atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems ESI Telephones & Systems Dealer Feedback - New Phones

Sooooooooooooo

Any thoughts from you guys on the new phones? ... i like the instruments themselves...

BUT ..... i hate the fact that i now have to pay $20 more per phone for my customers to be able to have 15 or 20 DSS keys....

Seems to me in a recession this is a tough pill to swallow... i can't see charging any more so in a 20 phone deal i just lost $400 or $500 of net profit... i don't like it!

Why would you eat the difference? Just look the customer in the eye and say "My cost is $20 more per phone, that's what I'll charge you".

If that's a deal breaker, then it's broken.

Carl

I would eat the difference if i don't feel there is room to raise my prices and still be competitive.

I understand what you're saying.... i guess i was really looking to see what the other ESI guys thought. I loved the 48 key phones... TONS OF BUTTONS which is what customers seem to want.... now i have to quote the 60D phones.. which are the most expensive.

I like the phones themselves... just hate to lose margin or raise price... one of which has to happen.

I too do not like having to raise the prices. It is extremely competitive here. I like the phones also, HD, Buttons, Look.
I noticed Ipitomy did the very same thing.

I was curious if any of you ESI dealers has encountered one of your local competitors (Non-ESI Dealer) selling new ESI Comm Servers?

Noooo .... have you?

I would notify ESI .... they frown on that ... unless they have signed them up as a new reseller.

ESI tech support is awesome.... it should be easy to discredit any non dealer selling ESI .. they won't have access to TS.

Any chance they are a sub?

I just turned in a bid on an ESI-600 ESI-Linking to another ESI-600 accross the street. We are the only ESI Dealers in town. There was only 2 allowed offerers to bid on this project, me and the other "new" local competitor.
He quoted an ESI-200 and told the client he was getting it through one of his "sister" companies.
I did call ESI, they acted as if they were not happy either. They asked to find out the ESI Dealers name he was getting it from and they claimed they will cut off his/her dealership, void the warranty on all the equipment and refuse tech support, and refuse to activate any license.
Today is suppose to be the day they award the bid.
It looks like he is the one going to get the job.
He did not list any sub's on his bid proposal form as requested by the clients bid spec's. So we will just have to wait to see the results.

Did you tell the customer? .... i would suggest strongly to them that they verify in writing that they will be able to access tech support from the manufacturer... and the reason why.

Then have ESI email you a letter saying you are a dealer in good standing and they will provide you support on equipment you install .... the other guy won't be able to do that.

How can they possibly buy a solution from them under those circumstances?

The regular 48 key phones will still be available to support all of the ivx platform. The 48 key back-light will be discontinued.

I just got a copy of the Email from Jason at ESI where he sent the customer a letter stating the outcome should they purchase from a Non-ESI Dealer. So it's a waiting game now to see how this turns out.

Let us know ..... if they end up buying a solution without adequate support i would try and make a stink somehow.

I seem to be confused. We can still get the 48 key phones right? I have not seen an "end of life" release on these.

48 keys are now listed in the legacy portion of the pricing list. They will still be around for the foreseeable future to support the IVX line. The 24 key phones are sill in the current portion of the pricing list.

I did an install this week with the new 60 key phones. Gave the customer a choice of 48 or 60 key phone and she chose the 60 key and paid the extra charge. Glad she did. Love the fact that I dont have to spend my time doing desi strips and love the visual voice mail feature. Hope to sell only 60 key phones with the Com server.

As far as the non ESI dealer selling Com Servers, ESI should cancel the dealer that allowed that to happen.

I'm very impressed the way ESI seems to be standing up for its dealer.

I have installed a few of the new phones, here is my take.

The ESI 40 phone is a sharp looking phone, basically the same cost as the 48 Key but has 31 keys, 16 programmable. IMHO, that is still plenty of buttons for all the unique features you want to put under a button. The desi on the 40 phone is also much easier to manage and will take less time to deploy. I like the phone and give kudos to esi for this phone. Hey, if you have a user that needs more buttons you can hook up a DSS to this phone, or for that user give them the 48 Key phone. The 48 Key phone is still available and from what I am told will be for quite some time.

The ESI 60, this phone is a back lit, full duplex phone, compare that to the 48 key that is back lit and full duplex, the cost difference is minuscule. Since this is a Desi-Less phone, installation of this phone will be less time, more than makes up the additional cost. This phone also has other benefits the 48 Key does not. Kudos again to ESI. Also on the IP end, there is a Gigabyte phone available, this is a must have going forward in the IP sector.

The 24key phone,
Price in line with a down and dirty phone, good move keeping this phone around.

Overall,
I like what they have done, the new line of phones are great, when I present all 4 models of phones, 60, 40, 48 key and 24 Key, nobody chooses the 48 key, at least not in the last 5 sales calls I have been at since the release of the new phones.

I am anxiously awaiting the Beta release of the color video media phone, I have played with a few others from other manufactures, from what I saw at the roll out, all I disliked about the ones I have played with, ESI has addressed, that phone (if priced right) will be a deal closer, especially if you know the pitfalls of the other like phones on the market. I overheard Doug say that ESI (time of the roll out) had already invested over a million dollars in R&D of this phone.

Walter spot on. I am also awaiting that phone too. Just such a great idea.

I like the new ESI-60 due to no desi labels mostly and the menu for dss keys is cool, seems a little slugish though going between menus and visual voicemail is nice but seems to lag.

anybody try copy and paste yet on the 60D...I made a mess ( again )it seems like the viewing area is not big enough to do a click-shift-click...it didn't work.

Brian,
I have not tried the copy and paste on the 60 or 40 model phones yet, however I did try today to do a copy and paste on the 48 key phone and it didn't work either. I just upgraded the SW to 16.5.37. When installed it was 16.5.28 and and I was using Version 1.2.14.7 of ESI Programmer and the copy and paste worked then. But now using Version 1.2.14.13 of ESI Programmer and System SW Version 16.5.37 the copy and paste won't work.

Paul

Check that x.5.37 software...get the latest x.5.40 ( .37 has a bug if you use 24 key phones )

Thanks, will do.

The website only has x.5.37 posted. I will call to get the update.
Thanks

have tech support send the link...

So far I haven't been able to get the copy and paste to work on the new sets. I had to use the system apply button. It copied all the buttons over on the 40D phones too!

I'm not that impressed with the 60D after a couple of months of daily use.

The visual voicemail, which is a nice idea, actually brings this phone to a screeching halt when you try to use it. Tremendous lag between what the system is telling you and what you can see on the display.

Audio quality, while greatly improved over the 48-key, is still nowhere near the level of a basic Polycom IP550.

I do like the overall form factor, and hopefully the lag is something that can be addressed with a firmware update. My gut feeling is the processor is to blame, not the firmware. (unfortunately)

LatuFu- are you using the Digital or IP version?

one thing I found is if you change feature button names like 'CO 1' to 'LINE 1' or 'PG 1' to 'GREETING 1' on a power cycle it reverts back to the default name.