Does a "Platinum" or "Gold" C4 Dealer always have more experience?

Does a Platinum or Gold C4 dealer always have more experience? No.

Gold or Platinum mean anything useful? It means they sell more Control4 than a non gold or platinum dealer and have a certain number of Control4 certified staff.

CEDIA important? It doesn't guarantee you're dealing with a good company.

Have you seen recent work from either company? Was there a difference in wiring? labeling? overall quality of the installation?

A gold or Platinum dealer means they sell and install a lot of systems each year. It does not mean that they are necessarily "better" but chances are they will have a lot more experience than someone who doesn't do the volume that the others do.

I would caution you against one-man shops as many of them tend to come and go. If you ever need any support after the project, it might be hard to get. While they tend to be more responsive, I have seen a number of them go out of business over the years, leaving their customers stranded. I'd ask for references if you haven't already done so.

Walmart and Best Buy sell a lot of TVs, does that make their sales people more of a TV expert than a smaller local electronics shop? Higher volume doesn't necessarily mean better product knowledge.

If you have a Control4 system that's properly designed and installed you should never be stranded, if you're not happy with your current dealer or he goes out of business any other Control4 dealer can service the system.

Perhaps even more important is making sure you're provided with ALL documentation and programming for your system, as part of your contract. Documentation should include as-built records detailing every wire in the house, and copies of the programming files. That way if for whatever reason you need to work with another company, you don't need to start over from scratch. See the link in my sig for more thoughts on the programming issue. Make sure you get a hard copy on disc or USB as a backup. Please note that the code issue is not a simple one to layout in a few sentences and varies between products, for instance it can be retrieved on some products but not others, but that's irrelevant, insofar as even if it can be retrieved t from the processor, if the processor fails, and the company that originally wrote the program no longer has it, you would need to start over. So make sure you get a backup.

Very good point!

Every A/V company I've worked for that had a nice pretty showroom is now out of business. The ones with small or no showrooms have had less overhead and are still in business.

I've found that the basic rule in these threads is that the firms with showrooms like to emphasize how important it is to do business with a firm with a showroom. The firms without a showroom like to emphasize the benefits to doing business with firms without a showroom. Large firms like to emphasize the supposed benefits to doing business with a large firm. Small firms like to emphasize the supposed benefits to doing business with a small firm. I think that about sums it up .

I have the wild idea, speaking in general terms, that those are issues that should not necessarily be determining factors .