What a great question and one I answer daily when I talk to customers who call our office. “XYZ has it cheaper do you price match?” and  “I saw it on XYZ’s website for $100 less” are daily comments. So time to set the record straight here in this blog (and also to save me repeating myself daily on the phone 😉 ).
We are just talking about Pro Olympus digital dictation products here, these are the DS series digital dictation recorders (DS-5000/DS-3400/DS-2400) and their corresponding Olympus transcription kits (AS-5000/AS-2400). The Pro recorders can only be sold by selected Olympus Imaging resellers in Australia. These Pro resellers should be displaying the Olympus Pro Dictation logo (eyes left) to let you know they are authorised resellers, but being the internet those logos can easily be copied (more on copying images later in this post, you will want to read on, it’s a great story).
The Olympus Voice Pro Dictation resellers are not randomly picked, we all have to meet strict criteria to become a Pro reseller. We have all been involved with Olympus for a number of years and we all have been through training with Olympus. Not only that, we all have our own dedicated Olympus rep who we can and do call on regularly. They are there to help us and you with any questions, advice, news, special pricing on large or special orders and with any warranty claims. Olympus Voice are part of Olympus Imaging and have a dedicated voice team out of their office in Ryde, Sydney.
So lets talk about pricing. As Pro resellers we only buy from Olympus Imaging Australia who set the RRP (recommended retail price) of the Pro series recorders and the price at which we buy them from Olympus. It is then upto the reseller to determine the price at which they want to sell which is obviously somewhere in between. This is why you will see pricing from the Pro resellers all around a similar  price point. To make it easier for you I have listed the official Olympus Voice Pro Resellers in Australia at the bottom of this post.
When you see an Olympus DS-5000 top of the range digital dictaphone selling on some Australian websites for $100+ less than most other reseller sites you may be thinking wow what a bargain but those of you who are online savvy will also be thinking why? Well if the company is not a Pro reseller then they will not be buying their recorders from Australia, only Olympus Imaging have the rights to sell them in Australia. So they will be imported, usually from the US where the strong Australian dollar makes US purchases more attractive. Being overseas models they will not be covered by the Australian warranty, so any issues you may have with your recorder can not go back to Olympus in Australia. This is where many issues can arise, a recorder with no warranty will be expensive for the person selling to replace and you may not get the service or replacement you expect.
One none Pro reseller here in Australia was bought to my attention recently, they were selling the DS-5000 very cheaply which rang some alarm bells. A close look showed that they had copied word for word my description of various Pro range recorders. Not only that but they had thought it appropriate to also use my images on their website. Sure, copying of images happens all the time on the internet, just because I created the image doesn’t mean I have exclusive rights to it when it is public on the internet. But in this case, as they had copied my website code, they were pulling the images from my own server – that is really taking liberties. So, a quick tweek to the image and that website is now proudly displaying my phone number on their website 🙂
We all like a bargain but when you are spending big on state of the art digital dictation solutions I personally think it is worth spending that little bit extra to get in country support from the company who actually makes the products and their nominated Pro dealers. Get to know your Olympus Pro reseller, we all have our own niches and specialities – Dictate Australia are well known for knowing Mac as well as Windows; we provide digital dictation and voice recorders, transcription solutions and voice recognition for both platforms. We have customers all over the country and can support any installation remotely but more importantly we are always at the end of the phone for a chat and for advice.
As of October 2011 there are 32 Pro resellers in Australia of which of course we, Dictate Australia, are one of them. The list of Pro resellers rarely changes but if you are not sure please call Olympus on 1300 659 678 and confirm. The Pro resellers are currently:
- Dictate Australia Pty Ltd
- Stuart & Dunn Office Choice
- Lanier Voice
- Pc Dictation
- Dictation World
- Business Machinery Rentals
- Abc Dictation / J.d.wilmot
- Prime Office National
- Global Transcription Services
- Sharp  Electronics
- Voice Recognition
- Biztech
- Voice X Communications
- Raltone International
- Lanier Voice
- Diversified Dictation Syst.
- Dictation Solutions
- Nts Transcriptions
- Biztech It
- Norac
- Lanier Voice
- Dictating City Centre
- Business Machinery Rentals
- Pdt Digital
- Ds Office
- Copia Business Machines
- Dictafix
- Talk Solutions
- Contact Office Technology
- Abacus
- Phil Hughes Office Solutions
- Bistec
### UPDATE - Feb 2012 ###
### Olympus Australia now keep an up-to-date list of Pro Audio resellers on their website. Here
### is the link:Â http://www.olympus.com.au/Navigation/Contact/Pro-Audio-Dealers.aspx