I gotta ask everyone here, do you trust anybody with absolutes in sound? Common guys you are end result, regardless if anyone can sell you one concept or another its all about your knowledge of how a sound, or system you want should be developed, ALL A DEALER should do is make sure you get your Price point if possible and within reason, Support your Concept and opinion of view and just guide you toward the items they believe will help, whether they think it is correct or not(sink or swim) cause sound is far to subjective, and return the unit after you find 3 days or 30 days later that its not the right thing for you and have no questions beyond how can we move you to something different that will be livable and happy in the end for you. A note to Dealers: Bottom line FACT most guys with the decent hiend shops have gone to a FLAT out no return or No money back, credit only system and of course that scares away guys that know you can purchase the item for 40% less online or used and simply take LESS of a bath if they decide to re-sell on sites like this great audiogon.com or ebay... Hell half of us would not have gotten this far without online and about 9 out of 10 of us could be even Less happy with our systems if we only could have that 6 product lines available in our area by a couple of dealers. That being said You Dealers want to have a viable reason for existance again, well thats a place to start. I do have to say I understand the risk of letting customers return and not be stuck buying another product from you is a tuff and possibly dangerous business but to get me back into local shops this is what I look for... Most if lucky will tell you okay if you take this item for 10,000$ on friday we give you 7 days, then charge you and its all credit if you bring it back after that.
Well to me thats tuff, hell I might think its great the saturday I pick it up, not even really get the time put in to hear it much more by the following weekend and then I'm screwed.
This is something I see occuring more than maybe you guys know but it exists, so ask before anything else whats the return policy.
Of course if you Special order an Item well thats a very different story, but even then you can go direct to manufacture in that case many times and they will audition it to you cost of shipping back and forth and save you the mistake, Dealers simply have less options in this respect and I sympathise, but thats the way the Audiophile brain works Cinematic_systems, not that you are guilty of this but there are much deeper problems with local retail than even you might think about because you are on the other side of the Coin(or money) Rant over.
