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
Give it up folks! Retail Hifi is dead as a doornail and now the virus has sealed the coffin.
Pretty all small retails will die....

Neural link for audio and for those who will afford it, the rest will buy Amazon speakers freely delivered  to your door off course....

:)


@denverfred 
Believe me, the guidance you will get in well-managed stores has as much to do with what’s in stock and its gross margin as it does with satisfying your needs or desires.
Oh, one other thing: audio salespeople are not there to entertain you. They’re there to do business and you can hardly blame them if they ask you for an order before you split.
So true. It is a tough business to be in and probably only for those with a real passion for the hobby. 
I look for many manufacturers to jump on the direct sales bandwagon. We should all pay attention to Paul Barton's interesting business model out here high in the Rocky Mountains. He's got no local shops, factory direct, and a generous trade-in policy linked to The Music Room--where, IMCE they make a really slick presentation and even a newly constructed SHOWROOM. In addition, PSAudio is nearby with more show-and-tell.
Maybe I'm too old and idealistic but I think this plan will work really well if they can ever get a handle on realistic pricing for used gear. 
I'm really not sure we should expect to continue paying 1/2 off MSRP for stuff that's really getting kinda old--though working fine at sale.
Admittedly, the market, and "late stage capitalism" will eventually impose its will but I'm afraid a lot of us old timers won't make it past the mountaintop. It will be a while before audiophiles will appreciate any price benefit from this process of "cancelling" a very large part of the audio industry. Sad to think of how many of we AGrs have depended on retail audio for much or all of our lives.
By Paul Barton you mean Paul McGowan, I think. Agree with your comment. I'm in same region.
Sorry, yes I meant Paul McGowan. Pretty big error.
Thanks hilde45 for catching me half asleep.