Andrews Communications

Australasia's No.1 and largest amateur radio dealer! We stock and sell far more amateur radio equipment than anyone else in Australasia!

Factory direct importing from dozens and dozens of factories world-wide.

*** New! Baojie BJ-88 2m/70cm dualband DTMF handheld transceiver due early August...A$149 !! *** SIX (6) YEAR genuine Australian warranty applies to all new Icom amateur radio transceivers we sell from 11-11-09! *** SIX (6) YEAR genuine Australian warranty applies to all new Yaesu amateur radio transceivers we sell from 19-03-10! ***

Mail order specialists. Contact us now by phone, fax or mail to order!

Prices subject to change without notice due to exchange rate variations.

Super-heavy duty communications towers photographed by Lee, looking towards the sun (over the horizon) near Ivalo, Finnish Lapland, about 230klm north of the Arctic Circle, at 2pm on 6th January, 2010. Temperature was -35 degrees C. Yes, all communications systems continued to operate perfectly.

WARRANTY SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

ALL NEW ICOM, YAESU, ALINCO AND KENWOOD PRODUCTS SOLD BY US INCLUDE OUR PIONEERING 3-YEAR PARTS AND LABOUR WARRANTIES!!!

ALL NEW ICOM* AMATEUR RADIO TRANSCEIVERS SOLD BY US FROM
11-11-09 INCLUDE OUR PIONEERING 6-YEAR PARTS/LABOUR WARRANTY

ALL NEW YAESU* AMATEUR RADIO TRANSCEIVERS SOLD BY US FROM
19-03-10 INCLUDE OUR PIONEERING 6-YEAR PARTS/LABOUR WARRANTY

YES, OUR THREE-YEAR PARTS AND LABOUR WARRANTIES APPLY TO ALL THE RESPECTIVE BRANDS' PRODUCTS WE SELL AND IS NOT LIMITED OR RESTRICTED ONLY TO RADIOS. ALL ACCESSORIES ARE INCLUDED, TOO! YES, BEWARE OF THOSE WHO RESTRICT WARRANTIES ON ACCESSORIES!

All new Icom, Yaesu, Alinco and Kenwood equipment sold by us (Andrews Communications Systems) is warranted against defects in material or workmanship for a period of three* years from the original purchase date. This warranty is limited to repairing or replacing only the defective part/s and is voided if the equipment has been modified, misused, substituted, damaged or operated outside the specified operating parameters, conditions and duty cycle, etc. Customer-caused damage is not covered by warranty, of course.
Warranties are not transferable and we don't offer replacement warranties.

Please do NOT write <fragile> on anything you send to us as doing so greatly increases the risk of damage. Please try to "double-box" all items sent to us.

NOTE: Warranty repairs are completed by us at no cost to our customers - of course! Simply include a copy of our receipt and a note describing the fault condition and your contact details when sending the product to us. We retain two of Australia's best amateur radio technicians. We have excellent service information, including service information which is dealer-restricted. Our worldwide suppliers support us to the absolute maximum.

Proudly supporting amateur radio by providing the lowest prices, stocking the widest range of products and introducing the longest warranties - since 1976.

*********************************************************

CHARGEABLE SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Contrary to those competitors who seem to have draconian chargeable service policies, we offer the following policies regarding chargeable service;

1. We accept faulty products without regard to their original selling source!

2. A repair form is not required. Simply tell us your name, address, phone number and state the fault with the product prior to sending us the product.

3. We normally do not charge a fee for those repairs not completed.

4. Our service warranty is for a period of three months from the date of completion of repairs and applies only to those part/s of products we repair.

5. Our service warranty applies to all products, regardless of their age!

6. Our labour charge is only A$99.00 per hour inc. GST and is charged in 1/2 hour increments. Our minimum charge is A$49.50 inc. GST, i.e. 1/2 an hour.
Why pay A$220.00 per hour for repair service elsewhere?? Yes, A$220/hr.! Hmmm, that means if you accept a warranty of one year less you could, potentially, be paying up to A$1,928,520 - based on A$220/hr over one year.

8. We do not provide quotes. We work to pre-agreed limits or estimates.

9. We normally do not charge an inspection fee, but there are exceptions.

10. We reserve the right to limit the quantity and type of products accepted.

11. Our repair success rate is around 97-98%. It is not 100% because some parts can be impossible to obtain or the product is uneconomical to repair.

12. We repair to original factory specifications, or better!

13. We recommend you don't send your radios or amplifiers to major importers for repair or testing without first checking with us. You may pay far too much.

14. We no longer repair AM CB radios due to our heavy work load.

*********************************************************

INSURANCE AND SHIPPING NOTES

Insurance cover for goods in transit is available from us for only $1 per $100 value of goods, although we charge $2 per $100 value of goods when goods are express mailed. Please advise us if you require this option when ordering.

Please consider insurance because we are not responsible for loss of parcels or damage sustained by parcels - the carrier is responsible! We do pack well!
Please do NOT write <fragile> on anything you send to us as doing so greatly increases the risk of damage. Please try to "double-box" all items sent to us.

We will normally post warranty-repaired products from us back to you in Australia at our expense. It is your responsibility and expense to send/bring faulty products to us. In Australia, it is normally the purchaser's responsibility and expense under warranty conditions to pay for freight/postage both ways.

Please note that we will charge you for the cost of sending your radio and/or accessories back to you - if they are found not to be faulty under warranty conditions. We are receiving an increasing number of radios and accessories being sent to us under warranty claim which actually prove to be faultless.

*********************************************************

***ATTENTION NEW ZEALAND AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS***

We have regularly attended New Zealand amateur radio field days and have often airfreighted stock in for those field days. We greatly appreciate the response we receive from our valued New Zealand customers, every time!

We attended the 2009 Wellington Radio Expo in Upper Hutt, which was held on Saturday, 28th March, 2009 and thank all those who purchased from us!

Most new amateur radios purchased from us include our 3 year warranty!
We have airmailed, airfreighted and seafreighted to New Zealand for 34 years!

Why wait weeks or months for delivery and pay high prices in New Zealand for your new transceiver, then be forced to settle for only a one year warranty?

E.g. We can airmail you a new Icom IC-7200 to New Zealand for A$1250 (with bonus 23A p/s), without Australian GST and including airmail costs! Adding NZ GST of 12.5% makes a total of A$1406, i.e. about NZ$1800. Why pay the RRP (Ridiculous Retail Price) of NZ$2500 in NZ and not get our 6 year warranty???
Airmailed parcels average one week delivery time to New Zealand. Strangely, Icom NZ won't accept NZ amateurs importing Icom amateur radios, even though NZ is a western country which pioneered parallel imports! Is that why they sell under 1/10th the amount of Icom amateur radios compared to us?

We accept payments only in Australian dollars - including by credit card, etc.
Please ensure you have sufficient funds or credit when ordering by credit card as we no longer phone overseas to advise customers of failed transactions.
Also, please double-check your credit card details, etc., before ordering!
Please ensure your fax machine is operating when requesting us to fax you.
You are responsible for freight both ways when sending us warranty repairs.

Australia Post offers three services beyond airmailing; signature upon delivery, tracking and "extra cover" (insurance). These services are; Express Courier International Merchandise, Express Courier International Documents and simply Express Courier International. They cost more than airmailing. See www.auspost.com.au for more detailed information. Prices listed may vary.

*********************************************************

Lee's blog continues ad infinitum...

We are proud to parallel import in order to offer you the best prices and best warranties in Australia. Did you know that many years ago most amateur radio warranties were valid only for a 3 month period? Thankfully, when parallel importing became popular due to the high prices and short warranty periods offered by some factory subsidiaries many prices significantly reduced and warranty periods increased. A very good example of high pricing is the Icom IC-706MkIIG. Its retail price (RRP) was set by a factory subsidiary at over A$3,600. Parallel importers reduced its price dramatically to around A$1,200, i.e. one-third of the original RRP. Isn't true and open competition wonderful?
What about dualband handhelds being sold at many field days often for one-third of their RRP? Is that fair to amateurs who paid triple for their handheld?

Andrews Communications was indeed instrumental in creating increased benefits for Australian and New Zealand amateurs! Amateur radio factory subsidiaries are here to make a profit. They are not here for a holiday or for their health. Many would love to force parallel importers out of the market so they can maximise their profits and market control. Many will not sell to heavy discounters. Therefore, most heavy discounters became parallel importers. We now sell more product than all of our amateur radio competitors combined.

We introduced ALL of the longer warranty periods on all the major brands of amateur radios - and we hold more stock than any amateur radio competitor!
What's your dealer done for you, or to advance amateur radio in Australia? Almost all of our product upgrade suggestions are adopted by manufacturers!

Professional parallel importers don't fraudulently claim to be authorised dealers. Some misinformed competitors think professional parallel importers claim to be authorised dealers. How could parallel importers legitimately claim to be authorised dealers? Why would they want to do so? The same competitors must think you're less intelligent than them when they attempt to explain everything to you in very simplistic and repetitive terms - believing it's their civic duty. Sadly, those same competitors misconstrue many things, so they often fail miserably to explain everything correctly and properly, anyway. Their so-called "Great Retail Price Debate" must be a figment of their imagination as we have never discussed such a debate with anyone, ever!!

We challenge all competitors to increase their warranty periods if they wish to truly compete. However, authorised dealers may not meet approval from their factory subsidiary masters even if they want to increase their warranty periods. Actually, some competitors seem unable to repair even a crystal set by themselves so they really should not increase their warranty periods at all.
Also, why settle for as little as half the warranty period elsewhere?? We are very well experienced in technical repairs as we have successfully repaired over 30,000 radios and related accessories during the past 34 years. Our technical officers can easily repair even the most complex transceivers. We most certainly don't need to justify our outstanding repair service record.

Most competitors rely totally upon factory subsidiaries for all warranty and chargeable service. Speaking of chargeable service - does A$220 per hour sound fair? Many competitors are like puppets - controlled by their factory subsidiary masters. Many operate stores similarly to convenience stores. Many have little technical knowledge or skills - they are simply "box sellers". A few years ago, an overseas factory sent their area manager to Melbourne to report on a factory subsidiary's manager. That subsidiary's manager was found to be operating the business as if it were his own. He was told he must resign or be dismissed. He resigned. The "master's master" was in charge!!

Some have delusions of grandeur - which are most certainly ill-founded. Some even want you to join their club so they can feel more important in the world. Some enjoy staring at their useless sales plaques earned by selling products for around 1/10th of the profit that factory subsidiaries earn. Maybe they like working for slave wages? Some are one-man shows. Some while away their time endlessly downloading music from the internet. What good are they?? Some believe they're big dealers but we have conclusive proof they import around 1/10th of the radios/accessories we import - excluding telescopes!

The only reason that so-called authorised dealers can compete with parallel importers from time to time is because they whinge to their factory subsidiary masters that they must have lower dealer cost prices. We sell below their dealer cost whenever possible. If customers aren't happy with product prices within Australia they can simply import those products or become a dealer!

Luckily, the three main amateur radio dealers don't even need to make a profit selling amateur radios as one has sold greasy old car parts for 20 years, one claims to have won millions by gambling and another imports container loads of telescopes by seafreight. Amateurs have never been luckier in this regard!!

If we are unable to repair under warranty a product then we (at our cost, of course) will then send that product overseas for repair. This is a very rare occurrence, as our service technicians are amongst the best in Australia. We repair products our competitors can't repair even after their several attempts. In addition to our massive library of service information, we have access to restricted service information which local authorised dealers cannot access.
We repair products to factory specifications - or better, wherever possible!

It has come to our notice that a major brand's factory subsidiary is now averaging 3 months for warranty repairs. Another major brand's factory subsidiary had a minimum (yes, minimum) warranty repair period of 3 months for many, many years. So much for factory subsidiaries' warranty service! Yes, factory subsidiaries are not God-like, even though some think they are God-like. Those ones would really like everyone to believe they are God-like...

Some factory subsidiaries (and some dealers) incorrectly believe same-brand products are second hand simply because they didn't import those products. This is only their ill-informed belief. Products which were not sold overseas to the end-consumer, then imported, cannot be deemed to be second hand - even if that may be the ill-informed opinion or belief of factory subsidiaries or dealers. We have received our barrister's qualified opinion in this regard. The ACCC has successfully prosecuted many factory subsidiaries, btw. We always report competitors who engage in anti-competitive conduct to the ACCC.

Most factory subsidiaries are shipped product at the same pricing from their factories, regardless of the final destination (country) of the products. Those factory subsidiaries then set their profit and pricing to their requirements. Sometimes, they set prices lower so they don't pay company tax within the country they operate. Btw, Yaesu has recently completed worldwide retail parity pricing for their amateur radios and this pricing revision was done without regard to the amateur population of any particular country. Fortunately, parallel importers don't need approval from factory subsidiaries to import and sell products - so you pay less and enjoy true competition!

Amateur Radio