I love going into stores and they know nothing about thier own products... lol. Make sure you know you're products well...

 

Well I have been bashed before here (At the Start) When I could get every brand from the US import it and so. But quickly the manufactures will shut it down faster then it went up. Now everything I have on my site is authorized due to us also having a store front. Very tough market. And we spent about $5000-7000 on web site development to get the site the way we wanted. I stugled with prices and customs issues and so on. We have been running for just shy of a year now and its not to bad but if your looking for a gold mine..... then go get a GOLD MINE. [img]smile.gif[/img] Here's the deal you can bring in product from the US all day long but the product is only as good as the warranty it holds. There is faulty product from the factory all the time. But the Canadian wholesalers or distributors will no warranty product brought in to Canada via the states and understandable so. The reason for the price diffence is shipping and warranty costs. And that costs money. Most of the manufactures do business from the coastal areas so shipping is a concern all the time. I use to have 30 odd suppliers and/or manufactures to choose from and now I buy my products from Canada and the warranty stays in Canada. I can understand fully now why these guys were a little miffed and po'ed that I was bringing product in from the states and selling it at cut throat prices but there was no really Canadian support unless you yourself dealt with all the warranty issues and returns and so on. Customers get very unhappy when product does not show up or takes 6-8 weeks for warranty replacement. Anyways my two cents if I had to spend the money again to do the website......probably not. Not to mention Canada market is kind of 2-3 seasons a year really for the DIY guys. Except for the diehards. Also next to impossible to get super highend lines without buy in here in Canada. Which I understand aswell.

[ January 23, 2006, 07:54 AM: Message edited by: Smartass ]

 

And I'll throw out another example of why you should support the Canadian dealer and the Canadian distributor.

I'm pretty sure everyone has heard of the Focal scam. They had it down to a "T" with this knock-off product, rite down to the packaging and labelling. And it was cheap to buy. But it was crap compared to the real thing. Now-a-days, anything can be knocked off. Especially popular brands with demand. Even one of our lines was being knocked off in Asia. So the manufacturer changed the design to an inhouse manufactured basket which is going to be expensive to knock-off among other design details....... make them work very hard to pull the scam off if they want to do another knock-off.

Long story short, cheap is not always good. There's usually a reason why it's cheap.......... as people are selling things or in business to MAKE MONEY, NOT LOOSE MONEY. I'd suggest that if you're planning on plunking down your good hard earned money for some higher end pieces, please make sure you're getting the real deal with the right support and warrantee. Otherwise, you're on your own.........

 

I think the problem is that the USA has countless car audio sites where you can purchase practically any high-end gear at "reasonable" prices. So you browse these American audio forums where NO ONE pays retail for any of their stuff, and you start thinking, why don't I do that as well? But of course, after being hit with shipping, tax, duty, etc., you're hardly saving money by ordering from the US. So, you search for similar Canadian online retailers, only to find out that they don't exist. So you come on here to find out if there are any out there, and everyone starts screaming at you to support your local retailer. So you go out and spend $900 on your Focal speakers, and then you have to put up with everyone on the American forums laughing at you because they got theirs for $400.

It doesn't seem fair, but that's how it is. It is too bad that the consensus among the American online audio community is that only idiots pay retail for their gear. And one must wonder if they are right. I guess it depends on your perspective. At least when you buy something locally, you don't have to ship it hundreds of miles if it breaks...