I just bought some JL components online and was wondering how they got away with selling them so openly. The JL website says that it does NOT support ANY online selling of their products and that you have to buy it through an authorized retailer. I noticed that my JL products have had the serial numbers on the outside of the box removed.

Is there something illegal going on here? Did these fall off the back of a truck? I'm just curious because there are so many ebay stores that sell the JL line (and at AWESOME prices I might add).

 

I had the same problem. I bought some JL woofers from ebay and the website said they were an authorized JL retailer. Well when the woofers came I noticed they took the warranty sticker out. I was furious so I called them up and they said they are not authorized to sell JL products with warranty on it unless you buy from some special seller or something like that. I bought my stuff fron Sonomaxaudio.

 

YEAH, I bought from them too..Sonomaxaudio. Do you have any problems with your jl product that you bought from them?

 

No the products came in satisfactory condition. I was dissapointed that I didn't recieve my sales reciept. Hooked it up today and everything sounded wonderful!

 

Jl's specifically states on their website that there are no authorized online sellers. JL's products are great but it is still a gamble with you money buying online/ebay

 

d00d just spend a few extra bux for the paypal money back gurantee or get an aftermarket warranty on the items through ebay.

 

That's what I did with the used 500/5 I bought on ebay. Works like a champ

 

I'd venture to guess that this is a JL issue. They are the ones controlling the supply chain and obviously their retail distribution channels are funneling inventory to unauthorized selling channels (online). JL needs to maintain tighter controls and audits with their channel and shore up the gray market from undercutting their authorized resellers. It's only confusing consumers to put that crap on their website and not lift a finger to enforce it because I see JL stuff being sold by too many e-tailers to count. They only stand to sour their relationships with brick and mortar shops that follow JL distribution policies if this keeps up.

 

JL had wack retailer policies that makes stores take way more inventory than they will ever sell brick and mortar, it also makes them take products from every line not just the category or line they want. thus retailers are forced to sell backdoor on the internet. I am sure JL knows this is the case but they are more concerned with increasing sales volume these days.

 

Unfortunately, I am familiar with this kind of business practice. I used to work for a big computing systems vendor which did most of their sales through it's selling channels with reselling partners. Vendors will setup gates, and it seems in JL's case, purchasing requirements to be able to sell, market, or get special pricing for their products. In this practice, manufacturers will try to push the entire portfolio to retailers who may only be interested in selling JL's top 5 best of breed products, but end up having to maintain inventory on the 25 other so so crap products that retailers would rather not carry. It also artificially boosts product performance numbers to coattail these items to their "hot sellers" to retailers which in turn post shipment results that are not inline with consumer demand. Then they setup reseller incentives and gates for retailers to "push" this crap to support whatever business agenda/goal that they want to achieve with certain product lines which in turn gets announced as earnings reports, sales reports, etc...

This practice is not limited to JL, but systemic with many manufacturers across all industries. Too bad JL is only contributing to the online etailer issue while screwing retailers that follow JL policies. Perhaps another reason why I haven't heard of JL aggressively prosecuting etailers for selling through unauthorized channels.

 

^ good explanation