2. amps-preamps
  3. 1154037172

Can I expect to pay full retail for a new system?

In six months I plan to make some major purchases of new equipment that are each in the $10k range or above. Do dealers discount this kind of stuff? I want to do my homework before I venture into a store.

Krell, Audio Research, Magepan ect., When these mfgs show a retail price of say, $10k, is that what the dealer will stick to? On a $10k listed product, is there an unwritten window of say, $1k that the dealer will reduce his price to? Do dealers generally lower their prices for a sale?

I purchased an Audio Research PH5 a year ago at full price, and at the time, it never occurred to me attempt to negotiate a lower price.

Does audio etiquette allow for initiating a discussion of a lower price with the dealer....or is this uncool.

Your comments will be appreciated...thanks.......mitch
128x128mitch4t
jea48
4,453 posts
 
The form of your payment shouldn't matter overly to the merchant when it comes to giving you a discount to earn your business. If they don't employ a check guaranteeing service then they'll incur a slightly higher transaction cost when accepting a charge, and that might affect the bottom line discount they're willing to negotiate a little bit.
Zaikesman

About 2% to 3%. That is what the credit card company charges the merchant when a credit card is used for payment.
steveaudio
331 posts
 
Honest1, I agree, Paul is a good salesman at the snooty Audio dealer in Waltham. The other one you mentioned, once ragged on my than-current gear (loudly) in the lobby of the store, & in full hearing of other customers & employees. And some of it I had bought from those guys at their previous store !

BTW, I just bought a 3 m.o. pair of speakers & stands (that they sell) for $3350 w/shipping on audiogon. List price (that they always insisted on with me) is around $5775. Plus sales tax. And the audiogon seller has been way easier to deal with......
jea48
4,453 posts
 
Why on earth would anybody want to deal with a snooty audio dealer and pay him money for being an ahole. Occasianally I have to deal with rude customers, damn if I will spend my money dealing with a snooty prick. Just my 2 cents....
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superhonestben
199 posts
 
On the subject of discounting and retail stores telling customers that the manufacturer won let them discount...is 100 percent illegal....and furthermore no manufacturer can terrminate a dealer for discounting.
steveaudio
331 posts
 
I don't know why some of these stores don't have "Snooty Audio" as the name of their store. Or, "Snotty Pretentious Audio" maybe. They should do a sketch on SNL, with a pompous salesperson (played by Will Ferrell perhaps) insulting all the customers & sneering at their current gear......

It reminds me of the time an audio store in So. NH tried very, very hard to sell me a set of $10,000 speaker cables.......for speakers I had paid $2500 for, & an amp I'd paid $1000 for. Apparently, every cable they had for less than $10,000 just wasn't quite good enough.....
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