SamG, Many manufactures have suggested retail pricing for products. A DVD player might have a MSRP of $99 and our cost is $89. A speaker might have a MSRP of $999 and our cost is $499. If I had to sell DVD players like that to make a living I would go look for another profession and leave you to figure things out for yourself (I can't see it from my house). I only sell products like that when it's part of an overall package that I'm making money on, or I might sell one to an existing loyal customer (not worrying about not making any profit on that one piece for him/her). Also, somebody coming to me with all their own equipment to install is going to pay full retail price for any and every accessory I have to sell to make it all work. And pay full labor cost based on time, not estimate - meaning if it takes me 14hrs to install something that's what the customer gets charged, where if they would have bought it from me and I bidded it to take 12hrs then that's what the customer would get charged, even if it took me 14hrs. Oh, since it becomes per hour for stuff I don't sell, the customer better hope they don't have any problems with the equipment they got from someone else or quarky problems because the things they bought don't like being hooked to one another (there are hundreds of brands out there). Cause I'm not coming out to look at things for free that I didn't make any money on, they'll have to pay me every time this happens.
Back to the Manufacture Suggested Retail Price (MSRP). If that $1,500 thing you bought had an MSRP less than $1,500 - then yeah I would think you would be mad, as you got taken. But If the MSRP was $1,500 and you saw it for $1,000 somewhere else, then the $1,000 place obviously is making a lot less profit than what the manufacture or industry says it takes to PROPERLY support this product. Red flags should go up and although you might get a great deal, you have no one to blaim but yourself if something happens that turns the whole experience into a waking nightmare. To be fair - this could happen even paying the full price, that's why it's important to have references and get to know your installing dealer.
Sorry, I just noticed I split the topic - getting into something similar but different.
