hmmm....
this whole thread is absolutely fascinating. Amazing the corporate greed of some of these people. It's so funny that you can type in the words "oxygen free copper" on wikipedia and get a perfectly sound explanation of why it's nearly pointless at room temperature to get one type or the other - and there's monster cable, pretending to be scientific or some crap (99.9% free guys!! come'on! it's gotta be good!!). Do they even have a R&D department at monster or do they just hire by the "i know this guy that needs a job" trick that so many business' use...

Yep, you sure can back up your stuff. I'm impressed. Same with bitflipper. Some seriously good tidbits there. Wish I could just download your guys' life experience into my brain before I turn into one of those PPP's ("popular product pushers") at Guitar Center. Yikes, to think some people get blinded by all that whizbang semantic stuff. Makes me a little sad.

i made a little link in the kvraudio forum. i think its good to bump this issue as much as possible seeing as how monster cable doesn't seem to be losing any momentum...
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=192231

maybe they should have their own law firm? you know... MONSTER LAWSUITS INC. or something to that effect. It seems there getting good enough at it.

wow i just found this too. not only is monster guilty of extortion (essentially) but they lie in their claims for product specs! Absolutely amazing...!!
if this isn't in an in-depth enough comparision of a Monster product than i don't know what is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGO8owSOmvw&mode=related&search=

okay just one more link...
this kind of serves as a counter point in some ways, interesting little video showing Noel Lee in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZhsPEHajvY&mode=related&search=

Glad to see this thread is still on page one. It needs to be, as an educational service.

This thread shows the word has not gotten out, even among this community.

Thanks for that YouTube link, Josh. Love that "EMI detector".

ORIGINAL: yep

ORIGINAL: Catphish

Monster Cable CEO Noel Lee defended these actions by saying "We have an obligation to protect our trademark; otherwise we'd lose it"

He is correct. And whether they win or loose doesn't matter. It's not about winning, it's about protecting their trademark, and it's basically required of them by trademark law.

Please read what we are talking about before posting rubbish like this.

Monster is not protecting their trademark. They are filing extortionate shakedown lawsuits. Suing Cookie Monster is not required of them by law.

Really, truly-- this is not some hippy-crunchy anti-corporate thing or loony left conspiracy theory. This is not people over-reacting to a legal campaign that accidentally crossed the line or overshot the mark in a few isolated cases. This is a deliberate and orchestrated effort to extort money from legitimate businesses, large and small, who have done nothing wrong and who have never threatened nor infringed upon Monster's trademarks.

Follow the links to the trademark office website. Take a look at the actual documents. The offense is egregious.

Cheers.

Agreed, here is a list off of Wiki...none of these could ever possibly be mistaken for Monster Cable:

* Monster Garage
* Monster House
* Monster Energy Drink
* MonsterHTPC
* Snow Monsters (a kid's skiing group)
* MonsterVintage, small used clothing store
* Monsters, Inc., an animated feature film
* Monsters of the Midway, a nickname of the Chicago Bears football team
* Fenway Park's Monster seats
* Monster.com employment website



When I first heard of this, they were suing some very small business that made hand puppets that looked like, yep, monsters. Needless to say, I wouldn't have Monster Cables stuck up my A** if I had room for a sawmill.

-Bruce

I have been wondering why all the other owners of businesses with the name "Monster" in their description haven't banded together to file a class action lawsuit against Monster Cable.

ORIGINAL: FLZapped

I have been wondering why all the other owners of businesses with the name "Monster" in their description haven't banded together to file a class action lawsuit against Monster Cable.

I think it might be because most are busy trying to make a living. One of the things I noticed is that a lot of the businesses targeted are small businesses (Federal Judicial tort records) who don't have the financial capability to fight the financial giant that Monster Cable has become. The other is that I think that most of these businesses are unaware that there are others suffering under the weight and financial burden of having to hire legal representation to fight their own cases. For the most part a lot businesses are isolated within their own island (market) with little to no contact with other merchants.

But from my understanding there seems to be a large backlash amongst those in the music industry both hobbyist and professional. The right tack to take is to reduce the funding for this type of behavior. And boycotting does just that. It's bad corporate behavior and greed that is fueling the desire to shake down innocent businesses.

IMHO monster cable has overstepped the bounds of what is legally reasonable by trying to enforce the dilution principle of the Monster brand by suing businesses that are definitely outside of the realm of audio cables. It's outrageous to think they can monopolize the word Monster which is a commonly used word in the English language no matter what continent you are on.

In the end I am with Bitflipper and Yep. It's the only reasonable response.

On another note regarding Guitar Center. I've dealt with them for years and never had any issues. I deal with one guy in the store and that's it. Every time I move to a new city and I need equipment I find the one guy who listens to me and what I want. I get a great deal (I never pay the stickered or the internet price, i.e, got a Jackson RR5 for $700), he listens to why I like this or that and never recommends anything to me. It's worked for me for 25 years. He even stays late or comes in on his day off to help me out when I let him know that I will be coming in. I guess what I'm trying to say is it's all about relationships. And it happens to work for me.

On another note regarding Guitar Center. I've dealt with them for years and never had any issues. I deal with one guy in the store and that's it. Every time I move to a new city and I need equipment I find the one guy who listens to me and what I want. I get a great deal (I never pay the stickered or the internet price, i.e, got a Jackson RR5 for $700), he listens to why I like this or that and never recommends anything to me. It's worked for me for 25 years. He even stays late or comes in on his day off to help me out when I let him know that I will be coming in. I guess what I'm trying to say is it's all about relationships. And it happens to work for me.

Absolutely. Once you've established a relationship with "that guy" you only have to have the "I don't buy Monster" talk once, he won't try to push those products with you. He'll already know that you're a knowledgeable buyer, that you don't need handholding, and that you don't respond well to being pitched.

The problem, of course, is that staff turnover at GC is very high, so "that guy" may not be there when you return.

I have found that the independent music stores (those few that remain) have less turnover, so it's more likely "that guy" is still there. Their inventory may be more limited, but most of the time they can order things for you that they don't normally stock, and most of the time they can match GC's prices. They'll have to take a lower margin to do it, because nobody else gets GC's wholesale prices, but they usually will take that hit to retain your business.

True the turn over is high and usually the guys I build relationships with last about a year to a year and a half, sometimes two. The commission structure is all about push this product or push that product. I always tell them straight up. "You won't be able to make as much margin on me but you will with the next person that walks through the door. So let me tell you what I want today."

I've tried the local merchants and just haven't been as satisfied. They retain people longer, as around here most of the sales people are also the owners. Part of my problem has been instant gratification of going down getting a new guitar, amp, software or whatever and being able to get it home to play or use.

I guess it all boils down to what you are willing to put up with in building the relationship and what you expect to get out of it. hmm that came accross as rather crass.

I was in Best Buy the other day to pick up an HDMI cable; the only brand they had in stock was Monster, so I went to a different store. It occurs to me, that perhaps I should have informed BB of my decision.

Maybe it would have more impact to notify retailers that we won't purchase Monster products; if retailers wouldn't carry them as the primary line, or would at least supply other options, not as many people would buy them.

I buy from the small local store whenever I can, and I almost never ask them for a discount. Those guys deserve full margin, at least as far as I'm concerned. Why should they have to stretch to compete with GC on price when GC won't make an effort to compete with them on service and the overall shopping experience? I'd rather go to GC than order online, because I believe in keeping my money local, but they don't deserve to take business away from my neighborhood guys just because they can whore product out for a lower price.

Back on topic, though, I thought it would be okay to buy a Monster mic cable from my little indie music store. It's a decent enough cable, and it was probably a fair value for the money. Then I found out that Liberty makes mic cables. I thought it was so cool, I ordered mic cables that I didn't even need. With home made guitar cables, TrippLite power products, MIT, and Liberty mic cables, I need never buy another Monster product.

ORIGINAL: yep

Well, in fairness to Radio Shack, they are a running something of a niche business in terms of their connectors and adaptors and cables and such. That kind of stuff is the kind of thing that you typically have to make substantial margins on in order to justify keeping on hand.

No, they're running a sinking ship is what they're running. But that's neither here nor there and their atrocious business practices, terrible marketing strategies, and shameful treatment of their employees is not a subject I'll begin ranting on about in a thread where we should all be concentrating our disgust towards Monster Cable. Anyone that really wants to know about RS can research it on their own.

ORIGINAL: Jessie Sammler

Another point about Monster's pricing and margins is that not everyone who sells Monster Cable makes as much money on it as Radio Shack does. In JB1592's example, the Tandy Corp. would have a gross margin of about 87%, if the Radio Shed really paid $8 for that $60-retail cable. Small indie dealers, on the other hand, might have gross margins along the lines of 50% for Monster Cable (less on power products), which still might seem obscenely profitable to some, but differences far less than that are usually what spell the difference between making a profit and going out of business.

There's no need to defend RS. Well, not this time anyway. I wasn't complaining about their margins on this particular product, I was making a few key points:

1) The barely more than generic wholesale cost of Monster cable would indicate that there is little to no difference in manufacturing cost between the store brand and Monster. That would similarly seem to indicate little to no difference in quality.

2) The ENORMOUS margin that Monster offers is why they've managed to saturate the market so well. Once it was proven that consumers would pay such ridiculous prices for cables given the right marketing, it was a no-brainer for retailers to carry them. A HUGELY profitable item that the manufacturer spends a ton of money advertising for you and that people will be naive enough to buy... what's not to like? If I was running a big business, I'd carry Monster. It's not the retailers fault, it's good business sense.

Incidentally, Tandy Corp. doesn't exist anymore. They became RadioShack Corp. (NYSE:RSH) quite a while ago.