Explanation of "Pricing Discussion" Rules

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jbeletti

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Updated: 25-Mar-2015

The post below is from 2007. The only change from then to now is that the forum is owned by Heartland RVs. The pricing discussion policy for "new" Heartland RVs is still in effect.

Jim Beletti
Admin





In another thread on this forum, a question was raised on why the Heartland Owners Forum does not allow Heartland trailer pricing to be posted.

The Heartland Owners Forum remains privately owned, yet, we enjoy a very high-level of factory involvement. This involvement is in several areas. A few areas are:
  • Forum - Few owners forums of any type, especially RV manufacturing, have access to the factory from within the forum with the ability to ask questions and get answers. In our case, actual product managers get email notifications when posts are made to the Ask The Factory (ATF) forum for their own product.
  • Customer Service - Heartland's Customer Service Department has been approved by Heartland to monitor and reply to posts on the forum. Heartland has also approved forum management to post phone numbers for various factory departments.
  • Owners Club - Heartland has asked me to develop and run the Heartland Owners Club. Heartland plans to support the club in many ways.
  • Rallies - Heartland supports various rally activities throughout North America. This is a large expense of money and time for them and they support these functions cheerfully.

The point being that the Forum and the Factory are joined at the hip in many ways. Each serves the other.

For dealerships, it's a competitive world. Each only benefits when they sell you a trailer. When they begin to see their pricing all over a forum that has ties to the factory, they become uncomfortable. If we allowed pricing to be posted, at some point, one or two dealers would begin to dominate by offering the lowest pricing. That sort of thing would undermine the entire dealer network. Only when an extensive dealer network exists, can the full offering of sales and service exist - and exist across North America.

So the factory has kindly asked me to steer clear of a forum model that becomes a clearing house for Heartland trailer pricing. Considering all that we as product owners receive from Heartland, this was a request that I felt we could comply with.

That all said, be aware that there are many ways that you may still discuss pricing amongst yourselves. PMs and Emails via this forum are two ways. Other forums is another way.

Thank you for your understanding of this matter and thank you for your compliance.

Jim Beletti
Owner/Admin - Heartland Owners Forum
President - Heartland Owners Club
 
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