Convincing your local dealer to let you try speakers at home

I've had mixed results, mostly positive, but it's been 20 years since I did a home audition.

I had a local dealer that I had done business with for a long time, that would let me take home any speakers he had for an extended period, e.g. 1-2 weeks.

There was another local dealer from whom I bought my most recent pair of speakers, who would let me home demo only if I paid a fee.  Part of the fee was refundable if I bought the speakers, and part was not.  The dealer was not gonna deliver nor set up.  It was the non-refundable part that made me balk.  This was after auditioning several pairs of speakers in the shop, and deciding which speaker brand I wanted.  I wanted to home demo the floor standing model first, and if that didn't work, the bookshelf model.  The odd that neither would work seemed unlikely given the size of my room.

I ended up buying from a distributor I had dealt with in the past.  He shipped the fairly large speakers from St. Louis, and a dealer from Austin who happened to be vacationing in SF (I was in Marin) came over and set them up.  If I didn't like the speakers, I just had to pay for return shipping.

Well, let’s face it: convincing a dealer to let you audition speakers (Full size not half speakers aka “bookshelves”) at home is very difficult. Unless the dealer is a friend, not just any dealer. Much easier with cables, components, etc.

@hilde45 the place your refering to is mostly used gear. I wouldn't think there would be a problem.  Even the music room will give you 14 days. Sure you need to plunk down the money first but they don't get upset when you  return something.  I live right down the road from them and pu and return so there is never any shipping charges.  

I've has two experiences - one bad and one good.  When I purchased my Focal Electra 1027  speakers in 2007, the dealer where I auditioned them was a jerk. He wasn't ready when I drove 60 miles for our appointment. He ended the session after 45 minutes and wouldn't  let me take them home on approval. So instead of paying him $8,000 for them which I was willing to do for his time and trouble (which was very little), I bought them new online for $5,000 from Canada.

Recently I purchased some smaller bookshelf speakers from Upscale Audio. They have a 60 day return policy, no questions asked. I did return the speakers and got my refund (but had to pay to ship them back).  I don't know whether that applies to big ticket items but I was pleased with how I was treated.

@styleman UpscaleAudio is one of the best companies I ever dealt with. Super nice, knowledgeable, easy going.