I´m sure the folks at TT Germany would have found a solution if you would have asked. Whilst I have occasionally not been exceptionally impressed by their stuff (at other occasions I have), I have always during the last six years found the TT staff by mail, by phone and in person (be it at their store at HQ or at bike fairs) very friendly and solution-/service-oriented. I have dealt with them on a high number of occasions to equip my Africa Twin, my KTM 1190 Adv R and my wife´s Transalp.

You will have to understand and accept that their business model is to have distributors in certain countries which they most certainly have to protect due to contractual obligations, through which they do regular business, which is everything but odd (French specialties such as payment are well known to any traveller trying to purchase gas from a gas station outside daytime Monday through Friday without a French payment card); but it would utterly surprise me if I would not be able to receive help for e.g. urgent spare parts and accessories from my local German or the local national TT shop if I am on the road abroad. Should your Dutch TT distributor prove to be unhelpful (I cannot see from the Dutch website nor from Google Maps that at the TT Netherlands address the TT distributor is in fact (only) a BMW dealer) - I am surprised you did purchase from the German website although TT offers a Dutch website for its Dutch operations anyways - a call into TT HQ would most certainly have helped. Have you ever contacted TT France regarding their ability to serve you in English?

Regards
Chris

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I hear your frustration !

I thought the EU was all about free trade for people in Europe but Touratech seem to have their own rules.

If I want Touratech stuff by mail order I have to buy from Touratech UK - but then it pains me to look at the UK pricing vs other countries.......

One bit of good news, however, is that some Touratech stuff is available via your friendly local KTM dealer - and it can be quite a bit cheaper !

For instance the alloy pannier boxes are (from memory) about £30 or £40 cheaper (each) than if you buy from Touratech. But if you want a lock set for the boxes they are way cheaper from Touratech !

It's worth shopping around !

As Walter mentioned it's a franchise. The EU is a Tax union (and many other things) which means that you only pay value added taxes in the country where you buy the product. But the manufacture is not bound by any laws to sell to you...


Casper

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I only wonder : "what is the EU stands for? What does EU means ?" In this case !

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EU = European Union
EC = European Community, which was the the predecessor of the EU

In this case the the EU have nothing to do with anything. TT is a company which runs it's business how they decide.

Casper

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So, as suggested by others already: If you don't like how they sell/distribute their products, go elsewhere (there are plenty of other vendors who ship Europe and Worldwide) or don't bother at all, as most of the TT catalog is just tat anyway.

If you really do "need" TT stuff, check the companies who make items for TT (like Kahedo) and buy it direct from them, probably for less. TT just adds their logo and adds a premium to the OEM price.

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TBS.com

I avoid TT stuff for a long time already. But the only product I like is their panniers. And they make this them self (if I'm right).

I called Kahedo and ordered a remake of my seat. Completely black and with a Kahedo print in the material. So no strange (ugly( gray part in the seat with TT printed on it. Its only cost euro 300,00 and euro 20,00 for shipping straight to me!!

TT answered at my (emotional) email Later in this threat I explain the solution.

Thansk for Your reaction

The TT business is not for travalers who NOT travel outside their own country!!!! If things break, They won't send You the necessary stuff. You always need to ship the stuff twice.

It means an EU seller has the right to sell his products to anyone within the 28 countries.

It does not mean an EU seller MUST sell his products to everyone in the 28 countries

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TT forbids his resellers to sell to people who not live in the country where they are reseller.

This is protectionism.

I think it's even illegal, but sorry, I'm not a layer specialist in EU laws.

So a traveler from Holland who is traveling in France may NOT order in France.
So a traveler from The USA who is traveling in Germany may NOT order in Germany.
So a traveler from The Germany who is traveling in New Zeeland may NOT order in New Zeeland.

and so on.....

My interpretation of this company rule of TT in Germany is this:

This means travelers may not travel outside of their own country.

Put emotion in the discussion:

Touratech hates travelers who travel!

No. Protectionism is when the Government puts rules in place to discourage or forbid imports to protect its own manufacturers, workers, farmers etc.

Whats more, every single country, every single government in the world practices protectionism. Every single one. This is hardly the place to complain about it.

So ... protectionism is (1) something that governments (not companies) do and (2) Its not only legal, its universal.

What private companies do as a matter of internal policy to protect different franchises cannibalising each other is not protectionism. Its completely normal for a company to guarantee a certain territory to a particular franchise. If you bought a McDonalds franchise, you would NOT expect McDonalds to allow another guy to set one up in the next building to yours, selling big macs at a cheaper price, would you? When you try to register your kid at a school, they absolutely have the right to say "you do not live in our territory - go to a different school that services your area". Again, its totally normal for that to happen.

Its life. Stop getting worked up about it. You don't have the right to demand a company supplies you with goods ON YOUR TERMS.

You DO have the right to take your business to a different company. I suggest you do that.

Well this is clearly rubbish - either you are a fool or you are deliberately not telling the truth. If you want the item shipped to France then you simply order at the Touratech France website. They don't care if you are a traveller from Holland or not. Its not relevant. You said in your first post that you don't want to order from the French website because its 4% more than in Holland, because you dont speak French and because you don't like their method of payment.

So the problem is YOU. Its YOU who doesn't want to order from the French website. How on earth can you justify saying a traveller in France can NOT order in France? You are talking total rubbish. I am not interested in defending Touratech by any means, but for crying out loud, this is a ridiculous complaint.

Touratech's business model is poor, outdated and not customer friendly. (1) We know all that (2) That does not make it illegal (3) You refusing to follow their system does not mean they are restricting you (4) Shop somewhere else and be happy.

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I a previous life I have been involved in working out the EU regulations specially selective distribution etc.

The answer above hits the hart of this "problem".

1) TT can sell whereever they want in the union.
2) They can not make a difference between customers from different countries.
3) Each filial or franchise is protected in their region or country as far as it concerns promotional and marketing activities.
4) No filial or franchise can refuse to sell to anybody but they can refuse to service (in this case sending the product) outside their region.
5) Fixed pricing is FORBIDDEN!! so the pricedifferences ar logic. 20 years ago you wouldn't notice, but nowadays on the WWW you see it. Price differences are also explainable, having an building and paying wages in Spain or in Holland is not exactly the same.

GRTZ,

JP

It is a common and legal dealership/franchise practice.

If a man walks in off the street and wants to buy the stuff in the window you need a pretty good reason not to sell to him. Unless you are an arms dealer his nationality is pretty much none of your business.

If the same bloke rings from outside your geographical area you can just refuse to ship there. I don't want the hassle of trying to send stuff I sell on e-bay to some place the postal service operates on a Jumble Sale system, so you can't deny a TT dealer the same choice.

Nothing to stop anyone with an EU passport or similar flying to Hamburg and going shopping at TT. Doesn't mean you'd want to when you can see how they take the ****, but I don't want to pay Norwegian prices either.


Andy

It's worse up here, price for an IMO:

Germany: 449€
UK: 617€
Norway: 781€

It would have been cheaper for me to order the part to a hotell in Kiel, bring my gf with a cruiseship to Kiel and spend a night at the hotell then to buy it in Norway.
I even had to wait more then a month for the part, it was in stock in Germany...

Anyway, I wrote a mail to TT and got no answer.

Hi Guus, Sorry to hear you are having so much trouble with TT. I have no involvement with them as you know, but we did meet up with Yvon Bodelot down in the Aveyron last September if you remember. Yvon is the TT franchise owner in France, based at Orange, actually not too far from Montpellier. ( 100Kms) ZAC Porte sud 356 r Roussanne BP 124 84104 ORANGE Cedex. Yvon@touratech.fr. I am sure he would be delighted to hear your complaint!! ( he speaks excellent English).

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