Have you ever been turned off by an Arrogant Dealer? Thoughts

The list of turnoffs is a long one, but the closest to arrogant I have seen was really more elitist than arrogant. Or greedy. What is the word for when they radiate the impression you aren't worthy to lick their shoes? That you should write a check or better yet shower them with cash then make an appointment to see if they will grant you an audience to negotiate your worthiness to hear one of their magical marvels. That one. Hey maybe it was arrogance after all!

Yes, I mentioned on another thread that a dealer wanted $250 deposit just to talk about what I needed and wanted. I walked out and I will never return. In this day and age for a dealer to be arrogant, unhelpful or dismissive is just plain dumb. There are so many other places to buy equipment. 

In 1978 I made the trip into Manhattan from Stamford, CT to visit Lyric HiFi. I wanted to purchase a Dynavector 20B homc cartridge ($240). I arrived at Lyric's uptown store and was met at the vestibule by Mike Kay the owner. When I told him what I wanted he sized me up as a peon not worthy of his time. He did sell me the Dynavector 20B - but would not let me into his store!!! What a pr*ck!

I will play Devils Advocate here. So many people use the remaining bricks and mortar stores to audition a dealers wares, and then buy it on the Internet, that instead of perhaps considering them as retailers, some of them wish to be viewed as consultants.  Think of them along the Financial Planners model.  Some Planners charge a yearly fee based upon your net assets.  Others base their fee as a percentage of the assets that they actively manage.  Others charge a straight hourly fee for their advice, the same for Princes and Paupers.  In this case, the audio dealer could argue that he is some sort of hybrid of these models.

  Where this analogy breaks down is that a FP can discuss multiple products without having to physically demonstrate anything, a high end audio dealer has to have a physical product that we can listen to.

  I would appreciate a dealer whose model is the following:

1) Charges a flat fee, for a defined time period (say, yearly) for their advice

2) will demo, as part of that service, components that they may actually have in stock, and charge the usual markup should you choose to purchase from the dealer (the dealer would presumably provide additional troubleshooting service above and beyond what the manufacturer can provide).

3) the dealer would provide access to many other manufacturers who can then ship components to the dealer for the customer to pick up and return to do home auditions.