That is corect. Any "Authorized" distributor is supposed to advertise only MAP price (Minimum Advertised Price). That is why they are all of the same. If you advertise below MAP the distributor will, at their descretion, take away their discount from the vendor or not sell to them at all. I wrote this on another forum this morning. It explains some of the reasoning:
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I think many folks miss the point entirely. One of the most important reasons why not to have products sold on internet auction sites is that by preventing such the manufacturer can maintain a certain good will, or image with the customer. What I mean is, who knows who the person is that you are buying from on the action site. Are they going to be able to fulfill your needs later with questions or handle warranty issues? Probably not. More than likely it is an individual who is buying and selling commodities and knows nothing of the product he/she is dealing with. They're just trying to make a quick buck. If you later need something from them and they're out of business you will be left with a bad taste in your mouth. Imagine that you purchases a new computer at a local store. A month later it stops working. You bring it back to find out that the store is closed. Now you have to send it back to the manufacturer. I can honestly tell you that most, if not all, of the vendors who advertise on TheDieselStop will take care of you after the sale. No tail light warranties here. Heck, most of the time we pick up the freight charge so it costs you zippo.
The manuf. also want to keep their price at a certain level. Without a MAP policy, the price will be dictated by people who think they can live off of a 5% margin. I can tell you, those people will not last in this (or any) business, and will eventually close. How does that benefit you the consumer when you try to take care of a service need? All of the larger Diesel Performance outlets will not even bother with carrying that manufacturer's brand if they have to try to compete with these "value" type of retailers. We were approached by a company who is highly known in the Diesel Perf. business. They wanted us to stock their products. Once we saw their pricelist and realized that there was only an 8% profit on many of their items we told them sorry and good day. Heck, landing cost you have to factor in at least 4%. So therefore many manufacturers have a MAP.
Not trying to frost anyone, just trying to illuminate the terrain that we find ourselves curentley deployed on.
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Just a little more insight for you so you understand