My experience with [some online company] has been very positive. I've ordered a number of items from them ranging from amps, multi-zone amps, controllers, and speakers. Everything has been shipped in a timely fashion and has arrived in perfect condition.
I'm saving as much as 50% off of the vastly over priced, and price-fixed MSRP of many of the manufacturers who don't understand the free market. [some online company] does match the manufacturers warranty. Even if this turns out to not be true, I'VE SAVED 50%. On the off-chance I do have infant mortality on the product *and* they don't honor their warranty, I can just buy another one.
It's your money, if you want to spend more than you need to to get exactly the same product feel free.
Although somewhat recent as far as high end audio goes, these kinds of companies have been around a long, long time ... infamously as high end camera dealers for at least 40 years. The internet changed the game somewhat, but the model is pretty simple. Advertise stuff people want to buy, try to get it once they order but if not, stall and hold the money for as long as possible. Initially, they sell stuff they actually have, to build reputation, before moving on to listing whatever seems popular.
There was a site at one time where a guy went out and photographed the addresses listed for a similar deal, except they were selling video camcorders cheap, about five years ago when they were hot items. Single doors in alleys, barber shops, confectionaries, and a few very shady looking warehouses were typical. I don't have a link, if the site is even up now, but it had quite a few page hits at the time.
I quoted the post above, because it gives you most of the information you need to avoid these "businesses" in the future ... don't for a moment think that they won't spawn anew when another relatively expensive, popular item takes the public's fancy. It's rule number one.
These guys spend a great deal of time online, Googling their company name, and responding vigorously and often wallpapering a site (fake "real" people in large numbers) with reviews and comments, which of course are always positive to the extreme. That's why it didn't take long for the above post to show up here ... it's a job requirement and they recruit others to do it on a part time basis as well. In essence, it's a full time job; one imagines they spend more time "fixing" the reputation than actually shipping products.
Note that the poster doesn't mention anything specific. No brand names, no model numbers, not even a very specific product category. There is no personal experience with the product in the post ... nothing. Real consumers do mention things like that when they do an online review.
I like the end where he makes a play on someone's greed, by suggesting you could just buy another at half price if anything goes wrong. Of course, that begs the question ... from whom?
There is no reason to believe your CC info is safe with such a vendor.
Broadly speaking these guys are most often found on the "review" sites that populate the 'net; the ones that list the "best prices" for a specific item searched. This is where these guys hang out, and they spend a great deal of time countering bad feedback with fake, "five star" feedback, much of which reads like the quote above, if you consider the hints I provided in deciphering them.
Occasionally the reputation becomes un-repairable, usually from a blog site that gets Dugg or the attention of Consumerist dotcom, and they simply whip up a new website, change the name, and carry on. That's why they are difficult to stop. Institutions like the NY Attorney General have plenty of complaints about them, but it takes time and "noise" (ie many consumer complaints) to bring a given firm to the top of the investigative heap. It's still, as always, "buyer beware".
Which brings us to the final conclusion; Bryston (and firms like Bryston) not only supports their authorized dealers, they support the customers who buy from those dealers. If a dealer truly wrongs a customer, they are willing to intervene and if necessary, make it right. Anyone who's ever had problems with a consumer item that seemed un-resolvable, will know the value of that immediately.
As for calls to change the topic, I am against it. I say leave it as it is ... it's threads like this that are the way these guys do get shut down, by consumers who become aware of the whole deal. Let Google do what Google does best, and people who have never visited this site before may learn something that will save them a lot of grief in the future.
