I’m in Melbourne, and have fallen in love with the motif rack. But with a retail price of 2995 and a “bargain basement” price of 2300, it is still far more expensive than what our northern counterparts are paying.

So why are we bothering?

At the end of the day the focus should be on the consumer, and its obvious yamaha international are taking the piss out of us by charging an extra $1000 for god knows what.

Its naive to think that we wouldn’t check internation prices before laying down hard earned money for these units. What makes these racks so attractive is its competitive price, which is lost on the Australian market.

Should we just order from overseas? It doesn’t even look like we will need to buy another power supply. From the looks of it, it is an internation power supply, and we can add the figure 8 adaptor to the existing transformer.

Has anyone had any luck with this?

If someone from Yamaha Australia is reading this, can you take note. The bottom line is revenue, and if you continue to take the Australian market for granted, we will simply order our gear from overseas. This means you get zero dollars for products that have the potential of making a massive amount of revenue, seeing as a lot of people in the pro audio field think highly of yamaha products.

Is this a market that deserves to be ignored? As stated in previous posts, if Behringer and Korg etc can be competitive, why can’t Yamaha?

Opinions?

Re: Worth ordering from overseas?

Hey I bought my S90 locally because I want to support Yamaha here in Australia.  And I can also expect prices to be cheaper in the US (even after money conversion) due to the demand, competition and supply economics.

However, YAMAHA in Australia really let me down when I wanted to buy the plg100vh card.  I tried shops all over Australia and was prepared to pay the price.  Best price was $250 Australian.  But it seems like no one in Australia has one left in stock.  Worse than that YAMAHA AUSTRALIA told each supplier that one would not be available for 8-12 weeks as the plg100vh is not regulary supplied anymore.  And the retailers also said they might not be able to supply at all even after a 12 weeks wait!!!!!

So I went US!!!  Of course the Free enterprise example country of the world allows YAMAHA to blackmail all suppliers in that country from supplying to addresses outside the US.
And to make matters worse.  It seems there are plenty of the plg100vh boards left in the US!!!!! 
Couldnt YAMAHA AUSTRALIA ask his big cousin in the US just for one???
No way!  So I have lost all faith in YAMAHA AUSTRALIA!!!
Contacted friend in US, bought it for $129US (Aust $170)
He had it delivered free in 2 days.

YAMAHA AUSTRALIA why dont you just close down and let us deal with the US?  Especially if your not going to be helpful and dont seem to have any sway with your daddy in Japan or bigger cousin in the US.  What exactly is your role in this country other than to line your own pocket?

Re: Worth ordering from overseas?

Unfortunately our import duty and GST add roughly 40% to our prices - part and parcel of living in “the lucky country”. Someone has to pay for all those lovely roads in Canberra.

I just posted yesterday here a link to the ES6 on sale for $2999, and a couple of other places have it listed for around $3200. That’s way better than the $4200+ they were going for only last year.

Not much point getting the rack just yet. The keys aren’t much more at the moment, but also bear in mind with the recent release of the ES Rack the original rack might fall in price somewhat fairly soon.

Re: Worth ordering from overseas?

I’ve already made my rant about this issue but I fully agree with what you guys have reiterated once again! So I add my voice to the protest! and yeah, if u can get it from the US go for it! Just hope you dont need any warranty service in the next year, and be prepared to pay for shipping insurance too....
about the VH PLG that is really shameful - i mean what are we in bangladesh or something?! if they cant be bothered providing ongoing retail service after such a short time, and to such a rife market as Australia, it just puts OzzyYammy in a very bad light.

J.

Re: Worth ordering from overseas?

Guys,

I know Yammy US keeps an eye on parts of the forum, but I don’t know whether Yammy OZ do - I know there are many UK users who post up, and there is some tech contact with the UK, but if you do have a problem with Yammy OZ, it seems to me you will have a more fruitful time by not talking to a dealer but by ringing Yammy OZ HQ and getting hold of the right contact person there (customer support??)and relating some of your concerns. It may be that you have the right info, it may be that you have only a part of the story and that Yammy OZ would be mortified to hear what the word is out there.

All I know is that when I had to contact Yammy UK about something, they were very helpful and supportive.

Another question, why ship from the US when Japan is as close or closer . . .

Hope you all get sorted

Cheers

Re: Worth ordering from overseas?

im a new zealander but meh aus is close enough. the only thing is warrenty if it breaks u cannt send it back. other wise why not. thats why i dont apart fromt he odd gear that you have to cause no shops sells them here like those real wicked motion sound amps and stuff like that.

Re: Worth ordering from overseas?

i totaly agree,
in aust, a plg150an is $695.00, so i orderd one from the u.s and paid $330.00 deliverd to my front door. america must also have import duty and tax, so why are the plg boards so expensive in aust? something to do with YAMAHA AUSTRALIA i say!

Re: Worth ordering from overseas?

Ah! You should have kept a closer (and earlier) eye on this forum.

There’s a recent thread about cheap PLG boards at Musiclab in Brisbane. I jumped in and picked up two AN and one DX board for $200 apiece. Bargain!

Re: Worth ordering from overseas?

wuz up guys...i’m from the United States but have now moved to Australia...Sydney to be exact...i bought my board from the united states and had it shipped...it was worth it..much much cheaper then what Austrlaia is selling them for...obviously...but i only paid 2,300 for my brand new motif xs-8 in box…

Re: Worth ordering from overseas?

No need to rub it in!

Welcome to the fold.

Re: Worth ordering from overseas?

hehehe looks as if australia is a lil behind on the production line...but i’ll tell ya...the new motif xs-8 is the most incredible keyboard alive...in my opinion it tops the new Roland Fantom G...personally i think the fantom G sucks majorly....if any1 wants to make some music let me know...if your close to the Paramatta area in Sydney....we’ll make some music...also bought my audio/midi interface....now just waiting for my new comp so then i can load my software and redo my tracks and then it’s all good

Re: Worth ordering from overseas?

Well, I live in Brazil and I if you think you’ve got something to complain about, check the prices down here…

In december I paid US$3200,00 for my S90es. I can’t find a single store which has the FC-3 to sell (local yamaha distributor says they have them but I can only buy from stores… and when they are available they cost around US$100,00) and the local yamaha distributor is not importing BC-3, so there’s no way of buying one locally.

A brand new Motif XS8 costs around US$5300,00.

Re: Worth ordering from overseas?

yea that’s about the prices for the XS-8 out here as well....super expensive

Re: Worth ordering from overseas?

hey, I’m new here.

so… what u guys think? it’s like price wise… sad… real sad… btw, if we import them, will they charge us with GST and stuff? and where should I order it from?

Re: Worth ordering from overseas?

For what it’s worth I shouldn’t worry about whether the local market can compete - that’s a retail problem for them to sort

For the rest of us it’s simply a question of sourcing the best value for money

In my experience if you grow a relationship with the larger UK or Us stores you save a great deal

I have found that if you phone the guys at sweatwater in the US they will bend over backwards to make a sale

You need to ask about freight and remember you will normally have to pay GST - but there is no other sales tax for audio gear if it’s for personal use

I spent 20k on setting up my studio, most of which came from sweatwater
I probably would have spent another 10k buying it here ( and that was when the OZ dollar was only about 70 cents US )

The only problem I had was forgetting the voltage difference between US and OZ - but it was only a few hundred for transformers for the powered monitors - but Oh the joy of receiving all that gear from FED-EX to my front door

Old story - shop around and you save -but now the market is worldwide -
not to mention what you might find on e bay

Cheers

hawky 4

Re: Worth ordering from overseas?

I really do hope you mean “Sweetwater”! /forums/images/icons/smile.gif alt=
[url=http://www.sweetwater.com/]http://www.sweetwater.com/ [/url]
I seriously doubt that any company would choose a disgusting name like ‘sweatwater’, unless they were selling underarm deodorant or something, and if they did, I doubt that anyone would buy any musical equipment from them! /forums/images/icons/smile.gif alt= ..............frank