Has anyone purchased from the online sites. I have been checking the pricing on Alpine amps and the online price even after exchange they are Cheap.

IE. Alpine F -450 here in Ottawa is $599.00 I can by it at “Now on sale” for $396.60 CAD or $299.95 US.

What am I missing?

Warranty... service...

Do the dealers cover the warrantee. Wouldn’t a defective amp just be sent to Alpine electronics?

Nope, no warranty in Canada or the US if bought from an e-tailer that is not authorized. So if you have a warranty claim add the shipping and handling charges both ways back to the e-tailer,
+ customs charges both ways + customs charges when it is shipped to you. It all adds up in a hurry. Buy local from the dealer that appreciates your business. I have seen to many customers get burned for just this reason.

the best way to buy online is have sound domain price match . they are authorizxed dealers of teh majority of goods. jsut becarefull with tariffs and crap

Still no warranty in Canada though, you must ship back to SD for service.

All I have really heard commented about are the warranties. Nothing about the margins. That surprises me. I am going to call Alpine in the morning and ask about service. I personally can’t see the difference. I buy products all the time and the manufactures warrantee them. I can’t see a company like alpine debating Warrantee status on one of their products regard less of which dealer sold it.

Ha yeah, you'd be surprised who knows where the guy got that stuff he's selling cheaper stolen, B stock supplies sold as new.. Same as home printers computers etc etc, if it's not from an authorized dealer it's not gonna be fixed and it's off ebay 98% not authorized thanks for wasting ur money your SOL...

Good luck with that buttercup [img]graemlins/thumb.gif[/img]

Of course thet care, they don't want their dealer network to drop the line. Of course margins are smaller on line, that's why it's cheaper. Of course on line doesn't offer any of the service a brick and mortar shop's can that's the price difference.

As far as I see it, JL Audio is a prime example of a company supporting their line. You can’t buy their product online. If you think the online dealers are not selling legitimate products your missing the largest paradigm shift of the century, the manufactures and loving it. Just look where your spending your time. ONLINE???

EBay not a dealer, their an auction house so they don’t count.
I ‘m referring to legitimate online dealers.

The deal is that when you buy a product in Canada you rarely buy it from the parent manufacturer. 99% of the time you buy it from a distributor, whether an independent one such as SCL or Korbon, or a corporately owned one such as Pioneer Canada.

The Distributors purchase their goods from the parent manufacturer without warranty. They then offer the warranty themselves (most of the time a mirror of what the parent manufacturer offers)and have to leave margin in the product when they sell it to cover that warranty.

Thus - if you buy an MTX or Alpine or whatever amp/sub/deck from the US, the Canadian distributor is not responsible (and generally unwilling) to repair it. It's the way it is.

Plus, what kind of chance are you taking handing over a wad of cash to "Fly by Night Online Audio"? Not worth it IMO. [img]graemlins/dunno.gif[/img]

Buy from an authorized dealer in Canada.

Obviously you have it all worked out. You know what you are doing and have considered any risks that may be involved (none it seems).


The answer is obvious - Canadian distributors and especially storefronts have excessive, unwarranted margins on their products and offer no benefits from online, out of country vendors.

Go get shopping. [img]graemlins/thumb.gif[/img]

Hmm, Etronics is a large "authorized" dealer then? Because the lawsuits against them says otherwise. I would trust Sound Domain and Genuine Canadian Audio and that's about it.

I can't wait for the day all retail dealers shut down due to online sales, and there is no where to demo or touch equipment, get it installed, take it too when it breaks, put on sound offs. I know I won't be installing, I will be off doing somoething else and if someone will want me to fix their car they screwed up I will be making $100/hr off them, because there will be no shops they can go to for reasonable priced help.

Ebay is a good for stuff you can't get anymore like Relic Gear. It's also good for stuff not avaible to Canadians like most Satellite Radio gear. I have never bought a peice of gear from ebay. My crossover was aqquired from a well known user on the carsound board. But I want to be able to walk into my dealer, say Hello to the guys, because I know them, try out a product. If I want it I can pay for it and take it home that day, no waiting for UPS with their brokerage charges. My shop, like all, can install what I just bought for a reasonable price. And If sometime, maybe in the next week this gear craps out, all I have to do is drive back to the shop and they can swap out the defective product for a new one in no time. You acutally get warrenty. No shipping charges. I'm sick of "I can get it cheaper on ebay". The only purpose it serves is trying to get a better deal in a store. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Rightly said Paul.
In order to request any kind of warranty repair you will need a sales receipt from an authorized dealer, if the dealer is NOT authorized then the warranty may be void even before you receive the unit. Just the same, more and more manufacturers have the clause of the warranty only being valid for the original purchaser. So if you are buying from a dealer online who is selling B Stock or Refurbished units as brand new, you will not know until you go to get it serviced only to find out that you have a costly bill to pay. If you like taking chances by all means buy online.
If you think that the manufacturer will not know where (which country) a unit was purchased, you are sadly mistaken as all units have serial numbers and they all differ slightly from country to country and can be traced. Of course with out the serial number there is no warranty, so there is no way around that.

Now I have a question for you... would you rather feed your local economy and keep a neighbour in business by spending your money in your local area in a place where you can get service (both customer service and warranty service), advice (is that REALLY the right product for your application??) and meet the sales people and installers from local shops (whom most of the people on this board are from) or send your money away to the USA and have them just take your money and send you a box from their warehouse?

In the end, the choice is yours. [img]graemlins/cf2.gif[/img]

Your warranty is only valid in the country you purchased the unit in and only if that dealer is authorized to sell that product.

MR2NR and Dukk said it best -- if you don't believe us, shop online -- but don't whine when you get screwed.

Condomboy is also right... what country do you live in (believe it or not the internet is not a country)? -- I don't know where you work, but I bet Canadians buy the product or service you produce -- so why not support other Canadians?

[img]graemlins/cf2.gif[/img] :confused:

yeah i was on vacation in california, and saved money to buy my amps there and pick em up. saved at least 900 bucks cdn. brought em home, finally hooked up my mrv-f540 up, and its dead. so now i gotta pay probably 150 bucks shipping there and back to service it because alpine tracks serial numbers coming in for warranty work, and its a US s/n. all in all i'll still have saved lots of money. lots.

however, i was there for vacation. this reduces shipping costs, customs (i barely made it under max claim amount) and most tax. so it wouldnt be the same if you have it shipped up here. customs would murder ya i think.

Yes there is cusoms charges when you first prchase the amp but if you fill out the proper shipping forms you will not pay customs on sending sonthing for repair.

Yes there is cusoms charges when you first prchase the amp but if you fill out the proper shipping forms you will not pay customs on sending sonthing for repair.

I see this all the time in the computer industry aswell. We have alot of computer stores in Sourthern ontario that purchase from wholesaler's in Toronto.

What they don't know is alot of this product is Grey market, has been bought oversea's and imported in and not boughten from the canadian market.

Scenerio 1.
So lets (For example) say Johnny's PC Shop buys 12 Creative Labs sound cards from one of these importing wholesalers and then in turn sells them to his customers.. one of the cards fails within the first year.. Johnnys PC Shop replaces the card for the customer then goes to RMA it with the Wholesaler.. The wholesaler replaces the card for the retailer then calls Creative Labs in Mississauga, they run the serial number, and find it was not purchased in the north american market and tells the wholesaler to ship it back overseas as they did not buy it in Northamerica..

Scenerio 2) Lets say the same shop buys the 12 cards off the same wholesaler, and the customer has an issue with the card.. The customer goes back to the retailer to find there shop is now closed up out of business.. So the customer contacts Creative Labs.. they run the serial number and find it was purchased oversea's and simply ask the custonmer where they got the card from.. The customer says they bought it from Johnny's PC Shop which is now closed out of business, Creative labs says no worries and replaces the card for the customer.

So what do we learn from this.. Manufactures will normally help the customer (end user) out, as most end users don't know any different.

When in Doubt, Escalate! I know Radio Shack Corp Office in Ft.Worth, TX fears me calling.. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ July 06, 2004, 01:45 PM: Message edited by: Rockney ]

Using your example, unfortunately for the most part as far as I know (please chime in if I am wrong). Most manufacturers have exclusive distributers within a country and will only export to that one distributor who holds the rights to that product within certain borders. So if Johnny's PC Shop tried to buy from the manufacturer in Asia they would turn him down and give him the phone number for Distributor X to purchase from. This applies to not only store wishing to re-sell but end user customers who want to purchase direct. This is where the Computer industry is a little different from the Car Audio industry... So if you were Stereo Shop X or even Johnny X trying to buy direct from Rockford, they would direct you to Korbon and then you would deal with them if you were a retailer or if you were a customer Korbon would in turn direct you to a dealer, same goes with MTX, they would direct you to SCL and then SCL would direct you to a local store (if you were an end user).
I guess an easier way to look at it is... How much is warranty worth to you? You buy the product out of Country where you will have no local warranty and you save some money, or you spend a bit more and by from a local shop who is able to supply a warranty.

No matter how much everyone goes back and forth, the choice is still yours and you'll decide for yourself.

I had a heck of a time trying to get Alpine to warrantee my alarm and I bought it from an Authorized Dealer who also installed it. The serial number ripped off from the glue they used to attach it to my car. In the end, my dealer scrounged up the reciept (which I had lost at the time but now found) and got my warrantee honored.

So, dunno about other companies but Alpine definitely doesn't take warrantee return lightly.