No direct sales anymore?

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

Hi together

Today I got the information from Ultimaker support, that for countries which have a distributor (e.g. IGO3D), support is not anymore handled by Ultimaker but by the distributor.

As you may have realised you can select your country and currency for some time now here on the UM website. If you select something else than 'global' you will be redirected to the webshops of the distributors. Today I got the information that for the above mentioned countries the option of ordering directly will disappear soon.

What do you think about it?

[ultiarjan 1,222]

I think it's good for a company to have a quality distribution network. Direct sales and distributor sales can exist next to each other as long as the distributor gets a proper margin and companies are not going to compete with there distributors (and stores)... this usually means the direct sales becomes more expensive and less attractive for the end consumer.

I would love to see a list of distributors who take over the support... from what we've seen on the forum the US customers saw hugely improved service when the support moved to http://fbrc8.com ... this might happen to other countries now apparently... wonder how it will work for countries with multiple distri's ... get support only when you bought from them ?

[ultiarjan 1,222]

http://ultimaker.com/en/stories/view/16681-the-ultimaker-family-with-industry-leading-support

http://ultimaker.com/en/resellers?c=Global

Interesting page, but UM calls the page 'resellers', and shows distributors.... a bit confusing. If the list would contain resellers the list should be a lot longer, f.e. the Makerpoint shops in the Netherlands are not in ...

Another surprising thing, according to the info-graphics, most do warranty service but don't keep spare parts...

[TheDeugd 18]

http://ultimaker.com/en/stories/view/16681-the-ultimaker-family-with-industry-leading-support

http://ultimaker.com/en/resellers?c=Global

Interesting page, but UM calls the page 'resellers', and shows distributors.... a bit confusing. If the list would contain resellers the list should be a lot longer, f.e. the Makerpoint shops in the Netherlands are not in ...

Another surprising thing, according to the info-graphics, most do warranty service but don't keep spare parts...

 

Hi Arjan,

Thanks for your comment. The resellers page has both resellers and distributors listed. A distributor that acts as a reseller as well is listed on that page. A distributor always offers full support and warranty service and they also stock all Ultimaker products, including spare parts. Through the support page you're linked to the distributor in that country. Because some products are not listed yet on all of our partners websites, we are leaving these products out of the info boxes for now. We're in the process of adding partners to the page, it could be that these partners are already selling our products, but expanding the page with partners is a work in progress.

Hope this clarifies things a bit, if not, send me another message

- Matthijs

[TheDeugd 18]

I would love to see a list of distributors who take over the support... from what we've seen on the forum the US customers saw hugely improved service when the support moved to  http://fbrc8.com ... this might happen to other countries now apparently... wonder how it will work for countries with multiple distri's ... get support only when you bought from them ?

 

In regards to this comment, here's some more info: in the US we work with multiple resellers and with our support partner (fbrc8), they also do assembly for us there. In Europe and the rest of the world we work with one distributor per country, who can assign multiple resellers in its country. Your point of sale is always your contact for warranty, but they will connect with the distributor.

If you would like to know which distributors do warranty service, please look at the resellers page. A partner with the sub title 'Authorized Distributor' offers full support and warranty in their respective country.

[ultiarjan 1,222]

The resellers page has both resellers and distributors listed. A distributor that acts as a reseller as well is listed on that page.

 

almost clear If you only add resellers to the list that are distributors, you better call the page distributors. On the other hand for your end customers who visit the webpage a full list of resellers (shops) would be usefull. In that case it makes more sense to add all resellers (so f.e. all makerpoint shops in Holland) and make an indication in the infographic + filter option to only show the distributors....

ps, very usefull that you share this info!