"High end" store snobbery

@cleeds

I could not get better rate, because I’ve never had credit card. Even despite my clear and sound mortgage history, the bank doesn’t give me good rate. Many sleeky dealers start to explain about different pricing bs and different "dealer fees" etc...

You must understand me that hitting one dealership like that I dialed Mercedes Benz customer service to file a complaint and the rep herself advised me to call factory direct and shared her personal experience.

A call to factory direct sales got me a free airfare ticket and hotel stay for a week for the starters just to feel the difference instead of hustle here in our beloved USA.

Back in the day if a salesperson was a jerk I didn't buy from them, that simple. For me the internet replaced Salons years ago.  I have never had a product sound the same in my home as it did in a store.  I was a member here for years and quit.  I re-upped last year.  The people in this forum help is assemble all my system since 2001.  User reviews for me were the way to go, professional reviewers are in it for the money and freebees.

years ago, at a local shop by me, had same experience, rude, arrogant people, like pulling up in a pickup at a Caddy dealer, they just don't care.

 Brought my ol trusty Sunfire 300 *at the time"

hooked up to snell, B and W, klipsch, etc, brought a few cds ( i had already been to the shop, and felt the ice on my baBrought a Exit 13 CD with me "ethos music"

played a few songs, asked for some volume , next song was "An Electronic Fugue For The Imminent Demise of Planet Earth" which is a full pure max volume of just noise (do not play loud) search it, and imagine the open jaw when this tune started with a high volume on their speakers.

Based on 40 years of experience, Hi Fi dealers often tend to be kind of rude, but once you make friends with them, things often change.

I live in Milan, Italy, and I must say that the old Hi Fi dealers in my city (this was in the Eighties and Nineties - they have all closed since), where terribly rude, with very few exceptions.

I remember parking a brand new Porsche in front of a well-known dealer downtown Milan and, when I asked them if I could audtion a specific product, which I knew they had on display, they told mw to come back another day (the store was empty).

They lost a good sale.

rude is never good...but how many hours have members here spent auditioning gear in stores, knowing they would buy it used on Audiogon...very different then when stores only had to compete with other stores...