I just read a post on the forum questioning the impartiality of a dealer that sold only one manufacturers DLP products. The post had several questions that I didn't want to get into but I thought the issue of dealer impartiality with regard to the number of products carried is a humorous one (to me) and I wanted to comment on it. The idea often seems to be that if Dealer 1 only sells product A but Dealer 2 sells products A and B that you are more likely to get honest/impartial advice regarding products A & B from Dealer 2. BZZZZ - WRONG. Here is why:
1. Most dealers aren't stupid. They frequently use one or more manufacturers to leverage the sale of products towards another manufacturer. Example - many years ago I used to work at a retailer that sold portable Kenwood CD players. They were a good value for the money and IMHO better and more reliable than Sony models, at least at that time. But 90% of the people who came in the store were always looking for Sony. We could tell them that Kenwood was better until we were blue in the face and and most of them would leave to find Sony. So we finally decided to sell Sony portable players too. Guess what - our sales of Kenwood players shot through the roof because now people trusted our recommendation when we showed them how much better Kenwood was. Many times dealers carry two products so that they can steer customers towards one product. Sometimes their (dealers) motivations are good when they do this and sometimes they are not.
2. Many dealers feel the customer out and make a recommendation based on what the customer has seen. Lets say you look at product A at Dealer 1. Now you go to Dealer 2 and he finds out you looked at product A. He is often going to tell you that product B is better because he knows you will think he is impartial because he has both products and he wants to steer you away from any product the first dealer showed you. Or if he finds out that you got a high price from Dealer 1 he may stick with product A and try to close the deal.
If anything the dealer that sells only one manufacturer or product at a particular price range could sometimes be argued to be more honest and impartial because he is just selling what he believes in.
The bottom line is that some dealers our very honest and truly care about their customers and some are thieves. But representing many different manufacturers does not make them any MORE or LESS likely to be impartial than a dealer that represents a few.
Thanks for listening.
1. Most dealers aren't stupid. They frequently use one or more manufacturers to leverage the sale of products towards another manufacturer. Example - many years ago I used to work at a retailer that sold portable Kenwood CD players. They were a good value for the money and IMHO better and more reliable than Sony models, at least at that time. But 90% of the people who came in the store were always looking for Sony. We could tell them that Kenwood was better until we were blue in the face and and most of them would leave to find Sony. So we finally decided to sell Sony portable players too. Guess what - our sales of Kenwood players shot through the roof because now people trusted our recommendation when we showed them how much better Kenwood was. Many times dealers carry two products so that they can steer customers towards one product. Sometimes their (dealers) motivations are good when they do this and sometimes they are not.
2. Many dealers feel the customer out and make a recommendation based on what the customer has seen. Lets say you look at product A at Dealer 1. Now you go to Dealer 2 and he finds out you looked at product A. He is often going to tell you that product B is better because he knows you will think he is impartial because he has both products and he wants to steer you away from any product the first dealer showed you. Or if he finds out that you got a high price from Dealer 1 he may stick with product A and try to close the deal.
If anything the dealer that sells only one manufacturer or product at a particular price range could sometimes be argued to be more honest and impartial because he is just selling what he believes in.
The bottom line is that some dealers our very honest and truly care about their customers and some are thieves. But representing many different manufacturers does not make them any MORE or LESS likely to be impartial than a dealer that represents a few.
Thanks for listening.