"The second dealer gave us the name of a contractor who we really liked. "

is it wrong to ask the second dealer to match the first dealers promotion?

" I also really like the contractor and I'm not sure if i feel comfortable asking him if we can go with the cheaper dealer.

You can ask for them to price match, they can agree to or not. As far as taking the second dealers recommended installer and asking them to install another dealers product, that in my opinion would be tacky and I would not be surprised if he flat out refused. Were the dealer who recommended him were to find out, he would most likely never get a referral again.

Thank you. I agree and would never ask him to install the other dealers cabinets even if they were cheaper.

Price matches are tough in the kitchen industry unless you have an actual cabinet and moldings list to make sure it's apples to apples! If you did that and they are still $2k more....you can ask. Maybe they'll go halfway at $1000?

The KM promos are not advertised to the public. They are sales incentives to help salespeople sell the product. They leave it up to the dealer to advertise it or make it known to the end user.

Unless you have a very very detailed actual full Item list, the two are very unlikely to be "the same" design. A B18 in a design can have about 43 different options to it, and that's not counting the material and finish options, which puts it into the thousands of options. One design can superficially resemble another, but the actual details will be quite different. A semi custom line and up is quite difficult to compare apples to apples, as individual designers design differently, even with "the same" measurements provided.

Wow that is so helpful. Thank you both. I was just using the general sale of 20% off at the one dealer vs 10% off at the other. Both quotes, while a little different, were reIatively the same price before discounts at 20-21k. 2K was just a general difference of the 10%.
Also, had no idea the KM sales are not advertised to the public which explains why I haven’t found a single other advertised at Vantage dealers.

Then this is probably what happened. The cheaper dealer probably gave you the full percentage off YOUR COST. While the more expensive dealer probably took that percentage off HIS COST...that way his profit margins stay where he wants them.

I would ask for a match or at least meet in the middle.

Also think about this: A dealer that is GOOD at ordering and project managing is worth his/her weight in gold. A bad dealer can make mistakes that affect you and your project schedule. Go with the one that works with the installer. A good "TEAM" is also worth it's weight in gold. My installers started with my company back in 1985. We were all in our 20s! It was my parents business. I am now almost 60....we have worked together for 40 years! We barely have to speak to each other. hahaha

Always negotiate.

It's fair to say "I have 2 bids - yours is XX% higher. I would rather go with you because XX reason, but I'd like you to be at this price" - $XXX perhaps giving some (or asking for the match, and expect them to counter with somewhere in the middle.

People appreciate you being direct, honest, fair and giving them the opportunity to compete for your business instead of you just going somewhere else and not providing any feedback. Also - they appreciate saying that you are willing to pay more because you prefer to do business with them.

In my most recent bid- I had 2 fence installers. SAME product, same linear footage. One was 20% more. I asked higher priced guy to reduce his price 10% because I thought his bid was more detailed and I appreciated how professional they were. (I had also gotten a financing offer from them that indicated they were likely subsidizing the rate there, so figured they had some room). They agreed and we went to contract signing.