After 12 years with my current HK prologic reciever I have decided to purchas a Denon 3808ci
I have searched online and found that the authorized Denon dealers are all $1599. for the reciever but have found prices as low as $1100 from other online stores. Should I pay the 400-500 more to get it from the authorized dealer. Why such a large price gap. I belive the factory warrantee is the same.
Any advice would be helpful websites ECT.
Thanks
Larry
Normally you will pay top retail from authorized etailers. Do you have any electronics stores around where you live? I saved about $400 when I purchased my Denon 2805 buying locally at American Electronics when they had a sale weekend.
I am looking at the denon 2308 or 2808. If you find a good deal online and all goes well (shipping, ect.) please let me know.
If you're looking for cheap, ecost is an option. Be aware however that they have a reputation for zero customer service.
I bought a refurb denon dvd 2900 from them a couple yrs ago for $550 and have had no problems. I recently bought a refurb onkyo reciever my folks from them and had to have it repaired locally before use- apparently they forgot to refurb the refurb. It was a minor repair and cost less than shipping, but there is risk...
You can save some healthy cash though.
If you want Denon to honor the warranty you must buy from one of their authorized dealers. There are some authorized B-Stock dealers (usually 90 day warranty) but the 3808ci is rather new an may not be available from them yet.
As Randy said you might find one on sale but again being fairly new I would expect much of a discount.
Give J&R Music World a call. IIRC they're an authorized Denon dealer and while they post MSRP (or MAP) pricing on their site the deals are usually way better over the phone. I got my Yamaha RX-V3800 for the same price as the lowest of the non-authorized dealers found in the price search engines and since J&R is an authorized internet dealer I got Yamaha's warranty to boot. I've not had to deal with their customer service as everything went smoothly and very quickly but I've no complaints based on my experience.
I just purchased a Pioneer Elite receiver (they also sell Denon) from a store in San Diego. I don't know if they are an authorized dealer but I was thrilled with the service and pricing. They gave me the best price I could find on the receiver I was looking for.
The gentleman who helped me is named Scott. His email is soundpros@earthlink.net and he responds to questions very quickly. Try firing an email to get a quote or warranty information from him. There is also an Ebay store ("Soundpros 877.894.6751"). I hadn't heard of them before but there are no complaints on the BBB, it has good ebay feedback, and my experience was truly excellent.
Good luck.
Be careful of SoundPros. I spoke with them about the Yamaha before my purchase and they were quite evasive when I inquired about the factory warranty. They kept repeating that the unit was covered by "a warranty" which, after a great deal of questioning on my part, turned out to be their own warranty. Since they weren't an authorized Yamaha dealer the factory warranty would have been void and they weren't in any hurry to admit that fact.
With the warranty question out in the open they turned to a very high pressure sales pitch telling me that, "No authorized dealer can sell for a penny less than MSRP without voiding the factory warranty. Don't even bother to look around because you won't find an authorized dealer selling below MSRP who can also guarantee a factory warranty," etc. In the end I beat their price and got a factory warranty by purchasing through an authorized dealer.
Those sorts of things may or may not matter to purchasers but their interactions with me were more than a bit too smarmy for my taste.
I put a call into jr.com and found the price for the denon 2808 or 3808 to be quite appealing.
I believe they are authorized dealers as well.
Hi John. I just wanted to briefly add that we had completely polar experiences.
Soundpros were forthright about the fact that the "warranty" on my purchase is provided only by their store, not the manufacturer.
As a Canadian, most of the real "deals" I find, that are offered by USA retailers or on ebay, carry no warranty protection, either implied or expressed. So, I'll hope that the item I receive is solid and reliable, and if it happens to fail, I have an avenue available from which I can attempt to obtain a replacement or repair.
Also, I must have emailed eight times, with various questions. The person I dealt with never once tried to rush me or use any other pressure tactic.
call John at Axxis Audio. He is located in Durango Colorado and is authorized Denon.
http://www.axxisdurango.com/Welcome.htmlhe's save you a few hundy. I ordered one from him last week.
- Jeff