Would you pay to audition speakers

Give me a break....this is absolutely absurd to think the dealer is there to be used given what has happened in high end audio in the past 10 years.......most people on this site USE dealers to demo equipment, then come here to buy it used or from someone selling new at used prices to save some cash when they had zero intentions on buying new....hence wasting the dealers time and effectively shutting down the vast majority of the brick and mortars throughout the USA.

Then those same people have the balls to moan and complain when there are no dealers in their area to demo equipment. You CAN'T have your cake and eat it too......you people have done it to yourselves.

Arbuckle you have a point.Some will take advantage of the
audition right,knowing they will not buy,thats wrong.When
I go to the store,I just look around,if the salesman ask
me to listen to their new speakers,then I will,most of the
time I offer them lunch though but to pay them even 50 dollars,thats to stiff.

"most people on this site USE dealers to demo equipment, then come here to buy it used or from someone selling new at used prices to save some cash when they had zero intentions on buying new"

Arbuckle, How do you know this? What statistically reliable methodology did you use, in order to feel confident enough to insult the majority of audiogon's members?

I would pay $500 to audition a speaker in the 10-20K range, but that would be for an in home audition for at least a one week period.

On the whole, dealers are their own worst enemies. How many times has it been said on this forum, that putting together a system with all of its components contributing to their full potential, requires a lot more effort than just opening ones wallet. I've had enough dealings with audio retailers to think quite little of most of them. Come on guys, I'll bet we all heard some of the pretty crappy systems that resulted from people putting their faith and bank accounts in the hands of dealers who turned out to be little more than fast talking order takers. I'll bet there are many more music lovers than there are audio hobbyists, and if retailers would get their heads straight and were willing to do the kind of work necessary to establish trust and long term good will, they'd find that Audiogon and the used/discount market would have negligible impact on their business.

How can any dealer assume that because he didn't make a sale that someone is running to the internet to buy it online? I am sure it happens, but how does the dealer know that maybe that person decided to go to another dealer that was more pleasant and had a better attitude! There is no other industry where prospective buyers are treated this way! Most of the gear on Audiogon is used, so I don't see how Arbuckle's post appplies in this instance. If I was in that situation, I would write a letter to the equipment maker and let them know that I was very interested in their gear, but the dealer I went to wanted $500 from me to audition it. I wonder how that wouild go over! I have read a few posts where people want to establish a relation with a dealer and you can't get that from the internet. Who would want a relationship with a jerk like this? Many people just want to purchase something and a working relationship with a dealer is not part of their plan. It doesn't matter whether the $500 would be applied to the purchase, that is just bad business, and a lot of BS.

Is it even legal? Are there any lawyers here? If car dealer would charge me $500 to let me test drive a car and would not return the money if I decide I don't like it that would be illegal and I would report him. New car dealer doesn't have license to rent cars or perform similar service. I'm pretty sure audio dealer cannot force me to buy something I don't like by holding my money either. I would report it to authorities and reveal his name on the forum. Any lawyers here?

Another point to remember is that in sales the object is too make the sale and not everyone will pay full price.
So smart dealers do just that, Make deals. I have purchased some of my ARC gear new from a dealer who wanted to make a sale, even if not at list. I prefer to purchase cd players especially new with a warantee if the used to new spread is not that great.

Weisberg - that's good point. The problem is that I won't ask dealer without listening and he can still hold my money if we won't agree. I would just stay away from such places. They prices are often insane because they have high overhead caused by lower sales that are caused by high prices to start with. The name for that is greed. I would always pay, let say 10% more for the expertise but not more than that. Internet is helping to level the field and get rid of greedy or just plain bad dealers - a very positive process.

I would pay for real service - eg, if the dealer brought speaker to my home, set it up etc.

I would also pay "rent" if I needed to evaluate them at my home for an unusually long time.

If he loaned them to me for a few days and I had to carry and set them up myself, then I wouldn't pay anything except perhaps leave a deposit if requested.

I would not pay for in-store demos. Showing something you are trying to sell is part of retail. The customer may not buy or buy elsewhere - all retailers take that chance and those who can't should not be in retail.

For me paying a small fee which refunded on buying is OK. After all the retailer also need to invest in buying these speakers, running the showroom, paying the cleaning ladies etc.

I guess that retailers have learned their lessons from audition with potential customers to find out that these customers then buy them online

I wonder what this dealer's policy is with past customers who made reasonably sized purchases. There is one local dealer who was guarded until I bought a couple things and now they are very open to auditions. My position is that unless a dealer invites me, I don't ask to audition unless I have genuine intentions of buying that specific item from them in the near future.

Yes, some people do use dealers to demo, then buy used cheaper. BIG DEAL. I'll gladly pay MORE to someone else than the dealer is charging, before I give 5.00 away, let alone 500.00 The 500.00 is no guarantee you'll like the speakers. This is not nor ever will be a good practice. Does a dealer ever guarantee speakers? New if something goes wrong? No, you only get a warantee.

Taters, I was sounding off before carefully reading your post.

I guess this dealer is so busy tallying their sales slips in these robust economic times that they don't have time for mere "shoppers". If they were working at the shoe counter at Nordstroms and you wanted to try every pair "for fun", on a Saturday, I could see where you could be stretching their Customer First policy. But this dealer must be selling big buck boxes if they think $500 is an appropriate ante to get in their door, and I would think they would be kissing your rear to even darken the entrance these days.

I might be a chronic tire kicker and so perhaps a target for this kind of "really great service", but I continue to buy gear in brick and mortar shops. Since I travel a fair bit, I also go to stores in different towns that carry equipment I don't have access to hear in my home town, or even combination's of gear I have not heard together before. I always state whether or not I am actually in the market to buy something. Sometimes I am, sometimes not. I value the shopkeepers opinions since they usually know much more than me and are enthusiastic about their products and my interest. But I do not value their insights to the tune of 5 "C" notes.

Adding to what Theo said, I would want that model to be handing me $50 glasses of wine with my demo. Maybe if I drank enough I would actually buy something from them...

Quite a few years ago I was looking for some video gear and entered a high end video/audio retailer here in NYC to see what they had. The owner informed me it was a $50 fee (good towards any purchases) to demo.

I didn't go ahead with it, since most or all of the gear would have been out of my price range at the time. But especially on video gear, I could see so many people getting his recommendation, then buying mail order. I think now I would gladly pay $50 for guidance through a complex purchase, and to be able to see state of the art gear.

That being said I have recently made my foray into being a dealer for a select few pieces of gear. Luckily this is not my main source of income, so I suspect that I will be dealing with many of the challenges outlined here retailers face.

it might be worth it to pay for an audition in your stereo system, to avoid a serious mistake. the cost of an audition may be less than the loss accruing from resale of an expensive component.

I kind of equate this to a car dealer asking to check your credit before giving a test drive. As a retailer be it car sales, high end audio or whatever you accept the fact that you will work really hard on a deal and not get it. When that happens no matter how unfair it is you have to put a smile on your face and move on to the next prospect.

I have a similar great experience with a salesman who was at a tweeter in chicago (suburbs). I went in to the store to buy some cheap head phones and ended up spending a couple hours in their hearing all kinds of different set ups. At the time I only had a Denon avr 3200(which I was pretty proud of,lol) but he showed me some serious stuff and opened up a few new worlds to me and raised the bar for me. In a nut shell after that anything I could buy from him I did at full asking price, which I was happy to pay since its hard to find sales people of his caliber. Now I was still pretty small potatoes compared to many of his customers but I did my part.

Now however thanks partly to him I can only afford to buy the equipment I want used here or through other sources. But the point is his free demo for a 20.00 head phone customer earned him thousands in sales.

In retrospect, I can think of one instance in which it might be fair to charge for an audition: If one is asking a dealer to either order something from a line that he doesn't ordinarily carry or bring in an expensive reference piece from a line he does carry but will have to front the money himself, then I can understand his being concerned that if the sale doesn't go through, he might have to offer the item at a heavy discount in order to move it.

After reading all your posts I've decided to pass on the 500.00 audition. I'm going to buy speakers that I can audition for free. I did call the company that produces the speaker in question. They told me that they dropped that dealer due to his business practices. When I told him about the 500.00 audition he wasn't surprised.

It depends. In a store enviroment, absolutely not. Now if the dealer delivered the speakers to your house, and help set every thing up for a home auditionm, then I could see the dealer charging a fee, for his time and effort. Of course, one would expect that if the individual bought the speakers, that the fee would be applied to the cost of the speakers.

I have been in sales all my life and I wish I had a dollar for every time somebody said they were just looking and left with the item in tow. Put a god presentation together with a nice friendly, caring, helping attitude and you can turn lookers into buyers. It happens everyday.