As a small business who wants to stay open I try to price match as often as I can, but there’s sometimes I just can’t do it. There are some online retailers out there that sell their products sometimes just a few dollars over my cost… and while that can be good for the consumer, it doesn’t help me to keep the doors open. The sad thing is these online retailers are often times not being honest and upfront with you the consumer and are operating outside of their dealer agreement. We all have to sign dealer agreements to sell a manufacture’s products and I haven’t signed one yet that allowed me to sell there products online under the minimum advertised price, in fact everyone I have signed as outright prohibited online sales of any kind. As a consumer I know you could care less about a dealer agreement but you will start to care if you ever need warranty work done on the product you buy. If the retailer you bought from was not authorized to sell the product online, or at the price they did you can kiss your warranty goodbye… and while this might not be that big of a deal on a $150 blu-ray player you really might want to weigh your options when thinking about a $1000 receiver or a $5000 projector.

Here’s what the manufactures have to say about the situation…

Marantz     Onkyo    Universal Remote    Niles Audio    JVC    Samsung    Nobile Fidelity

please have all of the information before you purchase your components online.