Anyone have problems w/McIntosh warranty

Here is the warranty statement buried inside Mac's website. Beware whenever someone tells you that their policy is for your own protection...

For the Consumer's Protection
In order to ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction, "new" McIntosh products may only be purchased over-the-counter or delivered and installed by an Authorized McIntosh Dealer.

McIntosh products that are purchased over the Internet, by phone or mail order are presumed to be "used" and do not qualify for any McIntosh Warranty. McIntosh does not warrant, in any way, products that are purchased from anyone who is not an Authorized Dealer or products that have had their serial number altered or defaced.

I did a dealer search for a short radius around my zip code(not in a metro area) and was surprised how overdistributed Mac is, even into some very small retailers of scant significance to the market. I would venture to say that Mac might have the largest dealer network in high end audio. Mac goes as far as to award dealers with several levels of status, probably based upon stocking levels and volume. Their warranty policy is obviously crafted to minimize competition among dealers & probably violates interstate commerce rules as well as consumer protection regulations.

Bigbucks5, If the unit is shipped across state lines & original receipt is necessary to obtain Warranty service, then the lack of sales tax on the receipt would reveal a violation of stated terms.

As one who has managed a large dealer channel in another industry, IMO Mac's policy betrays a failure or unwillingness to enforce policy through its dealer network. A dealer might justifiably be held to account for such policy, but it's another thing altogether to pit the consumer against the dealer on this point.