Charging A Fee To Demo An Amplifier In A Brick & Mortar Store

@tubes444 

does the name of the sf dealer have sf in it?  And maybe audio and vision?

I was looking to buy new speakers in the $8k-$12k range a few years back.  A local dealer had a brand which interested me.  I dropped into the store, and the dealer let me listen to a pair of bookshelf speakers by the brand I was interested in.  I like them, but wanted to try out the brand's floorstanders.  I made an appointment for a few days later, and spent a hour or so listening to the floorstanders.  I liked both, but wanted to try at least one of the pairs at home.  I told them that as long as the speakers sounded good at home, I would buy one of the pairs.  The dealer wanted $500 to allow me to take the bookshelf speaker home.  I had to transport and setup.  About half of the $500 was non-refundable.

I balked.  As a long shot, I then called a distributor that carried another brand I was interested in.  He agreed to ship a pair of large floorstanders from St. Louis to SF Area at the same time one of his dealers in Austin was going to be on vacation in SF.  If I didn't like the speakers, I had to pay for return shipping.  The dealer set the speakers up, we listen to music for about 3 hours, had a couple beers.  I really loved the speakers, and bought them.

I would've never called the distributor if I could've auditioned the local pair at home.  Sale lost.  I'm sure the local dealer thinks that I was just a time-waster.