Baumeister Goes Out of Business After 19 Years

i am a former customer and had some items being repaired by them and have not seen nor heard from these guys.
unfortunately or not, having my equiptment is now a police matter.  i feel bad for the guys/gals who worked there as they were good, but all numbers are disconnected, no email, no cell phones.
another black eye tot he industry

In response to Dave Steven’s comments about Bose, B&O;, big box store order takers.  I find your comments condescending. America is a country of Free Enterprise.  Meaning let the better man win. They have excellent marketing programs that work well and have for ages.  That does not mean that their products are the best on earth.  Also, if their products are not to their customer’s satisfaction it would have killed them off long ago.  Love them or hate them they have a system that works like a charm and that is what it takes.  I just find these off the cuff comments from custom folks very short sighted.  They like you have a place in the industry.  If you are doing your job right then they do not matter.  I worked in the CE industry for over 10 years and found that it was not that hard to educate a customer if those products were the right fit for them or not. I am not a fan of either Bose or B&O;.  Never owned their products and never will.  Most custom clients are educated enough to be able to easily see\hear that these products are not for them.

Kilroy,
I have 31 years in this business, and for a 10 year period I was the only business in the US that offered both Bose & Thiel under the same roof. Why? It takes 2 minutes to sell a Bose product when a customer came in looking for it vs. taking a half hour to educate a client to spend more money on a pair of Thiels.

We are all in the business to make money as efficiently as possible, and any audio system only has to please the listener. Hopefully we get to educate people along the way.

Maybe the only reason you only stayed in this business for 10 years is because you got sick and tired of trying to do the right thing.

Regarding both companies having excellent marketing programs, so did the Germans in 1944.
It doesn’t make it right.

By the way, I have enjoyed your other posts…

Dave, Personally I do not care for Bose.  To me they are more of an marketing company then an audio company.  For years I hated them since it seemed that they took advantage of the customer.  But I came to a conclusion that they like all the rest of the mfgs. have a place. With audio, beauty is in the eye or ear if you will of the beholder. I felt that sometimes our willingness to “educate” the customer sometimes got in the way of things. Your comparison of Bose’s marketing to the Nazis is interesting but I think a bit much. BTW, I didn’t leave the business because of getting sick of trying to do the right thing.  It was for health reasons I had to stop working. If not for that I would still be in the business.  Thanks for the comment about my other posts.

Kilroy,
First off, sorry to hear about your illness and it’s a shame that this industry has lost an intelligent person like yourself.

As a professional comedy writer for many years, my writing style is designed to always go over the top to make a point. It will either make a person laugh, or make a person angry. The point is that it will be remembered in either case.

I used ####’s as an example because I have personally visited the Bose factory when they sent an open invitation to its dealers in 1992-1993, (I can’t remember the exact date).

In any case Bose higher ups were like the SS to its visitors. I specifically remember orders were given that no photos were allowed to be taken inside the facility. I had no problem with that and understood.

However, a group of us had our photo taken outside of the Framingham building with the huge Blue Bose logo in the background. When we all got back on the bus to go back to our hotels, 2, (for lack of better words), storm troopers would not let the bus leave. Then these 2 idiots got on the bus, removed the person who took the photos, and confiscated his camera and all film he had in his possession.

Inside the facility, it seemed almost “cult-like.” The Bose logo was on every phone, every thermostat, every pen, every room, etc. I was suprised the Bose logo was not grilled into the hamburger I had in their cafeteria which also displayed every product the company had ever manufactured. Brainwashing at its best.
The robotic manufacturing on their asssembly line
was far beyond anything I’ve ever seen in those days… very impressive.

As the tour went on, we visited the wire room… I have never seen so many different colors of 22 and 28 gage wire lined up on racks. Next, we visited the “blind listening” test room. These idiots had a pair of B&W;801’s under a sheet and were comparing them to an Acoustimass 5 system. They tried to convince us the AM-5’s were far superior.

Then we were off to the “bunker” which is a large room with about 100 drivers playing 20hz at full volume. To enter the room, we had to put on their noise cancellation headphones so as not to suffer long term hearing loss. Even though the room had concrete walls, you could feel the floor rumbling under your feet in the hallway and smell the ferro fluid cooking up a storm.

I’m sure your bored by now of my inside tour, but what amazes me to this day that they still use only 4 different cheap paper drivers in almost everything they build… just different configurations and more drivers in a cabinet to create different model numbers.

It also pisses me off that Bose is blatantly price fixed. Their dealer agreement is called a “Unilateral Price Policy” but it is price fixing. I dare anyone to show me an advertisement from any dealer who does not have an “*” next to a Bose product when they announce a 10-20% off of all speakers… *Except Bose” is always in the fine print.

Summing up, at the very end of the tour Amar himself parted the waters and took Q&A;from about 500 people. When I rasied my hand, I asked, “With all of the technology you have at your finger tips and all of the people who work so hard, why can’t you make a speaker that sounds good and why do you price fix your product line?” I was immediately escorted from the building as half of the audience began applauding to the question posed. I was happy to leave early, and was joined by another 3 dozen people who got up and left with me.

Kilroy, I’m very passionate about my business and will do my best to expose crap. Their are too many smaller companies that make great products and don’t stand a chance against these corporate giants. It is nice to know that Bose has lost a huge market share over the years and most of their business now comes from old ladies buying Wave Radios.

If you’d like to speak to me personally, contact Julie Jacobson and she will give you my e-mail address. I don’t feel it’s fair to take up CE Pro’s posts for personal communications as I just did.

I am an old customer who was a former friend of John Baumeister. John took my Creston remote for repairs 7 days prior to him folding. Baumeister also tried to sell me a TV at the same time. I am glad I didnt pay for the TV. Luckily I contacted Creston directly and they returned my remote and were a great help. Bottom line Baumeister only cared about himself and screwed his employees and clients and should go to jail for fraud