So I want to buy a set of twin tanks, a manifold and bands. Yeah, I can
get them mail order but what the hey, I figure I'll buy them locally -
paying a little more is worth the convenience.

So I email a bunch of shops, asking them what they have and stuff. A lot
of stores in the greater Boston area, but most of them are 30-45 min away,
so I figure this will save me some time (which is worth a lot to me) and
it will also provide the shop fellows a convenient way to tell me what
they have.

Silly, naive me. Every single one of these blessed morons has emailed me
saying "we have plenty of options, come to the store to discuss." Not
even "our options range from X to Y, these are the brands we have, these
are the price ranges." Zero info. Zilch. Nada. None. And here I thought
that the Internet was a way to disseminate information in a quick and
efficient manner.

Free market economies work on the basis of sellers meeting the buyers'
needs - not the other way around: ie, it is a consumer-centric system.
Some shops realize that they cannot compete on price alone, so they focus
on personalized service. And they thrive. Other shops seem hell-bent on
getting customers to do things the way they, the shops, would prefer.
They will NOT sruvive, and deservingly so.

If I am paying a 15-20% premium on a product, I jolly well expect a
reasonable modicum of service (ie, giving me the product/price info I
requested). If I dont get that, why should I pay the premium again??

And I dont buy the "we are afraid you will comparison shop" bullshit -
tough. That's life - you sell stuff, there always will be people who come
in, get info and dont buy. There is no incremental cost to providing the
information when needed, and there is only an incremental benefit. Only
a moron punishes all prospective customers in this manner.

Vandit "irritated"

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Vandit Kalia GO FLYERS!!!!!