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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What are you doing? Did you see that? Do you want a coffee? Why? Where does all the water come from? Why can't they fix this road? Are you kidding? Do you reckon it's going to rain? How about lunch?
Oh sorry, you mean questions people frequently ask us........
ACCOUNT PAYMENTS
SETTLEMENT DISCOUNT
PRICES,
AVAILABILITY,
CURRENT RRP,
APIC UPDATES,
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION/FEATURES,
EXTRA DISCOUNTS,
OPENING HOURS,
WARRANTY,
BAGPIPES,
BACKORDER,
UNIQUE BRANDS
OTHER BRANDS.
What is my buy price on a .....?
Since this is a publicly accessible website, we aren't about to let everyone know our trade discounts. You should refer to your terms of trade in our agreement or call us for the discount structure for our products.
Is it in stock?
At this stage, we do not have the facility to have users log-in to see our stock levels. We try to carry all of the most popular lines consistently, but manufacturers can't always supply us immediately. We receive regular shipments from most of our suppliers, so most items will take only a few weeks to come into stock if they are temporarily out of stock.
Regular shipments:
Hohner (Germany) every 4 weeks;
Buffet (France) every 4 weeks;
Trevor James (UK) every 6-8 weeks;
Denis Wick (UK) every 4-6 weeks;
The more unusual items/instruments are often made-to-order by our smaller manufacturers, eg Vancore vibraphones, and bulky items are usually sent by sea-freight
which adds 6-8 weeks to delivery time. So if your customer wants a Gb Garglophone, let them know it will probably be 12 - 16 weeks and make sure you get a deposit at the time of ordering (we can't send it back, so neither can you....).
What's the current retail on a....?
We will be updating the prices on this website on a weekly basis, or simply call us
for current info (that's what we're here for). Catalogues (both digital and paper versions) are unfortunately not so easy to keep up to date due to printing and distribution times. We do our best to keep prices stable, but in an imports-based industry like ours we are at the mercy of exchange rates, fuel prices, insurance and freight charges.
There are two main influences on the changes to Recommended Retail Prices in Australia: 1. Cost of Manufacture; and 2. Exchange Rates. Click here to view a brief discussion of these.
Prices are subject to change without notice. Errors and omissions excepted.
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Is the price I just saw on APIC correct?
We send regular price updates to APMC for APIC updates, but again there is a time-lag due to data transfer and disc distribution times. When in doubt, check this site or give us a call for up-to-the-minute info.
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Does the Gb Garglophone have two or three spoons on the intake manifold?
Our product descriptions are of necessity brief, so for further info go to the manufacturers' websites as listed on the Links.html page or call us on
02 9636 7111.
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Can I get an extra 247.38% if I buy two of these......?
NO!!! Having said that, we are sometimes able to improve your margin under certain circumstances, usually if you have been a good long-term customer. We offer the best margin from RRP in the business on a regular basis on all of our items, and we occasionally need to clear stock.....see our specials sent out with your statements or by email (always worth a look).
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Can I call back you on Sunday morning about this...?
We are open from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm
Monday to Friday. We are closed for public holidays and for annual holidays over the Christmas/New Year period from the 24th of December until the 2nd of January.
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A customer just brought back a garglophone that's not working. He's only had it for 11 years and his last one kept going for 25 years. Is it still under warranty?
All products carry a 12-month warranty which guarantees them to be free of MANUFACTURING faults for that period. This does not cover normal wear and tear, consumable parts nor reeds of any sort (harmonica or woodwind). Please give items a thorough inspection at time of purchase and ALWAYS use a suitable harmonica testing device before sales of harmonicas. For health and safety reasons, harmonicas and reeds should not be played before selling. For futher info, go to our Warranty page.
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Sorry, no bagpipes. Try the Pipe Band Association for suppliers.
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We ordered this months ago, why is it showing up now?
We endeavour to supply your business with the items you order as soon as possible, but sometimes things are delayed by supply or logistical problems. Any items that can't be supplied immediately are listed as backorders on your invoices. If in doubt, please call us to discuss likely ETA of these items. If you don't want to have items going to back order, please let us know.
Try to keep a record of backorders so that you don't double up on ordering - we can't know whether a new order is based on need or oversight. You can cancel backorders at any time except on special order products (we will inform you of this at the time of ordering or the item will be marked as such in our catalogue).
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I just Googled "garglophone" and the only reference to it was on your site...what's going on?
We want to bring you the best range of products at all price points in order to be as much of a "one-stop-shop"
as possible. For instance, when you are looking for a Compensating 4-valve Euphonium for a customer who has a budget under $10,000.00, none of the major brands we carry (or pretty much anyone else for that matter) are able to offer a suitable instrument. So Jac and Frank Smits, two of the most respected instrument technicians in Australia, visited a variety of factories in Asia and Europe to find the best-made gear loaded with professional features normally only available at top prices. These are then sold to you as the M. Gerarda and Jacob Smith brands. They are not always the absolute cheapest instruments of their kind, but they are certainly the best.
Though we are not unique in offering these kind of "home-brand" products, the knowledge of instrument-manufacturing and experience as players of our staff makes our instruments the best value in the industry, so much so that some of our international suppliers have asked us for assistance in sourcing high-quality, low-cost instruments to complement their own ranges.
As part of our continuing quality improvement process, we have suggested many modifications to instrument features and to production and inventory procedures at the factories that supply us. This enables us to bring you and your customers the best possible instruments at affordable prices.
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Do you guys have Farnarkling Zithers?
It's always worth giving us a call or sending an email about anything you can't find anywhere else. Our sales team have a wealth of knowledge and experience in the music products industry, and if we don't carry the item or something similar, we are happy to pass on the information about where you can get it.
(thanks to John Clark/Fred Dagg for the word "farnarkling")
How do I pay my account?
Go to our Terms page to see details. You can use Electronic Funds Transfer, Credit Card, go to the bank with cash and deposit it to our account, send a cheque, however you like.
Can I claim settlement discount for on-time payment?
Kurt Jacob & Co does not offer (and has never offered) Settlement discount for on-time payment of accounts. Instead, we offer the best discounts in the industry all of the time, and trust that you will pay your account in accordance with our Terms of Trade agreement. We are here to help you, so give us a call if you have any questions about your account. Remember, your account is payable 30 days after the End of Month of statement issue. This means you have up to 60 days from invoice date if you purchase on the first of the month.
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Factors affecting RRP
1. Cost of Manufacture. Manufacturers of the goods we import and distribute usually increase their ex-factory prices to us on an annual basis. These rises are more often that not reflective of several factors within the country of origin, mainly the inflation rate, Consumer Price Index or similar. Our suppliers purchase their raw materials from other suppliers who, in turn, are contracting for those materials in US dollars. When the value of the US dollar decreases, as has been the case recently, the cost of the material goes up on the commodity markets because the value of the dollar is linked to the price of gold, and the value of other materials reflects this. For example, the spot price for gold has increased from around US$500 per ounce in December 2005 to US$1395 per ounce in December 2010 (http://www.goldprice.org/gold-price-history.html): an increase of 179% or 35.8% per annum.
The copper price has had more of a rollercoaster ride, but here is a graph of the previous year's activity up to December 2010: 
This graph shows an overall increase to 14 December 2010 of about 33% in the copper price. When combined with the other cost increases of inflation etc this has lead to our manufacturer suppliers increasing their ex-factory prices substantially over the past 12 months. Hohner, for example, have issued new prices on August 1st, 2010 and December 1st, 2010, and have also informed us that there will be another price increase on April 1st 2011. Hohner have faced a "double whammy" of having to buy US Dollars with a decreasing value of the Euro as well as increasing commodity prices in US dollar terms.
All of the above leads to upward pressure on Recommended Retail Price in Australia.
2. Exchange Rates. The Australian Dollar has been a "star performer" on the international exchange markets over the last couple of years, meaning that its value against the gold standard has remained relatively stable while most of the major currencies (particularly the US Dollar, the British Pound and the Euro) have plummeted in value. During the height of the GFC in 2007/8, the "aussie" lost about 30% of its value before recovering and then holding its own. This has seen the value of our currency reach all-time highs against the Euro and its highest value against the USD and GBP since it was floated in the 1980s. Great news for anyone importing goods into the country, but not so good for exports.
This has lead to downward pressure on Australian Recommended Retail Prices.
The Reuslt? In most cases we have been able to leave our RRPs unchanged over the last 18 months or so as we can absorb the increased ex-factory prices from the Cost of Manufacture as a result of the improved AUD Exchange Rates.
We can only base our cost prices on landed shipments from our manufacturer suppliers, not on daily exchange rates. Where we have landed shipments and the above factors have worked in our favour we have been able to decrease RRPs in some cases (e.g Hofner guitars).
Provided the global economic conditions remain pretty much as they are at this time (December 2010), we do not envisage having to increase RRPs during 2011, and will continue to offer price decreases where possible to try to ensure that Australian Retailers remain competitive with their overseas counterparts.
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