OK, time to get on the soap box.
In general, you should purchase your equipment from dealers who are authorized as retailers or sellers of the products you want. This something I find to be a good idea regardless of the stuff you want, be it cheap DJ lights, to high end data communications equipment, you should go through authorized retailers.
Why? Well a recent thread in this area showed some people having issues and problems when dealing with a certain company selling ADJ lights, and this company is, to the best of my research, not an ADJ dealer. And I think that had these posters not bought from that company, they probably would not have had any problems.
Am I saying this just to kiss some ADJ butt? No. I would say this for any type of gear. There is a local pro audio shop who does not carry ADJ gear, so I don't buy lighing from them. Another local pro audio shop is part of a national chain and they do carry ADJ gear, but I don't buy lights from them anymore. I've found another dealer closer to ADJ who is authorized to sell ADJ gear, and that guy is gonna get most of my lighting business going forward.
I'm in a position where I can shop by lowest price because typically I do not need support. Why? Well, gee, I think I can figure out how to use an Audix OM-7 mic, or wireles in-ears or wireless mics or a real time analzyer. I spend a lot of time learning my gear. But as you'll realize over time, sometimes it's NOT about price, or at least price only. What I've learned is to build relationships with those you buy from. Why? Building a relationship equates to better service, which may also result in better pricing or more options. In the event of issues or problems, your relationship helps a lot when stuff goes wrong. And things will go wrong here and there, that's life.
It's not always practical to do all your shopping with one dealer by using this method. I don't worry about this. But sometimes you can.
In closing, your purchases should go to dealers, retailers and sellers who are authorized for the products you are purchasing. This goes for all brands, makes and models, regardless of type of gear. You can guarantee yourself better quality. In some cases, I have heard of people buying something cheap from a non-authorized dealer, to discover it was being sold cheap because it turned out it was part of a stolen shipment of new gear. Ouch!
For used gear, the rules change, so authorized isn't as necessary, but make sure the seller stands behind what they sell. But new gear: authorized only.
And if you need the names of dealers, you can check out links on my web site.
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