is a business he runs, not a charity.

Not to mention Kagi takes a piece of the sale. From their site...

10% of the transaction ($2.50 minimum) or 5% plus $5 per transaction whichever is less.

For example, a transaction totaling $30 would have fees of $3 (10%) and a transaction with a total of $300 would have fees of $20 (6.7%).

Whatever.... I've had other experiences with the guy that I don't care to get into on a chat board... no example you could give is going to change my mind about thinkin he's a sleazebag!

Neither Jermey nor anyone from SonicBlue have said how much he paid for the units. He may have paid more then the $199 fire sale, or less.

So many people here are bashing him for his deal made with the empeg folks a while back. He is providing one of the last ways to buy an empeg beyond the unstable prices of eBay. And considering I think the 10gb is worth at a bare minimum $500, it's still an excellent deal compared to the $1000+ prices originally.

Then Jeremy doesn't know much about Kagi or how to process online payments. There are far better deals to be had elsewhere. Some are a little difficult depending on your criteria, but some can be painless and fairly easy. Then again, I don't know what Jeremy's record are like. And maybe only the gougers at Kagi are willing to take his business.

I wouldn't pay the percentages you mentioned for order processing. Especially from such a piss-poor interface as Kagi's.

Other than that, compared to the current aftermarket, the prices are fine. No idea how much he paid for the units. I hope less than $199 for the 10GB (I would have wanted them for less). Then again, given the situation, SB could have held out for a premium, knowing that they could unload them easily from their own store (incurring storage and labour expenses along the way of course, but it was still bargaining power).

Bruno

For someone that seems to be doing a fair ammount of transactions, Kagi is a poor choice. However, if you work out what a Yahoo Store would cost you...

$49.95/month (Yahoo Store hosting)
+ 0.5% cut on transaction (Yahoo takes this cut)
+ ~$45/month (Merchant account maint. fee)
+ 3-4% (cut Visa/Master/Amex take per trans.)

...then it may work out in his favor to use Kagi. This all depends on how professional you want to look and how much of your revenue you want to surrender.

I don't and I do mean to slam the guy.... I've had issues with him in the past... I shouldn't bring that here so I do apologize for that. However, the idea that you should pay for your receipt regaurdless of who's processing your orders is just piss poor business practice. Owning your own business means eating costs like this.... I don't have to pay for my receipt when I go to the grocery store, gas station... wherever. And while it may seem fair to some to pay 515 there when you can pay 399 from the supplier, seems silly to me.

Dude, it's called supply and demand. If carplayer.com is charging too much, then go buy somewhere else. Capitalism at work. Considering that Empegs were until recently twice as expensive, I'd call that a deal, even if you could buy one from the SB store cheaper. I ordered a 10gig model from carplayer.com because I wanted to make _sure_ I got one (and the SB store said they were all sold out). The prices were better than eBay, that's for sure.

-Mark

Neither Jermey nor anyone from SonicBlue have said how much he paid for the units.

According to a <a href="http://empeg.comms.net/php/showprofile.php?Cat=&User=rob&Number=59571&Board=sale&what=showflat&page=0&view=expanded&sb=5&o=2&fpart=all&vc=1">post</a> from rob the guy didn't get a discount which would mean he paid a lot more than what he's selling them at, starngely enough.

Ok.... Jesus... www.carplayer.com is the greatest online store in the world.... lets drop this...

And if ya read the first post.... I was specifically asking if anybody knew another place to get the goods.... in response to your saying go buy elsewhere. I'd love to go elsewhere show me the way! And before anyone says it.... I've been checkin the E-store and they still don't have faceplates.... BTW I ordered a 30 gig from the e-store 7 days ago and got it 2 days later... they still have them in stock... I'd say ya got robbed

> I don't and I do mean to slam the guy.... I've had issues with him in the past...

I certainly appreciate people telling about their experiences with businesses. I am certainly not canceling my order with him (because me experiences with Sonic Blue have been really bad myself and I doubt I will ever get another player from them), and he seems like a nice guy to me, but it is nice to hear all opinions about someone I am giving $500 to.

I think I've posted 4 or 5 times recently to say that you will be able to buy faceplates from the empeg store this week. I even posted that in this very thread!

Check at www.empeg.com/store in about 30 mins from the time of this post and you will be able to order.

Rob

Lopan,

I am sorry you do not like the layout of carplayer.com, please order from the international store. Thanks.

I'm with Lopan.... I ordered a faceplate kit, my order totalled almost double what it would've been elsewhere. It gets worse I placed the order several days ago... and didn't splurge on getting a receipt... No shipping notice, nothing, so I sent an email, stating that even though I thought it was really stupid to have to pay for a receipt I still would like to know when and if the item ever shiped... I didn't hear anything so I sent a second email saying c'mon gimme the info or I'd have to share my experience with people in here... This was my reply....

From: CarPlayer.Com [mailto:sales@carplayer.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2002 3:51 PM
To: ##########
Subject: Re: Hello


Dear Sir,

Would you like me to delete your order out of our database? We have no
problems finding people who would like to purchase a faceplate kit
from us, and I would hate to see you unhappy due to Kagi charging for
a receipt (a policy beyond my control). Please advise.

Jeremy Briggs
www.carplayer.com


It's almost like he thinks he's doing everyone a favor buy offering you his business...

I learned that not only does this guy over charge... he's a wanker to boot!

Needless to say I told him to, yes please delete my order... and ordered from the international store.... whada tool

I think everyone's being a little too harsh on this carplayer.com guy. If you don't like his prices, don't buy. At least he allowed you to retract your order. These players/accessories would probably be sitting in a stockroom collecting dust if he didn't buy them. Cut him some slack. He has to eat too.

I had a different exchange with carplayer.com when I ordered my empeg. I e-mailed sales@carplayer.com about the status of my order because I did not get an e-mail confirmation or anything, and within 20 minutes I got an e-mail back from Jeremy giving me the lowdown.

I suspect you didn't wait long enough for him to reply after your first e-mail, he was probably just busy.

It's likely (like most websites) carplayer.com is a one-man operation and he's working most of the time to fulfil orders, answer questions, etc. Sometimes it's not possible to get back to everyone right away. Sure, the order system is a bit kludgy, and could be done better, but the SB store seems just as unresponsive (and they probably have more than one person running the deal) regarding customer service.

-Mark

I just placed an order for face plates,I thought it was a fair price considering I could'nt find them any were else.I have not got a confermation e-mail yet either,not to worried about.

Same here thrasher, I placed my order this morning for faceplates, was expecting an email and didn't get one. I am hoping that the store is using the "email when we ship" approach.

Not being harsh, I thought lopan was being harsh as well til I dealt with the guy. I say "whats up with charging for a receipt" and he threatens to delete my order? Then says he doesn't need my business? He might not need my order but if he treats every one of his customers that way he wouldn't be sellin jack. I give the guy my business and offer a little constructive criticism and he acts like a jerk? Sorry man but thats not cool and it's no way to treat a customer.

He did not threaten you. He asked you if you still wanted to complete the order.

Kinda sounded that way to me... Dudemon... I had very similar issues with Jeremy back when the Neo units were big... said he had em in stock, I ordered, didn't recieve it, after a month I got agitated and asked what the status was and why it was taking so long, he pretty much told me the same thing, he wasn't even nice about it. He might have the goods but customer service is not his forte. But I've learned these guys don't want to hear negative things about him so might as well drop it.

Everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that e-mail receipts are sent when products are shipped, some online stores send them prior to shipment, but that simply means they charge your card prior to shipment (not a good thing). If you get a thank you page at checkout, then we have your order. All shipments will be made Monday as we are working hard with US customs to get the products cleared and delivered to us. Once they are in our door, they will be going out to our customers, thanks for the patience. Our customs broker assures us the products will be delivered today or Monday morning.