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

Change the product to HE Real Estate.   Realtor wants to charge a fee to "show" the house....Fee will be credited back at closing, but if you don't buy you forfeit the fee.

Wonder how many sales this realtor will have ?

Regarding the original post- the items in question are not unique and are available from other sources, but some effort on the part of the buyer will be required.   Some referenced Auto Sales- yes I am aware of situations where the price included a "market premium" for a hot model in short supply- no negotiation, pay the price or leave.   But sure as rain, 6 mos later the same model was in stock and available at a discount.  

Seller can do what the they want, but unless the seller has a monopoly (this seller does not) the buyer drives the transaction.  And this seller is driving potential buyers away.

Only key piece of information:

"These are packed and put away. Can you tell me what kind of system would you want it demonstrated with ? Please call the store...Probably $500.00 which will be applied to purchase price of $16995.00"

Translation:   My overdue electric bill is about $500.....

The dealer tried to justify this expense/charge by stating that time was involved in setting up a system for the demo of these amps.  THAT IS WHAT A DEALER DOES !  THAT IS THE REASON WHY B/M SHOPS ARE DIFFERENT THAN ONLINE  SELLERS !    Dealers and B/M shops are expected to provide a higher and different level of service than an online vendor.   If a DEALER is unwilling to provide these services, or is oblivious  to the need to do so, then the Dealer should find another line of work.

20+yrs ago I encountered a "by appointment only" dealer who tried to extract a demo charge before setting an appointment.  The dealer had several pieces I was interested in, and the price points were acceptable to me.  My reply was laughter.   I found another area dealer who had the same items, at roughly the same price points, and I purchased what I wanted to purchase.  No charge to demo, or set an appointment, or walk into the store.   I later went back to the offending dealer and showed him a copy of my receipt as evidence of my purchases.   He was not happy.  I quietly explained that I would have done business with him, but found his demo charge to be offensive.  I then found a more accommodating dealer who received my business.  Offending dealer went out of business within 12mos of my interactions with him.  

The market always wins.