Ever feel like a "low dollar" customer that your dealer doesn't think worth their time?

"Novelty LP Records!"  signs in the antique shops of the 2030's.....

I drove my truck to a high end audio shop in a rather upscale neighborhood 27 years ago, dressed down in blue jeans and a flannel shirt. I was initially going to show up with my wife , who is quite attractive, in her car; a car was more "respectible" than a truck in 1993. I just wanted to see if it would make a difference in how I was treated. 
   In a word I was ignored. It was around December 10, so the store had more traffic than usual. After almost 45 minutes, despite 3 salespeople in the store, I was not even spoken to. Finally I walked out,  and  wound up at another shop a couple of miles away, a direct competitor roughly the same size, where I was greeted at the door,despite a similar Christmas rush. I called my wife and had her meet me. We spent  two grand that day on our first "audiophile"2 channel system, and another thousand on a subwoofer and power conditioner within the next few months.
    Over the next 10 years I sent several of my wealthy clentele to that store, and helped my close friend , a neurologist, and our female real estate agent purchase home theatre systems. Just those two spent around 15,000.My total referrals were easily in the 6 figures.  
   I went over to the store that looked past  me and inquired about  some speaker wire. It was about 2 years after being ignored and watching other people who walked in after me being served. I spoke to the owner about what happened. He asked me who ignored me. I responded "you for one". I then told him who profited from his condescension, and how many referrals he lost. He apologized, and said the Christmas rush was to blame. I told him it didn't seem to affect his competition.  I bought the speaker wires, Audioquest type 4, which I still use to this day, and on another visit a moderately priced set of Grado headphones. 
      When I opened my own business some years later, I remembered my above experience, and applied its lessons. My clients are all by referral. Other than an inexpensive and rather neglected website, which I had done just to say I have one, I have never had to spend a dime on advertising. And incidentally, one of my longest and most lucrative referral lines, now over 15 years old, started with a single mom on a limited budget. 
     
    
      
    

Oh man this brings back old memories.  Long time ago I live in Scottsdale AZ and was going to school as ASU.  Started to get into audio, so went to one of the local shops in Phoenix.  I think I could have stood there with a bag of money and not gotten any help.  I was so pissed.  Went off in a huff and dropped by another shop.  They knew I didn't have a bag of money, but spent hours letting me listen to different systems.  They showed me what a great system could really sound like.  I've had the same basic experience when living and shopping in The UK and Netherlands.  So shops just don't get service.  Now I'm in Dallas Texas.  Huge shout out to Audio Concepts - they are great!!

If a dealers treats you badly MOVE ON!!

@ebm said:

If a dealers treats you badly MOVE ON!!

Yes, this makes sense. Maybe this is easy for you, but it’s not that simple for many people. In an age of declining B&M stores, really helps to audition things, and there are not many places to do that. In a single store, one might be able handle quality components or speakers from half a dozen makers. I know we can get things on trial, etc. through the mail but that is very time consuming and the shipping costs will mount up. So, it’s hard to totally break with a local shop -- unless there are many nearby.