How do dealers/dealerships work really?

[tickbitty]

I visited my only local dealership yesterday, and they only had like 3-4 Regency brand inserts, and a dutchwest insert. They were all very expensive. Whenever I look online for some makes that I have seen recommended here, like Lopi or Pacific Energy, their sites always refer me back to that same dealer. So do dealers actually deal with only a couple/few brands in the showroom, but sell pretty much all other brands too?

Do dealerships only run "sales" or whatever on floor models or something, or is there ever a chance of running into a sale on anything else? Or are there really "sales" anyway? I have no problem with dealers trying to make their money like anyone else at all - but this is a little bit of a snooty store that sells more upscale patio furniture than anything and I haven't gotten the best info from them yesterday or in the past. If they mark up their special orders on all the other brands and can't necessarily help me with customer service etc I would probably rather travel a ways to find someone else who carries more stoves or examples IN their store to look at.

How do I know, and is there any possibility of finding a really good deal on a new stove (insert actually). From the looks of the Craigslist choices around here, they are few and far between, mostly really old stuff like "black Bart" and whatever. So finding a really good used one could be a long while.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

 

[jbroich]

I, too, had a bad experience with a store that sold as much patio/grill stuff as stoves. They were uninformative and adopted a very unhelpful attitude generally. I'm so glad that I kept looking and found a mom-and-pop operation. You're going to pay the MSRP +/- $100, so you might as well keep looking for someone informed and friendly.

 

[Nic36]

Before I bought my stove, my experience with the stove stores in my area was not that great either. There are very few stove stores down here and I ended up calling some in Tennessee to see what they had and what their prices where. In person or on the phone, it was as if they were not that enthusiastic about selling me anything. Even worse, the people I talked to had very little knowledge about their stoves. To me, all their prices were terribly high, with the exception of 1 or 2 floor models one dealer could not get rid of. Yeah, I know they have to make money, but it was amazing what the price variations were from one store to the next on the same stove.

The one dealer close to me sold Vermont Castings and Hearthstone stoves. I was really wanting to look at the Hearthstone stoves, but they only had one larger model that I could not use. All the other stuff was VC. I think there are dealers out there that can sell several brands, but they may only stock one particular brand. That's how it was at the stove store I mentioned.

That's why I ultimately decided to order mine off the internet. Better price, and I didn't have to drive two hours one way just to get a stove.

 

[Slow1]

My experience sounds like Nic's

I got tired of visiting stove shops in my area that had very limited stock to show and sales teams that seemed to have very little knowledge about what they were selling - only found one that actually had staff that were wood burners and that one came across as a bit over opinionated to be honest. The attitude of each shop was "hey everyone wants a stove so get in line and just be happy we're talking to you at all." So... after finding a good sweep to do the install I resorted to doing my shopping and reading online. Bought my stove off the net and had it installed. Now the downside here is that I'm not certain how any warranty claim may be handled if it comes up - I simply hope not to have to deal with it, but will do so if it does.