Is this rude?

im gonna get killed for this but thats life,what & the hell are you guys talking about.

where on earth did anybody get the idea that an audio salesman needs to be treated any different than other salesman,PAY TO AUDITION, get a grip,i cant believe that some of you are calling an audition dishonest & even quoting scripture.

ive got a few simple questions, please explain the difference in the examples that follow & the audition process beacuse obviously im kinda slow here.

1 do you pay to test drive a new car?

2 does the car salesman ask you if you intend to buy from him before you test his product?

3 would you be offended if the car salesman even asked you such a question?

4 when you have a contractor give you an estimate for roofing, plumbing, painting,new furnace, siding, ect do you feel the need to pay them for the time it takes to write up such an estimate?

i can answer # 4, NO , you do not feel the need to pay you feel its a service that comes with the cost of doing business.

i dont get the whole idea of the starving audio salesman to begin with where everybody paints a picture of a struggling business that has to pinch every penny they get.

if anybody really thinks that the audio market as a whole is somehow being taken advantage of then they are in a bubble.

never before in hifi have sales been sooooo good & thats beacuse of the used gear market, remember that alot of people will only buy new gear after the old gear is sold.

the notion of being dishonest just beacuse you want to audition a product that the DEALERSHIP allready has is absurd to me.

Vinylphile, I don't like your comment. It's insensitive and inappropriate. Eddaytona's comment on the other hand is responsive to Omains thread.

Audiogon and the audio internet sites more generally, have made retailing in High End audio more competitive and difficult. I agree with many of the posts here that intentially wasting a dealer's time is inconsiderate and I would not encourage that sort of behavior. That said, dealers are not oblivious to the fact that people come in to audition equipmenet with the intention of buying elswhere, used or over the internet. The internet has made this an increasing risk. Dealers might address this risk by, for example, charging patrons a minimal refundable "set up/listening fee" as a disinsentive to freeloaders. My guess is that most dealers would rather take their chances than potentially alienate good customers.

So Omains, my longwinded answer is follow your feelings - treat others the way you expect to be treated.

Friends,

Thank you all again for your input. I want to rephrase my first question, because I think I misrepresented the issue by using the word "pretend". My fault.

1. I would absolutely never ask anyone to set up a system for me, let alone uncrate a sealed product. That's just ridiculous. Even if they offered (which some have), I would insist that they not go to the trouble.

2. I do not monopolize the dealer's time. The first thing I say when I walk in is, "I'm just hear to look around," or "I'm not buying anything today, but I'd love a chance to hear xxx if it's not too much trouble." The reason I'm asking this question is that I understand how frustrating it must be for a dealer to spend time helping a customer and be left with nothing in return. My morals are tested when I leave the dealer with an unsaid impression that I very well may be coming back to buy.

So my original question was asked assuming that one would follow the above two points. My conundrum is that I'm 20 years old, don't have a lot of experience, clout, or money, and I want to make the best investment possible given my restrictions. I don't believe I can make a good choice of speaker without hearing a good representation of what's out there. Moreover, I have no intention of wasting my life buying and selling every speaker on Audiogon until I find the right one. Such a course of action would be financially dangerous (I've been jerked around one too many times on eBay), and, more importantly, it would be a waste of time.

Because of my limited finances, I do not have the option of "rewarding" a dealer for his help by buying his speakers. It's not just "a little more expensive" as some have stated. We're talking price differences on the order of thousands of dollars between new and used. But I can reward them with my politeness, courtesy, gratefulness, and (most importantly) future business when I can afford to buy new. After some thought over the course of the day, I'm confident in what I've said here. If people still believe that this is rude, given the points made above, I would be hard pressed to continue my interest in the world of hi fi.

Bigjoe, Hmm lets see.

#1 No, but I also wouldnt go drive a new car to figure out whether I want to buy someone else's used car.

#2 If he figures out #1 he might as well.

#3 Well, if you have to pen me down, I say, it depends on whether he gets #2 right or wrong.

#4 No, but, you probably wont get much work if you dont give an estimate. So I dont see anyway around it. Although if I were a plumber and some Schmoe asked me to come to his house and solder some pipes and fittings together just so he could see how its done, I just might charge.

I say, time is our most valued commodity. I dont like mine wasted, so its natural to not want to waste other folks time.

I'm with you BigJoe.