Not trying to beat the horse anymore, but as a vendor and parts retailer, I like to see customers support their local distributors. HPI is a labour based business, and we like to make our parts sales to maintain our distributor price points but retail is not a focus. I can totally see how hard it can be for a purely parts retailer to survive off the small margins in this specialty stuff. (not condoning the poor decisions some make). What I CAN tell you is that companies like us use the brands and parts we sell on a daily basis and sometimes are a better source of support than the larger manufacturers! We typically sell to local customers, and take on the costs and responsibility of shipping, damage, mistakes etc in exchange for retail pricing. Add our knowledge support and it's a pretty good deal!
All I am saying is that I feel it is still important to support local distributors as well as vendors on this site, as buying direct is not always the best thing for the industry as a whole, but just pay attention to feedback etc. an honest distributor will disclose as much info as possible, especially about lead times on orders. Us distributors even run into the non-shipment or delays just like the consumers, trust me!
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