IMO if the only Value your Value Added Reseller is providing can be readily replaced by reading the manual then you have a decidedly deficient dealer with whom you should be done.
I used to special order esoteric tech books at a Paris bookseller many years ago. I’d phone and they’d never be there. One day I saw my books on display on a shelf dead opposite the entrance: The shop was selling them, reordering, selling again, reordering, and if the books stayed there for a bit longer they’d call me and deliver my (unsaleable) copy.
But I needed those books for my PhD. In fact I’d already paid for them.
I never bought a book there again.
In the photo trade what the dealer does is sell you the lens that has already been rejected as unsharp by a “pro”, which is why a lens bought from him by a random buyer will never be good. My Nikon dealer in Germany was honest, he said he had people test the lenses on location, and usually sent two out of three back; a Paris dealer will just sell all three, one to a “pro” and the other two to suckers. If the sucker returns the lens it will go to another sucker and in the end maybe to an institution.
Dealers have all sorts of tricks to make money; the interests of their customers come last. Many of the customer service issues we hear about actually come from bad dealer behaviour - buy from B&H or another big house and you’ll have a better chance of stuff that works out of the box.
Edmund
