Going out of business

[bigeasy]

Went to the local Mars store and one of the workers was telling me that they will phase out real soon and soon after that support will halt as well. I thought Alesis made great products. If I was to purchase any of their products other than amps, such as the effect processors and compressors support may be a problem.

[Blue Bear Sound]

Well... not quite so drastic, but it remains to be seen....

check this thread --> http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthr...threadid=24671

Bruce

[mnicoletti]

Hi, Big Easy,

We are not going anywhere, but we did file Chap11 Protection and Reorganization. We will be purchased at the end of the Chap 11. There were layoffs as well, but we are here, we are shipping product and we are supporting our customers. Be aware though that for the near future, hold times and repair turnaround times are longer than before. We hope to rebuild right after the Chap 11.

thanks!

Mike

[BigKahuna]

HI Mike ... thanks for the info ... I'm glad to hear that things are going to get sorted out at Alesis. I got my HD24 $ in my pocket ... just waiting to hear more.
just so you know, you can add your title and stuff to your signature on the members profile page. Tom Cram from DBX I think uses the sig for his dbx blurb. That way don't have to type it in for every post.
Welcome to hr.com!

[dragonworks]

I am very glad to hear this, I own an adat, qs-8, and a bunch of alesis outboard effects.

[MISTERQCUE]

Mee too Mike! While I'm not fond of their comps,I do LOVE their ADATS and present have saved almost $93.00 for my future purchase of the HD24!

[mnicoletti]

Thanks Big Kahuna, I'll check into that.

MISTERQCUE, where in NYC are you? I was born and raised in Astoria, Queens.

[skippy]

Mike, just a cautionary word.

I'm also very much an Alesis booster- to the point of having been called a part-time sales rep (see the Masterlink threads). I've got two Masterlinks, a Studio 32, a QS8.1... I'd like nothing better than to see Alesis recover and flourish.

However, having said that: individual customers like us are really not your problem going forward. Your retail distributors really *are*, and they are rapidly losing confidence in Alesis during this hiatus. When I was calling around to get my second Masterlink just a few days ago, I was told a great many tales of woe by account managers for some of the major national distributors- some of your big accounts. Stories of the complete unavailability of any support for ADAT parts, non-returns of phone calls, and of a lack of confidence that the situation will improve even if the chapter 11 situation is resolved. It's to the point now that even the floor salesdrones at Mars or Guitar Center will tell customers, and I quote, "if they won't deal with *us*, they sure as hell won't deal with you".

The bottom line here is that there are a number of your major distributors who are ready to give up on your company: and if they do that, then our confidence in you is rendered moot. No distributors, no sales: burn your channels and it's game over.

I hope that your skeleton crew is putting as much effort into contacting and trying to work with your channels as you are putting in here: if not, they need to work much harder at it. For every one of us that you leave with a warm fuzzy feeling, there's a Full Compass, or a Markertech, or a Sweetwater who is getting angry at a lack of support, or of communications of *any kind*, and are getting to be less likely to come back after any recovery.

I've worked in the design and manufacturing side of the MI/pro-audio business, and I can state one thing as a certainty: Any groundswell of customer support for Alesis in the recovery period is meaningless if you folks don't support your channels, *right now*. If you have input to the channel support side of the business, I'd ask that you tell them this ASAP. Get on the phone to the buyers and the major account managers at these heavy hitters, and _talk_ to them. Right now, they story that they are giving to your potential new customers is not good: no news is *not* good news in such a fickle business.

And best of luck. It's hard to put in that much effort without a paycheck coming in, but it's critical that it be done...

[MISTERQCUE]

Hey Mike, I live in Upper Manhattan. I used to live in Jamaica,
Queens where I use to play in 1 of my favorite bands called "The New World 5" (we played in a bunch of Queens clubs b-4 we did a East Coast tour) and 'Da Bronx! I still have many friends that live in Astoria, as a matter a fact 1 of my sisters lives 2 blocks from Astoria Manor in Astoria Queens!
Myself, amongst the many pieces of gear I own but as far as Alesis products are concerned; 2 XT's and 2 LX's, Both the S-24 and S-32 boards (Pls don't ask me why; it's a Looong story !!)
several LRC's, a 1 BRC, and the dreaded 3630!
My next 2 purchases (and my LAST 2 purchases) will be either a 32x8x8 Ghost or a Topaz board and finally the HD24.
BTW, my friend just paid me back the $5.00 he owed me and now my "HD24 Savings Fund" now stands @ $98.00 !!!
I'm gettin' there slowly but surely!!!

[mnicoletti]

Hi, Skippy,

Thank you very much for your thoughtful and reasoned message. You are so right on. It has been rough not having the personnel to support our customers: dealers and end-users. Our Director of Sales has been calling dealers daily (literally) to let them know where we are. The sad fact is that the info that Dealer Management gets either rarely gets down to the floor salesperson or (worse sometimes) it was like "playing telephone" and the message is in need of serious "error correction". If dealers say they have canceled their Alesis orders, that is true in some cases. An order placed that does not ship ties up a dealers "open to buy", and that money cannot be used for other orders. These dealers have assured us that they will reorder when we are ready to ship (and we are resuming now, see below). We will do everything we can to make those orders happen. Personal commentary: many of these dealers do well for us and with us, and I hope they see it is to their advantage to continue with us.

To make matters worse, there were a few days when we were closed. When UPS tried to deliver and found us closed, they checked "Moved" or "Out of Business" on their stickers. That was JUST what we needed: dealers, end-users, and service centers getting gear returned to them with those messages. Not a good way to stop the rumors, let me tell you.

Things are a bit brighter already: UPS and FedEx have resumed shipping from our warehouse, and we started getting new units in yesterday that will be QC'd and shipped to our dealers in the next week. The chapter 11 is scheduled to end Wednesday.

I'll keep the info coming.

Thanks,

Mike