Webbie,
Thanks for your response.
Do you know which wood boilers are selling direct to the consumer currently?
Well, without counting, I'd say most of them one way or another!
That is, unless you are sitting at their computers you don't know who and how they are selling to.
This is certainly a guess, but I would be very surprised if any of the major boiler manufacturers do NOT sell direct to the consumer.
If I refine your question to "which boiler manufacturers do not have dealer pricing at all" - that would make it more like woodstock. I suspect that most boiler manufacturers do what we did when I ran Tarm - that is, have a better price for true dealers and trade.
I'd say others here are more up on this than I am....but, just for kicks:
http://www.newhorizonstore.com/Category/101-special-deal-overstock-items.aspx
Again, it's another question whether any makers use the exact similar business model - that being an advertising, marketing and sales approach that completely and admittedly bypasses any dealer or trade (no matter what).
I suspect most end customers don't care these days...that is, do you really care whether you buy your iPad from Target, Amazon or "direct" from the Apple Store? I think the product, the value, the price...and, yes, the support (albeit by phone and email) is very important....
Speaking again from my experience, we would usually suss out where the customer lived and if it was in an area where we had experienced dealers or installers, we'd refer them. But this was maybe 10-15% of the country, so when a customer called from elsewhere we would sell them direct if they were dealing with the installation, etc.