THE BLOATED BOOK PRICE................

[ThePoetSuede]

many dealers give whats called the "book price" on their equipment. They then discount the entire price at the end of their proposal. that makes it difficult to really see what a particular item is being sold at.

Will a dealer provide a "real cost" proposal?

Again, in the NY area I have quotes from (2) dealers and so far they are bloated costs with discounts of 22% applied at the end of the proposal.

Is this common practice?

[neal]

Dont they do that so you can get extra money for the install ? We found the best dist , price and equipment mix was Dexter

[ThePoetSuede]

Yes. They help apply the savings toward installation, construction if needed.

What I am interested in is how do you really know what the bottom line price would be for say the 18lb washers. If the bloated price is $3000 and at the end of the proposal you have an overall 22% discount it doesn't necessarily mean the 18lb washer is getting a 22% discount and even if it were that would make the selling cost $2,340. From what I've read an 18lb washer should average at $2,000.

So again, Is it okay to to get a breakdown from the distributer indicating HOW the discount is applied?

[SuperMatMan]

I'm building a store now, and my quote has what I am paying for each machine, and the extended cost for quantity. Personally I don't care what the "list" price is, because the machines aren't selling for that. Obviously they provide a base number to work with, but the only thing that matters is what you are going to pay. My set up and install was a seperate line item. If you want a line item quote, ask the distributor to give you one. If he doesn't, find another distributor. There are many in this area.

[petefritz]

I always bought machines the same way SuperMatMan has mentioned. List price? Don't know, don't care. get quotes from 3 dealers and go from there. Not all machines are the same price, so you have to decide if a particular brand is worth more of less than another brand.