Online purchase?

firstbase

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hi to all - long time lurker now getting around to forking out the money for a new ZTR/YT/GT. Won't get in to that mental battle .... yet! Curious about the online sites I have seen i.e. mowersdirect/powerequimentdirect, Wisesales (Illinois I believe). Obvious savings of tax, obvious loss of dealer on purchase. Anyone have any experience with them at all? Buyer beware or a good deal? Do they ship direct from manufacturer without a runthrough or set up? Any comments apppreciated!

Oops. Just realized Wise is an advertiser on this site.....hopefully I will get real feedback!
 
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hi to all - long time lurker now getting around to forking out the money for a new ZTR/YT/GT. Won't get in to that mental battle .... yet! Curious about the online sites I have seen i.e. mowersdirect/powerequimentdirect, Wisesales (Illinois I believe). Obvious savings of tax, obvious loss of dealer on purchase. Anyone have any experience with them at all? Buyer beware or a good deal? Do they ship direct from manufacturer without a runthrough or set up? Any comments apppreciated!

Oops. Just realized Wise is an advertiser on this site.....hopefully I will get real feedback!

When I read mower reviews on MowersDirect and they comment about the shipping process all I ever hear is good things; they also say it's quick. The only negative I hear is it is difficult to get the mower out of the crate it comes in, which could be a good thing! But the lack of dealer support is a negative.
 

firstbase

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Thanks for the comments. I am never quite sure how much faith to put in to the online reviews on a dealer/manufacturers website as it would seem they could exercise control over them. The delivery would seem to be a roll of the dice on which driver you get. Lift gate delivery will get it to the ground but it would be huge to get it moved to the garage or at least near it. I would think that a sawzall, hammer and a good drill with bits could get it out. I guess my concern is whether it was setup propery and then warranty problems. Not too worried about a lawn/yard tractor as I am more familiar with them but I am also looking at ZTR's which I have never owned. I guess warranty problems could be handled by a local dealer but there is nothing like taking something broken back to the guy who swore up and down it would never break! Nothing is free right? I guess the trade off for no taxes is all these things....
 
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Ric

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Thanks for the comments. I am never quite sure how much faith to put in to the online reviews on a dealer/manufacturers website as it would seem they could exercise control over them. The delivery would seem to be a roll of the dice on which driver you get. Lift gate delivery will get it to the ground but it would be huge to get it moved to the garage or at least near it. I would think that a sawzall, hammer and a good drill with bits could get it out. I guess my concern is whether it was setup properly and then warranty problems. Not too worried about a lawn/yard tractor as I am more familiar with them but I am also looking at ZTR's which I have never owned. I guess warranty problems could be handled by a local dealer but there is nothing like taking something broken back to the guy who swore up and down it would never break! Nothing is free right? I guess the trade off for no taxes is all these things....

Buying a mower online is risky. Personally I've seen that type of thing cost people more money in the long run than if they purchased from a local dealer. Buying online to avoid taxes is a gamble and you really don't know what your buying, they can be advertising one and you can end up with something different and trying to get warranty work done isn't a good deal either. Buy from your local dealer and support the the small business owner, you'll be better off all the way around.
 

firstbase

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Generally will spend more money supporting the local folks, hate going to HD or Lowes, etc. Just the amount of money saved upfront caused me to question the thinking. I think subconsciously I want to here bad stories on this subject so I can rest my mind and do the sane thing for my wallet. I would be interested to here what the supporting vendor Wise Sales has to say. Seems like a quality vendor would be well versed in answering these types of concerns. Wonder if they read what we type? Thanks for the input Ric.
 

motoman

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A couple of things related in a roundabout way...I was surprised this week when an amazon vendor collected WA sales tax. I do not think the fed legislation pending has cut in so it must be voluntary. I used to buy tires online, but recently stopped. With a local shop (America Tire) matching price (prety much), it's a price wash once you figure in mounting , balance and freight against local tax adder. Just a thought. Freight can kill these days'
 

RatRacer

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hi to all - long time lurker now getting around to forking out the money for a new ZTR/YT/GT. Won't get in to that mental battle .... yet! Curious about the online sites I have seen i.e. mowersdirect/powerequimentdirect, Wisesales (Illinois I believe). Obvious savings of tax, obvious loss of dealer on purchase. Anyone have any experience with them at all? Buyer beware or a good deal? Do they ship direct from manufacturer without a runthrough or set up? Any comments apppreciated!

Oops. Just realized Wise is an advertiser on this site.....hopefully I will get real feedback!

I just did this, as much as I didn't want to, because the local guys didn't even want to try. Saved me ~$900 doing it, but tolerance was needed.
In the end, to me, it was worth it.
Do note though, I make my living shipping, receiving, sales and supply. I made sure I had an out at any step, in case something started to become fishy.
The Company I dealt with was Mowers4less.com. From the time I completed the financing package, it took them 8 business to ship from one of their 3 locations, not drop shipped from factory, for whatever reason. Since they paid the freight tab, I was at their mercy for who they used. It took 5 business days to get here, where it would have taken 2 with my preferred carrier.
If you choose to go this route, pm me, and I can give some pointers of what I experienced.
 

RatRacer

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A couple of things related in a roundabout way...I was surprised this week when an amazon vendor collected WA sales tax. I do not think the fed legislation pending has cut in so it must be voluntary. I used to buy tires online, but recently stopped. With a local shop (America Tire) matching price (prety much), it's a price wash once you figure in mounting , balance and freight against local tax adder. Just a thought. Freight can kill these days'

Currently it's a state thing, and if the shipping location was located within WA. EBay vendors do it that way too, for within state sales.
 

motoman

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Rat Racer, Sounds like you had it wired. Good. The amazon vendor was in Long Island NY. Ebay has not yet charged me WA sales tx. I do not mind paying sales tax as the infrastructure is crumbling hereabouts. Bridges down and rusty , etc. motoman
 

firstbase

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Thanks for the comments and Ratracer I will definitely pm if I do decide. Your savings of $900 was pretty significant. My purchase will be $5000+- so we are talking $300 or so in FL tax plus whatever discount there is on the mower (not that I seem to be able to decide which one of those either). Also, something I didn't think about is that my local dealer(s) can work some finance magic and get several other pieces of equipment thrown into the 0% for 24-36-48 months deal most manufacturers have going on.
 
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