Working with Audio Salesmen


Recently I posed the question "What to upgrade next?" and received a lot of help and a lot of suggestions from the kind contributors of this site. I like the contributions of all of the regulars on all of the various threads. I may not necessarily agree with everyone on every topic; How could I? Everyone sees things from a different perspective. Some have a lot more in the way of funding to pursue every rabbit hole in the hopes of finding the elusive game. I glean knowledge from everyone except those who have nothing to contribute but to mock other contributors. I want to listen to music in the best possible way I can afford and unless I win the Mega Millions this is likely the last major audio purchase I will be making for the foreseeable future. I have upped my game in the audio aspect significantly from where I was even a few short months ago thanks to each of you. Instead of buying just one thing to give me what I was looking for I worked with someone who designs systems to give me a few components to achieve what success I may on the budget I have. I've bought a Parasound Hint 6 Integrated, a pair of Bowers & Wilkins 606 S2s and a pair of REL T7i's. This seems like it will be a really nice fit for me and what I already have. Before I took the leap I already owned a Denon receiver that was handling both stereo and HT duties, neither well, a full compliment of Polk speakers, floorstanders and bookshelves and center. This was augmented with a Bob Carver designed Sunfire Cinema Grand 5 which pushes 200wpc on 5 channels. I thought it sounded fair but knew it didn't sound great. So this is my dilemma. I agreed to purchase the suggested items and like a dummy spent an extra sixty dollars to overnight a check because like every kid waiting for Christmas it couldn't get here fast enough. To my dismay I was informed the salesman had none of these items in stock and it would be weeks before I received what I had paid for. I got the integrated first and boy did it make a difference. The speakers came today and are being gently broke in or run in as some call it. I have no clue about when I will be getting the subs and without them the speakers are kind of deflating at this point. My question is is this normal and to be expected? I got the usual explanation everyone uses right now which is Covid has supply chains depleted. I can understand this but shouldn't I have been informed beforehand?
dadork
@OP,
I would be annoyed at your dealer's behaviour.
If he helped you put the system together, he should have given you a heads up on when the equipment would be arriving, and if there were to be delays, at least let you know as soon as he/she did.
And, at least credit you for cost of expediting the check to him- Perhaps an interconnect.
Bob
There are plenty of very real and impactful supply chain disruptions caused by the novel coronavirus and you can expect more. Anyone building anything of significance knows this. But the mantra is always: how much $, in stock, NIB ? Latest firmware,  finished goods at supplier or are they building it, ship date from supplier and a gut feel check on that...by you and the dealer.
have fun ! Enjoy your tunes :-)
@millercarbon I think I'm going to take the high road on this one as well as your advice as far as making sure I have a delivery date for everything. I believe he has given me exactly what I'm looking for in a system. Of course I won't know that until I get the rest of the merch. Also I saved a considerable amount off list price for everything compared to every other retailer. In the end I will have a considerably much better system and as they say, patience is a virtue. We may
have to learn for awhile to cultivate a little more of it.
No its not normal, and the CCP virus is no excuse. He should have told you up front. Same thing happened to me buying my first high end turntable many years ago. Dealer sold me a Graham arm then didn't ship it. Eventually found out he never had it to begin with. Now 30 years later I know enough to ask, because that is not the kind of thing many dealers keep in stock. But you quite frankly, not a knock just frank reality, none of yours is in that category. The guy should have had most if not all in stock. 

Live and learn. Never pay without at least some sort of expected delivery date. Which if they don't volunteer that in itself is a red flag. Then take the big picture, and don't let it get you too upset, but instead just resolve to never make the same mistake again. Which of course means never ever doing business with the same guy again.  

How you handle this, whether you let him know or not, is up to you. But if it was me I wouldn't be pussy footing around trying to protect the identity of a guy who took my money and now is taking his sweet time. I would have plastered his name and company all over the web.