"High end" store snobbery


Our county lies in a fairly remote part of the country.Our major city of 100,000 has one "high end" shop so to speak.

I visited them yesterday.The store has limited selection of decent  stuff-a few McIntosh amps.Marantz.Paradigm ,Focal,Sonus faber etc.No Wilsons or Bel Canto category.

I asked then if they take trade ins-I want to upgrade my one year old Yamaha RX4 AVR,worth $500 retail.

They said they only take high end components for trade i.e.McIntosh etc.

After that conversation, the 3 store employees pretty will ignored my presence and I continued browsing their meagre inventory.

 

Lo and behold!

In a corner I spotted about 30 items-old Pioneer,Yamaha amps and even an equalizer from the 1970s.Prices ranged from $75 to $500.

 

I asked :"what are these"

response from employee:"oh, those are items we are familiar with as they were swapped out for upgraded gear by our customers."

 

Thanks for tolerating my rant...

 

Gabe

 

 

gabor2525

gabor2525

 

Where are you located? I would certainly seek out a better Audio shop. A 1-shop town is no good.

 

Happy Listening!

You can play smarter and present your Yamaha near the end of the trade leaving little space for them to think. Anyway bad service, but they are not the only ones, and it is strange for a smaller city.

Jaf and Pet:

The place is in Bellingham WA.

One shop for "X" product is the norm here.No competition.

 

Anyway,I'll check out Seattle,seems like there are some very decent shop shop there.

 

 

So they have more low end inventory than they need.  They should have worded it that way.

I can sympathize with your disappointment, but and it’s a BIG “BUT” ,..IMO there is another a couple of key factors that drove their choice that they declined to share with you,

Simply put, the vast majority of audio dealers simply don’t take in trades on AVRs …with the rare occasional one being the rare and very VERY high-end $$$$ units that are mint and less than two years old. These high-end $$$$ ones are the rare 3 or 5 year warranty units.

The 99% of limited one year warranty units and pricepoint units swamp the market in terms of numbers ,,,we all know that. It’s a major impediment to dealer accepting AVR trades. AVRs are viewed as not LT customer investments , they are viewed as ST use units that are replaced by new tweaks or unit failure , which ever comes first . …. ergo substantive disposables that’s the arena of the big-box stores that they don’t compete in.

Q why?
A let me explain

The AVR OEM mfgs won’t service any units out of warranty , which translates quickly into an absence of available parts . AVR HDMI boards ( especially out of China ) are nortorious for common failure . Also, go and get a qualified pro tech to service one yourself  these days —— good luck with that too. They refuse them now and refuse to get dragged into Frankenstein-ing repair parts.

. Dealers don’t want the taint of a pissed off customer complaint who suffers the problem of a comparatively failure that renders the resold AVR to a status of a boat anchor.

- OEM AVR mfgs annually come out with their latest flavour with its tweaks =

(a);they now only carry THOSE parts FOR WARRANTY…. Full,stop

( b) the latest and greatest tweaks …that’s the current customer interests arena … not the resale market thats a real tough sell. Hence, obsolescence in AVRs is huge, ( HINT: think bobsled to hell …) because of this consumer scent for the latest and greatest features AND the comparatively short useful life of an AVR.

(C) The pre-owned 2-channel audio market is MUCH different in that it has a niche for “vintage” units appealing to the nostalgia fan cohort …however it’s absent/nada / zippo, for AVRs = they mostly get banished to the local Craigslist marketplace . The dealer sees minimal profit and much trouble in for them keeping slow moving (if at all ) for sub-$$$$ AVRs in their inventory .

- A final cold hard fact is that the $$$ of what you propose to buy is ALWAYS a finsl tipping point determining factor on ANY dealer trade in …full stop.

TAKEAWAY

Most dealers will politely tell you upfront that they never take in 99+% AVRs for all the reasons above .

IMO your dealer , could have and should have, been more polished and attentive to you in delivering that very common marketplace reality check message.to you.
Their message to decline your AVR would have been the same, but with a much better form …your post suggests a very poor form on their part

carry on …