Is $500 not much money to you?

It is, but I just felt bad doing that because he was so helpful. He was all ready to ring me up when I told him I wanted to go over the selections with a designer who I was meeting tomorrow. I asked if I could take the list of products with me, but he said no, they don't do that. I then asked if I could photograph it and he said no. When I asked why, he said I could then take it and try to get a better price elsewhere. That's what got me thinking when I went home and plugged in the exact products (which I remembered) and came up with $500 less. $200 is from taxes which I wouldn't have to pay, so they came somewhat close to the internet price. And they were giving me 10% off which is contractor pricing. I asked them if they could go lower since I was buying a lot of lights but they said no.

They did allow me to photograph the lights though. Interestingly enough, the price tags make no mention of company. Again I guess they do that to make it harder for the consumer to compare prices elsewhere.

I feel if the price differential were like $200 or so that it would be worth it for the help I received, but $500? Then again if everyone did that, they'd be out of business I suppose. So that's the conundrum.

You could always ask him to match.
Instead of saying you shopped around, tell him that your designer came up with a price that was $300.00 less (not taking into account tax).
I'm sure that he would match it.

If you ever need a replacement or any kind of customer service after the purchase, do you think the online source will be able to compete with the local store?

We chose to purchase two fairly expensive fans from a local lighting store last year. We found the fans online for maybe a $100 less, but we were wary about dealing with shipment damages and/or finding bulbs or any other customer service issue. Because we'd received excellent customer service and follow up from the local store, we gave them the business.

What clinched the deal for us was the excellent customer service and no-questions-asked replacement policy. We've already exchanged one fan, which we thought was faulty. Turned out to be a simple problem with the light kit (and maybe DH's installation--LOL!)

$500 is a lot, but what are they offering for that extra cost?

I shopped around numerous lighting stores for my kitchen, & ended up buying them online.

Now I need LR lighting, so I'm looking again. I've also been looking for one last lamp for my kitchen & at last I found it! At my local store! On sale!

Because they were SO helpful (& always have been, for that matter) I'm probably going to get my LR lighting through them. I figure a little bit of online, a little bit of giving the locals the business, & everyone wins. I don't have 'extra' money to spend, but if my local business(es) close because of online buying, it wouldn't help anyone locally in the long run.

JMHO :)

They are offering to include the lightbulbs for free. I'll ask about the return policy. Thanks.

I am purchasing all of our faucets for our new house online after the quote from a plumbing store was much more. The online price was also no tax; however, my DH who is a CPA said the tax needs to be on our state tax form when we file. Gotta love him 'cause he is as honest as the day is long.

We haven't gone to the lighting store yet, but I have looked endlessly online to narrow down options and check pricing. I hope to have a good idea of what I want before I go to the lighting store and try to get as close to the online price as possible. I tend to feel quilty when I get good customer service, but want the better price too.