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?
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@fdroadrunner I love your story. Especially in the age of the internet, you can never know the difference between a "local" and "regular." It makes sense this happened in Omaha, where I’d expect people to be nicer than they might be in, say, New York (where I’m from, so I know). But as MillerCarbon points out, money can change even nice Seattle folks into keepers of dens of privilege.

@Rushfan71 I have also had good dealings with Brent Jessee about tubes and was surprised to get a nice notes back quickly from Don Sachs, Kara at DeHavilland, Quicksilver, and Vandersteen himself. Some of these sell direct, so you can almost expect that direct response (still, they deserve credit). Others sell through dealers and yet there they are — keeping friendly dialogue going. These folks all know that the audio community is not *that* large, that these are often passed down, and that folks talk to one another.
Back in 1977 I went to Lyric HiFi in NYC to buy a Dynavector 20B mc cartridge. I wasn't allowed into the store! I had to wait in the foyer while the cartridge was brought to me (factory-sealed) and I paid with cash! That was my first visit to Lyric (run by Mike Kay). My second visit several years later was even worse (posted a few years ago)! 
As a former owner of audio stores, I can vouch for the absolute stupidity of some in the business of audio retail.
Not only for the rudeness stand point, but the total dismissal of future business because your nose is in the stratosphere while your brain is in a tire rut, is certifiable lunacy.
"Did you ever feel like the whole world is a tuxedo and you are a pair of brown shoes"? - George Gobel