Authorized dealer important? Speedandsound.com any good?
Sep 1, 2002 at 5:30 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 8

radrd

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I'm looking into buying a NAD c541i, and I can find it for as cheap as $378 from www.speedandsound.com. The only problem is that they are not an authorized dealer. They claim that they honor the manufacturer warranty, and they say that they go one step further and pay shipping for repair/replacement. But, they aren't authorized, and that worries me. Should it?

I looked at a lot of authorized dealers on the net and they all sell the NAD for $499. At that price, I might as well buy a Music Hall mmf-25 at $525 from www.decibelaudio.com, which is an authorized Music Hall dealer.

I'm going to try to buy locally too, but I doubt either of the Seattle authorized NAD dealers will come close to matching $400; plus our sales tax makes that especially unlikely.

(I hope all of my threads aren't starting to get annoying.
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Sep 1, 2002 at 6:06 AM Post #3 of 8
I saw that, but damaged box doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the condition of whatever is inside the box. Even if it is covered by the manufacturers warranty, I don't necessarily want to use the warranty.
 
Sep 1, 2002 at 6:08 AM Post #4 of 8
Yawa guarantees the contents of the box to be brand new just that the box is damaged, and from the pictures on their site the boxes do not seem badly damaged.
 
Sep 1, 2002 at 6:56 AM Post #5 of 8
Once I'm ready to buy, and it might be a couple of weeks, that deal might be gone; however, if it isn't I might give them a call and talk to them about that one. If it is just the box and they guarantee that there is nothing wrong with the player, then it might be a really good deal. Thanks for your input.
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Back to my question, am I taking a big risk if I buy from an unauthorized dealer like Speedandsound?
 
Sep 1, 2002 at 8:42 AM Post #6 of 8
Let's put it this way: you're FAR better off buying a "damaged box" from Yawa -- an authorized dealer that provides the full NAD warranty and guarantees that the contents of the box are new and undamaged -- than buying from a non-authorized dealer.

Why?

1) No warranty. What if "speedandsound.com" goes under next week? With an authorized dealer your warranty is good no matter what.

2) No guarantee that what you're buying is what you'll actually get, and no recourse from NAD if it turns out you didn't get what was advertised.

Trust YawaOnline.com -- they're an authorized dealer, and they're also NAD's "official" online dealer for moving B-stock and "damaged box" product. A damaged box item is brand new and in perfect condition, but the box has a hole or something similar that would cause some customers to balk. So NAD sends all such product to Yawa.

P.S. I wouldn't worry about them no longer having that deal -- the shipping companies of the world ensure that there will be a steady supply
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Sep 1, 2002 at 7:25 PM Post #7 of 8
As far as "damaged box" sales go,it's true that the manufacturers/distributors usually have outlets or dealers who specialize in moving those items.I just got shipment of CDPs that had been damaged during shipping and I had to send the whole shipment back including the undamaged units.Dealers such as Yawa get these players at really low prices but assume most of the risk that the players will finction properly.I can't afford to do that so I pass on the damaged box deals.Damaged box deals can be good for the consumers and i wouldn't pass on one if it were available.

I keep saying this and getting beat up for it,but I would NEVER EVER buy from anyone other than an authorized dealer.There are just too many risks involved, especially with internet sales.
 

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