Forgive me for intruding here since I'm not a dealer/installer. This just happens to be a subject that hacks me off.

Rant mode on.

I doubt that Philips would do a damn thing. First of all they don't operate through an "authorized dealer" network. They sell to distributors, trying to police distributors would increase costs AND reduce the sales. The "so called" unauthorized sales.

The other side of the coin is the practice of only honoring the warantee if purchased through an authorized dealer. Acoustic Research (one of many possible examples) uses this technique. They do this to supposedly "protect" their authorized dealers. However, AR products can be purchased at HUNDREDS of unauthorized sites all over the net. AR obviously does nothing to stop it. Why? It would reduce sales, and increase costs. Net result is dealers suffer. To make matters even worse, AR doesn't advertise the fact that they won't honor the warantee if purchased through an unauthorized dealer. I.e. no mention is made on their web site. A customer only finds this out when they read the actual warantee card (unlikely) or call for warantee service. Net result - consumer gets nailed and AR saves some money on repairs.

Still other companies (Marantz for example) try to convince you (check the website) that you MUST buy through an authorized dealer for warantee coverage. The actual warantee, however, contains no such provision, and Marantz will honor the warantee regardless of where purchased.

The short version is that economics is a rough beast. Many companies will screw anybody and everybody for the bottom line. Can you spell Enron?

Exit rant mode.

Jim L