Chuck and Marilyn,

I have been a Technote customer for a good many years with excellent service from Graham Tilney.

Both of your comments hit the nail on the head as far as I am concerned.

Sad day when you lose an old friend.

Fran in Florida

Nothing ever really changes Brian, we the paying public are only allowed to know what"Big Brother" wants us to know, especially if money is involved, let it go over your head and enjoy the real reason we all talk on this forum the MUSIC
take care
jan

[This message has been edited by kozykeys (edited 06-22-2003).]

Hi To All.
I would just like to clarify a point and hope that it is taken in the right spirit.
I have never deleted any posts which I have made on this forum and only make comments to help the contributors as best I can and if at all. The point about the other forum is,(and I hope that it will be water under the proverbial bridge)we all have something to say about the way in which it has been run recently and in my opinion it is something that Technote will live to regret because there are plenty of other similar businesses
which offer suitable quality products usually at cheaper prices and the many prevoius potential customers will now have no reason whatsoever to visit the site again and this will cause a considerable loss of revenue. I have been in business for over 40years and there are parts of a business that have to be carried on regardless of profit in order to support the whole.
All the best to you all.
PETER B.

Good Morning to All from the UK:

I've been away in Suffolk the past three days. Upon returning I began catching up on SynthZone posts and read the additional comments by KozyKeys and Peter Bentley, and the controversy over possible censorship on this forum. During my absence, Tony Smith of Technote International, responded to the e-mail I posted above. In fairness to Technote International, and Tony Smith in particular, I want to post his reply. It is the fair and gentlemanly thing to do. I appreciated Tony taking the time to respond. Perhaps this will clear the air to some degree over this contentious issue.

Warm Regards,

Chuck Piper

Dear Mr Piper

I must point out that our commitment to Technics owners all over the world is not in question. We are merely making some fundamental changes to our site and feel that the majority of customers are preferably using the synth-zone forum for their discussions. We feel that they specialise in the forum activity and I personally think they offer a great service to all keyboard owners. I will updating our site to link to synthzone for customers discussions, but by customers reaction they prefer this so I see this as giving customers what they want. By simply removing the forum does not mean we are closing any doors, far from it in fact.

Technote specialise in dedicated software and other products which has always been our main business. There are no changes planned for Techplus, and from general reaction we feel we are supporting almost 3000 Technics owners with this publication sucessfully. So I do feel we are doing our bit to provide you all with a quality publication backed up by a great range of products. I understand that we cannot please everyone's needs, but I must stress that our commitment to giving customers a quality service is our highest priority. We are not supported in anyway by Technics and as such we have to remain a profitble company like any other third party company in order to continue providing both the service and products we produce.

We look forward to continuing being of service to you and all our customers around the world.

If you wish to post this message please feel free to do so.

Kind regards
TONY SMITH
Managing Director
Technote Int Ltd

This is my reply to Tony Smith. The matter is closed as far as I'm concerned.

Chuck

Dear Tony,

I've been away in Suffolk the past three days and did not have an opportunity to read your reply to my earlier e-mail until late last night shortly after I got home.

Thank you for your personal reply. I appreciate it very much. I have always been completely satisfied with products I have purchased from Technote International including software, books, footswitches, the organ work station, the CD recorder etc.

The fundamental changes you are making to your website will hopefully improve it further. But I think in all honesty you must be acutely aware you have alienated people because of the manner in which you handled the initial changes to the forum service, and the manner in which you closed the remnant of that service this year. By "manner", I mean the abrupt closure without any advance warning, explanantion, or discussion with the users of that service. Whether you agree or not, whether you care or not, it is a fact that you had the best Technics forum on the web two years ago and we as users felt we were part of a "Technote family". The absence of any sense of "family" on the part of Technote management was clearly and abruptly evident to us in the way you handled the initial changes to your forum and its subsequent closure. And it is a fact that the success of the SynthZone forum is due to our feeling that we are indeed a "family" of Technics instrument owners. Nigel, Bebop, and SynthZone have given us a home. Technote had that home but gave it away and all the GOODWILL that went with it. We felt your management decisions regarding the handling of your forum service were arbitrary and arrogant and we didn't appreciate being treated that way.

Techplus magazine is indeed the flagship publication for Technics keyboard owners and you do produce quality products. I have said so publicly and in personal e-mails to you. However, had I been in your shoes I would have kept the forum, recognizing the goodwill it generates, and in consultation with the users, would have been looking for ways to improve it. But then I have a different approach to management and am not in your shoes.

Tony, I've said what I feel and this closes the matter as far as I am concerned. I wish you success personally and professionally in the future.

Most Sincerely,

Chuck Piper

Thanks for keeping us informed Chuck. It is important that Technote are able to continue providing support products for Technics owners.

I can understand Tony's position that they felt that there was no point in continuing the forum. It was not directly helping their business and may have actually been distracting for them. If they are selling a product of interest to you, you will still check it out whether you read about it here or there. Because Synth Zone has no direct commercial interest in music products it is easier to take more of a hands off approach to running a public forum like this. This seems to be the main reason they decided to close their forum. It really can be tough to run a public forum on the Internet. And I know that from experience

I wish Technote much success with their ongoing business. It is in our interest that they continue to succeed. There are not a lot of third party Technics support businesses around so it is very important that they are able to continue. Please continue to support them as they are an essential source of Technics keyboard products. The fact that they are closing their forum is not an issue at all, and will allow them to focus on more important work.

Don't know about the rest of you but I think this thread is pretty much done now ...


[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 06-25-2003).]