I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some incredible people in this business. The folks on this forum, may only represent 5% of customers I’ve worked with (yes, it’s about 5%), but for the most part, all have been excellent and very professional.
The challenge for most dealers are not the genuine members here, it’s the time wasters. The guy who asks you for 35 quotes because he changes his mind like the wind and then buys nothing. The calls that start out, “uhhh….what’s your best price on a Hegel 390?” Or those who are not genuine. They call and talk like they are genuine and sincere, waste lots of your time talking about the same nonsense, “oh, so you would say that the Pass is the most natural sounding of the two amps, but what about how it does with strings?” Meanwhile, you’re thinking, “we’ve had this same conversation 900 times.” Then he buys nothing. Ever.
Don’t call from Canada to a US dealer and expect they will sell you anything or waste time.
Don’t call a dealer if you’re just looking for the best price. Most today won’t play that game. Work with your local dealer or one you trust and pay them for their expertise and time. Remember, this is a journey, not a sprint and building a long term relationship with a dealer is key.
Dealers love to work with people as consultants, not clerks. We love calls like “I’m downsizing my system and thinking about going with an integrated. What do you recommend?” We can then engage about their room, speakers, budget, etc. Much better than picking up the phone and the guy says “yeah, what’s your best price on a Hegel 390?”
Don’t block your number and call a dealer. We won’t answer. We know what you’re doing.
I could write a novel on the time wasters (NONE HERE). We had one guy who called and said “I have an Emotiva amp and if I bring it to your store and one of your amps beats it, I will buy it.” So, he brought it, we put it up against the 2160 and him and his buddy couldn’t believe how the Boulder crushed the Emotiva. He then reneged on buying it and left with his tail between the legs. I lost an hour and a half.
If you spend time with a dealer and they recommend a particular product, don’t call them back 3 months later and tell them you bought it from someone else thinking that it’s a win because all dealers are on the same team right? No. We aren’t.
Be honest, if you’re not buying and just want to listen, THAT’S OK!!! JUST TELL US!! Come on in, let’s have a coffee, listen and talk about music. We love the hobby too! Then if I need to attend to something else, I can hand you the iPad and you can keep rocking.
Don’t borrow something unless you’re 100% sincere in purchasing it. Too many times, it’s been a bored person who just wants to play. We have banned two people from the store for doing just this over and over and over again. One was a young man in Orlando who kept borrowing stuff, so he could act like Mr. Big Shot on the Audiogon forums and he had no intent on buying anything. The other was a friend of a dear friend of mine (who has passed away), that acted like he knew everything about audio because he was a roadie in the 70’s for some band. He lives here in Sarasota, borrowed so much stuff from us, I lost track and then one day, borrows and MSB DAC from us and then tried to buy it from another dealer in Texas. That dealer called me and right then, he was banned. He lost the ability to borrow anything else in the future.
As the folks who live here locally will tell you, I will happily loan anything to any of our customers - as long as they sincerely are interested in trying and maybe buying something. I’m willing to accept the opportunity cost (not having that product on the floor while someone else is using it) - if they are sincere. GOOD NEWS: MOST ARE SINCERE! Even if they don’t buy it, as long as they were sincere in their actions, I’m ok with it!
I won’t give you the hard sell, because these are big ticket items. In return, I want people to just be honest, from “not buying, just looking” to “maybe next year” to “I’m ready to buy now, just need to decide on A vs B.” We can handle the truth! Don’t get a dealers hopes up, waste their time, waste their time doing 97 quotes and then buy nothing.
It would shock people to realize how busy we are during the day. We aren’t sitting around listening. We are returning calls, emails, following up on orders, talking to manufacturers, meeting with customers, doing installs, doing marketing, dealing with problems/product issues and so much more. So for us, time is a precious commodity. We love to invest it with folks, but just let us know what your intentions are, even if they are subject to change. [emoji6]
Once again, the folks I’ve met and worked with on this forum have, for the most part, been exceptionally great and I would consider most of those and others to be friends. I really believe that most of the folks on this forum are the good guys and not the tire kickers/time wasters.
In closing, I love what I’m doing now. After 22 years, I was burned out in Large Enterprise IT Projects. The industry had gone from Mainframes to Client/Server to the Y2K craze to system integration to BW/BI to the cloud. I was exhausted. B2B is not as much fun as B2C. I’m staying super busy and having fun at it. I still love the hobby and enjoy meeting people and hearing about their successes every day.
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