Frankly, over the past year I have bought many items directly from the Manufacturer (Fi, Wright, Cain, Pass).
Pass sells direct to the customer? Do you mean drop ship to a customer through a Dealer? If Pass is selling directly to a customer, and I was a dealer, I would drop his product from my store.
The current dealer system is the most useless thing to me: An 2 hour in-store audition under unknown environment just does not help much; a 2 day at home trial is better but not enough either. A longer at 30-60 day at home trial with reduced prices from the start (as there is no dealer needed then) sound much better to me.
Maybe in your area, not mine. The two remaining dealers in my area will check out a piece of demo equipment for a home audition. Screw that waiting for something that is being shipped. I'll take the local dealer first over mail order.