Long-Re: AROC's "Alfa Service Directory" published in "Alfa Owner"

[Alfa Romeo Search and Rescue Society <alfabill@domain.elided>]

JHertzman@domain.elided wrote with poise and perfect grammar:
> 
> In AD7-510 and again in AD7-511 Colin Verrilli, responding to a particular
> parts query, writes "Try one of the many authorized parts suppliers in listed
> in the Alfa Owner."
> There is an element of ambiguity about this list. There were some complaints a
> few years ago that it seemed to be something it wasn't, i.e. something more
> than simply a listing of paid advertisements of businesses, some of which were
> authorized dealers and some of which were independents. The response at that
> time was that it was a list of companies which had demonstrated the
> seriousness of their devotion to serving owners of Alfa Romeos by paying a fee
> to be listed, (which suggested that anyone who didn't pay the publisher wasn't
> interested in providing service to owners), and that there was nothing
> literally deceptive about it.

	As an Alfa Romeo dealer representitive, I disagree with the lack of a
statement that the list is paid advertisement. It is. Furthermore, no
one from AROC has ever asked if we wanted to advertise in the Owner. I
understand it is $400 per year to be on the list, but that is 3rd hand
info...
	As far as the statement about disinterest in serving the
customer...sounds pretty arrogant to me. 
> 
> The complaints at that time were resolved by coding each listing with either a
> cross indicating that it is a factory authorized provider, or a cross and
> asterisk indicating that it is the ONLY factory authorized provider in that
> state, or a pair of asterisks indicating that it is an independent facility.
> Just twenty-three states are represented.

	Alfa Romeo Inc. has informed me that there are over 90 active Alfa
service centers in the USA. Saying that the the only ones listed are the
only authorized centers is, in fact deceptive unless it is true for that
state.

	If anyone is in question, they can call Alfa Romeo Inc. at (407)
856-5000 during business hours and find out who is the center nearest
them. Alfa Romeo also has non "dealer" repair shops that are approved to
do work for them that they can direct an owner to in a pinch. Granted
the folks in Orlando are not the most aggressive when it comes to
initiating talking to the general population [:o)] but if you approach
them, I have found them more than accomodating with whatever I ask for,
within reason. {They said I couldn't import a 156 piece by piece... Yes,
I asked...} 
> 
> If you reverse-engineer the listing you can recognize that something is
> missing. North Carolina, for instance, has just one firm listed; it is
> indicated as a factory authorized provider, but NOT as the only factory
> authorized provider in the state, so there evidently is (or are) factory
> <snip>
> In a previous incarnation "Alfa Owner" published, without any implied club
> endorsement, member recommendations of shops individual members had found
> highly satisfactory; members serving fellow members, which is one of the
> things a club can be about. Dave Hammond of the Detroit chapter has published
> extensive lists of resources, without listee payments, as a service to members
> of that chapter. What "Alfa Owner" is doing with the "Alfa Service Directory"
> is selling advertising space, which is proper enough, but which should not be
> construed as something more than that, such as a service to the membership.
> This is simply a listing, by state, of of businesses which paid a fee to be
> listed.

And should be listed CLEARLY as such.

> 
> There are just twenty-seven factory authorized providers listed, in nineteen
> states. There are at the very least eight other factory authorized providers,
> if the list's coding is correct, and probably more. If someone with good
> contact with the company in Orlando (Yo, Bill?) could spring a complete list
> of factory authorized providers and publish it on the digest it could be a
> useful service to those of us who sometimes need to venture out of familiar
> territory. And while I support and recommend membership in the club, this
> would be doing something for alfa-digest readers which the AROC does not chose
> to do for its members.

That's a 30% representation. (27 out of 90) I have a printout already in
the works for the Alfa dealer list, as I am trying to get online with
the company that handles many dealer parts ordering systems, including
Alfa and I need the disks to load onto the computer.

I can certainly make it available to the digesters when I'm done...

It's not a matter to come down on AROC, but an ad is an ad, and should
be labeled as such.

My $.02.

AlfaBill, king of Spam, a flavorful processed meat product :o)
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