I guess I should have been more clear. Gaggenau's huge increase was announced in Q4 of 2008, not "last" year. Still was bad timing in light of last year's "crisis" but they are still around and aren't going anywhere or announced any plans to lower their pricing structure. Like I said or alluded to before - not everyone is a customer. I think you are just wrong about these co.s taking advantage of people. No on is coercing you into that Wolf DF range or Gaggenau steam oven, heck neither are anywhere close to necessities. Feel a range is a necessity and don't like that you can't get a "deal" on a Wolf ect? You easily have 2 dozen choices of manufacturers of ranges across lots of price points and they don't have UMRP so the dealers' can charge you whatever the feel like. It's not like 70's-80's Russia where G.U.M's appliance department had 5 ovens in total in the department. They were all the same, including the one in there for service, and the price was not negotiable, you want it? It's an arm and a leg and a wheelborrow full of rubles too. It's not taking advantage of people if you are meeting a need. Should Rolls stop selling or lower prices cars because all American's can't afford one or the economy is in the crapper? Their sales and profits are up. Re: Chrysler. You can bet Nardelli didn't/doesn't want them outa business, the lynchpin in that scenario is that the union has a contract which represents the the bulk of trouble and are unwilling to give in order to make that entity work lest it have severe ramification on the other two's worker bees paychecks. Part of capitalism is rooted in "taking advantage" of the situation. There's a diff. between that and really sticking to somebody though. A high price to change a faucet is not unethical, charging twice your normal high rate to change it because that faucet is spraying water all over the place right now and there's not a plumber around for 50 miles is something different. Marcolo - no, contractors are no more in or outa touch with reality than are doctors, lawyers, dentists, accountants, auto mechanics, bankers, airline pilots or other service providers. Have any of those lowered their fees as a group? Heck no, I'm sure a few have, just like there are some that raised their fees also. Their "potential" customers are the same workers whose paychecks you say are being cut, reduced or eliminated and are being chased by contractors. Also, not everyone's loosing ground , some are rising just as in the go go days we had people loosing hours and jobs.

we were just quoted (fri) a price of $10,312 for the 48" DF Wolf range with 6 burners and a griddle. What were you quoted? Also, SZ is supposed to hike prices on Nov 1st so we just beat that as well.

It seems to me that if it's offered for sale at price X, and you say, "I'll take it," then they are legally bound to sell it you you at price X. You would need to be prepared to take delivery on it as soon as "right now--it's in the back." On the other hand, if you say, "I'll take it, but I won't be ready to take delivery on it until May," then they aren't bound to give you today's price, but deliver it in May. Of course, none of this means anything unless you're prepared to take them to court. Which obviously will cost you far more than the difference in price. (The above with the usual "I am not a lawyer" provisos. Perhaps one of our local lawyers can give more authoritative information on the subject.)

Bluestar raised their prices in Canada June 1/08 if memory serves correct. I bought before then!! :) God, I got such a SWEET deal on mine. Actually, on that subject. Since the CDN dollar plummeted so much lately(which i sooo predicted would happen.....damn, i should have bought US dollars a year ago). Anyway, it *may* be worth it for US residents in or near border towns to take a look into purchasing a Bluestar in Canada. When I purchased mine in the spring(08), when the CDN dollar was at about par with the greenback, I paid less than any price I had seen advertised in the US, and less than any price I had seen anyone on GW or elsewhere publicly admit to paying. Now that our dollar is a good 20-25% lower in value it may be very beneficial to try buying one here. I just thought about this scenerio....I know there has been talk about CDN Costco's having 30" RCS's for $2000CDN...I do remember hearing it has gone up to $2500 tho. But in any case, 2500x.80 is $2000 USD. I am not sure if I should post my price I paid for my 48" RNB, but if you could buy it anywhere close to what I had paid and factor in the current exchange, your head would spin!! lol