Online Shopping Options?
 

Any suggestions on where to get the best prices online? Or do people recommend getting locally in Canada? or a combination of local/online shops?

PG? Alpine? MTX? RF? amps? comments...neep help in choosing and I've only ever had MTX amps before.

If you are looking at buying online, there are a couple you could look at. Sonic Electronix worked out nice for me on my first online purchase a couple years ago, and Ikesound is pretty good minus it takes a little while to get your equipment from what I have heard, but they have unbelievable prices on some of their stuff. Also, a couple of the power selling stores on ebay are pretty good too, I just got my speakers from coustic waves, and my amp is on its way from indoaudio. I know I'm gonna get flamed for buying a lot of stuff online, but the shops up north in grande prairie just have stupid prices. A lot of stores have higher prices, but many are wicked to deal with and if customer service is important to you definetely look locally.

And some of us are hard working dealers that don't live in the land of oil that flows from the sand thus our pricing is usually a little better as we have to be much more price conscious.

The only online shops I dealt with for car audio are CarDomain and WoofersEtc. Although the second one has n-i-c-e prices, both provided me with excellent service. But be aware that CarDomain is an authorized dealer for the majority of what they sell, while WoofersEtc is only a CDT authorized dealer that sells a bunch of other brands (that's why I bought my EF61-FG's from them :thumbsup: ).

The duties get pretty mean when importing that stuff don't they? You save a hell of a lot, but pay like mad for shipping and handling plus duties and whatnot....

- free shipping on most CDT products that WoofersEtc sell
- free shipping on a lot of items CarDomain sell, even to Canada
- you only pay TAXES when your stuff crosses the border, which are 15% of total order price in my case (QC)
- hasn't PST gone down a bit lately? :D
- canadian dollar rules now :cool:

That's it. ;)

WoofersEtc, is this a canadian web site or US?

American website... that's why you pay PST only when your order arrives at your home.

www.woofersetc.com

enjoy...

You will pay PST and GST. They havnt gone down as of yet. And you pay brokerage around $25-35 and 7% duties. Not to mention shipping. The price looks great until you get the bill for CP or UPS or who ever you use. Just because they charge nothing at the door doesnt mean you wont be billed. So after all said and done its still a bit cheaper by about 10%-15% but if it dies you may have no warranty or you may have to send it back to the US and sometime on returns when it comes back to you customs may charge you again on the value even if it is a repair or replacement Because the company has not filled out the appropiate paper work.

BTW some may say they didnt pay all that because of how it was shipped but be prepaired as customs has there own rules.

Oh well... whatever. I ordered 2 IDMAX's from CarDomain and I paid $69 US for shipping... and $128 CAN for PST and GST. That's it, I got them. Customs were nice with me I guess... :D

The UPS guy told me that if it's AirMailed you get out of paying broker fees.

There you go!! .. I guess that's what happened to me twice. :)

If you like mtx gear ebay is the way to go. I bought a pair of 1501d's for $200 a pop and a 1004 for $130. They were used as display models at a big box store in the US. As for warranty, who cares MTX has a $95 (with return shipping and a fast turn around time) flat repair rate on big amps, smaller the amp the cheaper their repair rate are. I also bought a pair of MTX 6x8's for $25 shipped, the same ones that garbageshop sells for $150 plus tax.

Still crying that same river are you?

The savings can be crazy good on somethings, especially with the dollar so high. How does 2 Alpine swr-1242d subs, brand new, sealed in the box, fedex to my door in 4 days for...260.00 cdn sound?

I did a lot of reading on these companies... some of em seem pretty sketchy. It's kinda risky when they claim they're sending brand new stuff to you, yet there have been numerous reports of ripped off serial numbers and obviously used or defective products.

The prices are enticing, but again warranty seems to be a big downfall when buying from the net... take a look on the MTX site - there's an entire section devoted to online scams and the companies who are NOT authorized to sell their products. Although these guys claim to offer factory warranty, it doesn't appear to be even possible.


www.mtx.com/caraudio/notAuthorized.cfm

Sounds great and I have done the same after shopping around for swr-1222 and couldn't find them less then $280 each before tax locally.

MTX is just pissed because these internet guys are under cutting their retail dealers. The best way to deal with MTX is to by a totally dead and melted MTX amplifier for next to nothing on Ebay and then send it to them for a new board as their out of warranty fixed repair rates are fairly cheap.

Pretty sketchy, huh?!?

http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Bu...anyID=13163480

:appl:

So, it seems that there aren't a lot of online dealers in Canada?

www.creativesound.ca
www.2loud4you.ca
www.solen.ca
www.modzdistributing.com

those are the only four i know; they cover pretty much everything i would buy online. i still think it's important to support your local dealer though.

I agree with supporting the local dealers. But, what do youdo when you can't find a local dealer you can work withor trust? Sometimes you know what you want and just want to buy it already, it's not always about the best price, not for me anyway. :ohwell:
Thanks for the links - I already deal with Solen for home audio product.
But they don't sell amps or head units. :dunno:

Its all a gamble at the begining but once you have established a working relationship with a B&M store or E-tailer you build the trust. Make little purchases at first to test the waters sort of speaking.

Over the last few minutes I've been browsing SmartAss's site - I feel like a dumb ass for not clicking on the banner before! :smokin:

He he no problem, it just went up today. :)

I was just checking that out right at the moment as well

:smilie_da

Some of us are just way to flippin busy installing gear right now to even think about building a website. I'm open for inquiries by email or PM if Smartass does not have what you are after.

The other thing with canadian online stores is their brand name stuff.Names I've never heard of.If they do have the odd Infinity or Clarion it's usually cheaper at Futureshop.

Yes FS on the odd item may be cheaper but unless FS is blowing it out the door or on a sale or getting rid of stock we can usually beat there prices. Also alot of the big names dont allow online sales and because you have not heard of them doesn't make them bad. We carry over 30 lines and the only ones you heard of is Infinty and Clarion?? We also include free shipping and a wiring kit for every amp that FS charges an arm and a leg for. So really are they cheaper??

Sometimes the lesser known brands are BETTER than the bigger names!

Agreed :)