Wow.
It was not my intention to
'throw the fat into the fire' when I made my original post explaining the outcome of my visit to the Schuberth plant (which was nothing more than a short diversion off the motorway into the city of Magdeburg).
I note that comments on my original post have fallen into two pretty widely separated camps:
1) It wasn't very nice that Schuberth did not provide the requested support, and;
2) It was inappropriate for me to expect that the manufacturer would provide support at their factory when, in fact, they have an extensive dealer network, and the helmet in question was produced by them under contract to a third party (BMW).
I seem to have further confused the matter with the comparison I made to VW.
So, in a last attempt to put all this in perspective - while showing respect to those who differ with my opinion - here's a bit more information:
- Earlier the same week, I accidentally left the mounting bracket for my newly purchased Zumo 660 in a hotel in Central Italy (this after just receiving the device a few days earlier - I had opened the box in the hotel to inspect the contents), and I didn't discover this oversight until I was about 4 hours away (in a rental car) from that hotel. I visited a Garmin regional office (not a dealer or retailer) in an attempt to purchase a replacement moto mount. I only went to the Garmin regional office because no retailer I contacted within several hundred miles had a 660 moto mount in stock to sell me... I spent a whole morning trying to source a 660 moto mount from Garmin dealers in Switzerland and Italy before finally going to the Garmin regional office. The Garmin folks very kindly gave me a used moto mount from their 'odds and sods' bin, and refused all attempts on my part to pay for it.
- Although it is correct that the VW event in Dresden was pre-organized, what I failed to mention was that I was one of the primary organizers of it. The only reason I owned that model of VW in the first place was because I had dropped into the Dresden assembly plant, unannounced, a year earlier. I was so impressed with both the product (the vehicle) and the hospitality of the staff at that assembly plant that I bought the vehicle on the spur of the moment as a direct result of the way I was treated on that first visit. I have since returned to the VW Dresden plant many times, and have always been treated as a valued customer - even though the assembly plant itself is not a retail outlet for the product they manufacture.
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I guess what got up my nose as a result of my Schuberth visit was this:
A) I had previously made every possible effort to get the helmet problem resolved through the dealer network. The dealer I purchased from truly did their best, but it appeared to me that the dealer perhaps did not fully comprehend how all the parts were supposed to fit. I suspect - and still do not know to this day - that they made an error when re-assembling everything following the installation of the audio system, an audio system that was custom-made to fit that particular helmet and no other helmet.
B) All I was seeking from Schuberth was confirmation of whether or not the helmet had been properly re-assembled following installation of the audio system. It's reasonable to presume that Schuberth was involved in the design (the physical fitment, if nothing else) of the audio system, and equally reasonable to assume that someone at their head office would have been able to identify the physical cause of the problem I was having.
C) I believe that retail customers should always first endeavor to solve problems thorough the established retail support channels (dealers, regional distributors, etc.), but ultimately, a manufacturer owes it to their customers to stand behind their product and provide support if the customer cannot get a problem solved via the established protocols (i.e. working with dealers and distributors). This might be a pie-in-the-sky wish in the case of a low-end manufacturer who sells on price alone, but Schuberth is a premium manufacturer, and the helmet I purchased is one of the most expensive products that Schuberth makes.
I hope this puts the motivation for my original post in perspective.
Michael
