And, these people are in your specialty. Also, you didn't need to compete with online pricing for your goods and services.

Many of the people that I deal with (men in particular) are highly specialized, very smart and want to feel that they are in total control of their home environment. It chafes them a bit when they call someone like me to do something as simple as setting up a stereo system or computer network. Anyone can do this, right? The worst situation is when I'm facing off with an unseen "expert" friend.

I'm thinking of one MD in particular. We get push back at practically every step along the way, but things really do work better when done our way. He is so proud of his Harmony, but I think that it is a nightmare. When I go in, I simply ignore the Harmony and use the native remotes or go directly to the equipment. I try very hard to leave the system in the same "state" as I found it -- else the Harmony might not be as much fun as usual.

For this type of individual the URC controller based systems are already too expensive and our programming fee should be included with the price of the remote. And, we should not charge more for the hardware than the lowest price that he can find online. Harmony is cheap, his programming is free, and he has a sense of accomplishment because he has full control.

This mindset is very strong in some individuals. Note how aggressively you are plotting against the C4 dealer. You are angry because he seems to be locking in his customers, yet you are proud of your locked up contracts.