Demos - To Charge a Fee or to Not Charge a Fee?

I’m with danager.
I think that talking about a fee is really dope.
It’s the quickest way to go out of biz.
There are too many places that offer free returns a price matching now days to set up as a nickel dimer. If you can’t keep the lights on get out.

And there were way too many places that went out of business being nice guys to 'tire kickers' who come in armed with dreams and promises.
Only the guy who's not serious about buying would really bellyache about helping the guy who pays rent, lights, goes to trade shows, reads the trades, buys & finances stock and pays employees only to be the last guy paid when you finally buy the speakers after 12 visits.
The reason he can't keep the lights on has plenty to do with the entitled little mindsets of sneaky little non-buyers who need their wives permission to buy a CD, using his store, his time and his merch.
That said, I do think the $10 an hour thing is a little cheesy. I'd rather rent you the equipment.

"Sorry- but the dealer mark up includes the cost of doing business and that includes marketing."
This is where it gets sometimes gets messy.
The often beleaguered dealer can find themselves between a rock and a hard place
What to do then?  
Relationship break up leading to any or all of the following?
Exaggerated mark-ups?
Increasingly fancy cabling and accessories suggested?
Suggestive language and smooth persuasive sales techniques?
Prejudice and rudeness towards certain customers viewed as 'timewasters'?

In the meantime the customer might begin to see the dealer as a stuck up mercenary with both eyes on the monthly sales chart who is only out there to exploit.  

I'm sorry, but have you ever said to the place where you get your paychecks, 'no boss, I don't want this $1,200. Gas for the car only cost me 20 bucks this week and I'm just happy to do the work to provide service with integrity and see to it that customers are happy. Give me $600'?
Of course he's a mercenary! Do you think he took a second mortgage out on the house and came to work in the morning to stroke you?
You bet I'm going to kick out the time wasting tire kickers. It doesn't take long to qualify a punk who ain't buying and I don't waste time and pay my bills with time wasters.
No one does. You want someone to be nice to you?
Call your grandmother.

@gents
You bet I’m going to kick out the time wasting tire kickers. It doesn’t take long to qualify a punk who ain’t buying and I don’t waste time and pay my bills with time wasters.

For sure!

My dealer has given me some screaming good deals over the past 20 plus years, along with great customer service. I stop in occasionally as a tire kicker to see and hear what’s what and he’s happy to accommodate—he knows I’m not an impulse buyer and there’s a good chance I’ll come back and drop some dough. He’d probably pay me the $10 to get me in more often. Lol

@gents,

"I'm sorry, but have you ever said to the place where you get your paychecks, 'no boss, I don't want this $1,200. Gas for the car only cost me 20 bucks this week and I'm just happy to do the work to provide service with integrity and see to it that customers are happy. Give me $600'?"


I guess I've been fortunate in that I've never been in a position where I had to work for money alone. I was always easily bored, so the work came first and the money second.

I've mainly worked in the public sector where I was able to provide some kind of service to our 'customers'. For sure, employers can drive you crazy at times, but I'm working with them, not for them.

My real employers are the public that pay the taxes.

I've never been particularly ambitious either. Perhaps I should have been more ambitious and have made more money by now.

Sometimes, in my Walter Mitty type moments I've regretted not being able to do more to help friends and family financially by alleviating some of crushing grind of poverty some of them found themselves in.
Even with a generous welfare system like the UK's, that can sometimes happen.

For me a good life is one which you try to fill with fun and interest, and do some good for others along the way.
Let's not also forget that, as far we know, this is a one way journey where each and every moment only comes round once.

Previously I've always been on the side of the customer, always trying to get the best deal, the most 'bang for buck' but hey, guess what?

Dealers are people too.

bslon

... My dealer has given me some screaming good deals over the past 20 plus years, along with great customer service. I stop in occasionally as a tire kicker to see and hear what’s what and he’s happy to accommodate—he knows I’m not an impulse buyer and there’s a good chance I’ll come back and drop some dough.

Exactly, and I've had similar experience. As with many businesses, relationships matter. That is sometimes overlooked by those who are only seeking the "lowest price." The irony is that - because of the kind of customer they are - they often don't get the lowest price. Not in the end.