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Ever feel like a "low dollar" customer that your dealer doesn't think worth their time?

I'm a careful researcher for audio gear and I also understand the value of brick and mortar stores. I am not OCD and I am not an irascible haggler. Indeed, I have told my local stores that if they carry something I like, I will buy from them and not try to find it cheaper on the net. I have purchased major pieces of gear from them.

Nevertheless, one local shop is erratic in how it treats me. Emails can take a long time to get acknowledged, and often exchanges take several back-and-forths to get clear questions answered. This shop sells gear at my price point and up to 10x more (think Wilson speakers, $7k power cords). I often feel I'm more like a fly buzzing around their heads than a valued customer trying to establish a customer-dealer relationship. I am trying to be loyal, but it makes me want to shop online. I could be reading the situation wrong, but this is definitely a pattern.

Has anyone else had the sense that they were too much of a "low dollar" customer to be worth the dealer's time?
128x128hilde45
jpainter236's avatar
jpainter236
115 posts
 
ListenUp, here in Albuquerque was superb in delivering my Magnapan .7's.  I have four systems and there was never an issue.  Thanks Shawn.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
When I worked High end audio or audio at all, I always fully entertained those who had not the cash. Even the teen kids. No problem. 

They’ll be back, if you treat people right. One must always look good in their minds. They all eventually find themselves in the ’I know this guy, this great guy who knows some stuff’ mode, and they come to you.

This is the way it should be. Sadly, not often is.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,788 posts
 

@bomd, I too have found Echo to be cool. I had been at the old location, and recently accompanied a friend of mine to the new store in Beaverton when he went there to get a new belt for his Pro-Ject turntable. Though it was only a (iirc) $20 sale, they treated him as if he was a valued customer.

Their demo rooms were well treated acoustically, unlike the NW shop you mentioned. In that shop I heard the worst demo I've ever experienced, of the excellent Magnepan 30.7 (the first stop on Wendell Diller's North American tour), which should have sounded great but didn't in the shop's atrociously bad room. It was like a cement bunker, with no wall treatment.

big_greg
6,623 posts
 
Kurt put a lot of thought and money into the listening room at the new place and is justifiably proud of it. The downtown location was a little more convenient for me coming from out of town, but I really like what he's done with the new space. 
french_fries
815 posts
 
OK you may think I'm a snob, and that's fine with me. I love music- all kinds just about. But I am a Gear-Head as well. I found the "snob-shop"
in town which carried B&W and WILSON (and even some Goldmund). 
I wanted B&W 801 Matrix speakers ($5,000) so badly, but didn't have the nerve at first to spend that kind of money. But the more I thought about it and their crystal clarity (over what I had) and bass down to 20Hz with the bass-alignment filter, and took the plunge. Then of course (as predicted) nothing that fed them was any good, so piece by piece I started upgrading. The day I came home with a Goldmund DAC (over $3K) sweet music began pouring out of my speakers. But now I needed a good transport, and then instead of a Hafler Amp I bought a used Levinson 23.5. I was spending a whole bunch of money, but I got to audition everything and take my time between purchases. A Rowland
demo preamp, better interconnects, a better turntable and cartridge, etc.
and I was finally getting CD's (the evil culprit to all of the problems with the digital revolution) started to sound more like vinyl all the time.  
Fast forward many years later I was growing unhappy with the 801's when I heard Eggleston Andras that appeared at snob-central. I was blown away and got the floor demo. We're talking $14K for speakers and I matched them up with Levinson 33H mono blocks. But my point here is not to brag, but if "I" can hear a huge difference in what a component is able to do (especially with classical music), I take as much time as I need to get the money and then I just go out and get it. Lately I have not gotten anything new for some time, but I still collect new music just like always. But I am into gear, end of story. Performance counts, and some stores have amazing systems if you're polite and buy an album and talk like you know something about what they sell, it goes a long way. People that come over might ask me how many watts my speakers have, and I tell them that they're designed to let you hear more of what's in the recording. If that's not a sufficient answer, then it's just too bad- I'm a snob and that's all the answer they're going to get. But if they show they understand, then I will spend time to explain further about how my system is configured. I always end with the fact that I love Led Zeppelin, too (I really do!). But these days Vivaldi really brings a smile to my face.

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