Charge for TT setup?

The very fact you are questioning this says it all--clearly you're not delighted by the prospect, and you shouldn't be! Were I a retailer, I'd be thrilled to have this dealer as my competition. Their lack of common sense is stark--they will jeopardize the long term potential of a customer that can afford to drop $6 large in order to collect another $100? I would be tripping over myself to please a customer with your demonstrated purchase power so that it would never occur to you to shop anywhere else in the future.

I understand the outrage but I'm curious about what constitute a retail price. Is the price just for the physical item or that includes the set up service. If one retailer does it, does that mean all others should do the same? I don't trust other people setting up my gears so I never expected set up to be included. Maybe I should. It's something I never thought of before so I'm curious too. Since I know how time consuming it is to do a QUALITY set up, which is part of the fun, I wouldn't dare to ask someone to do that for me for free. If, for example, this dealer or technician makes $25/hr and spends 4 hours on it, paying him $100 is fair. No? If a friend does it for me, I would buy him a dinner. It's just a hypothetical question because I don't know the audio business behind the scene, plus I haven't bought anything at a shop in years!

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On a $6K table there WILL be ample margin to at least include free setup. And if they're at all competent, it won't take much of their time to do so, and do it properly. The dealer sounds rather stingy to me, unless they've got those $6K tables flying off the shelves, and are utilizing every minute to fill the next order.

This is one of the services that a good local dealer should provide (along with GREAT systems you can audition in person), in order to build strong relationships that will withstand the onslaught of temptations from e.g. audiogon and online discounters.

I agree with the majority here who feel that the dealer is being petty, especially when it seems like you are paying full retail price for the table and arm. I could somewhat understand the dealer's price gouging if he had cut you a 20% price break on the new VPI table, but paying full retail he is just being petty about $100 fee.
I'd buy from someone else just to show him the power of the consumer.

This dealer is making over $2k profit on the table. He's being a chazer. And you knw what they say about pigs? They get slaughtered.

In the county where I live there no longer are any hifi dealers. We had one- carried excellent gear too. But he nickel and dimed customers, collected sales tax on magazines (not taxable in my state) lied to at least one customer i know who had a cd player ( bought from this store for $2k) that needed repair (he said it was not repairable) and offered to sell him another cd player (the cd payer was fixed by a tech who found one bad solder joint) and drove himself out of business. I was glad to see his store go.