I get annoyed with Sweetwater, mostly because they call me up every few months and try and twist my arm for my business. The they'll send me some "secret offer - only sent to the privileged elite" that supposedly has "once-in-a-lifetime, never-to-be repeated" prices. So I'll call the "sales engineer" (love that technical talk) and get a list of prices on items I'm vaguely considering for the future. Then I'll call my local pro dealer, and without telling him about Sweetwater or mentioning their prices, I'll ask him for a list of prices on the same items.
Gosh darn if on almost every item, my dealer's "regular" friendly discounts are anywhere from 10-20% lower than Sweetwater's "once in a lifetime" deals.
I actually have no objection if a dealer wants to charge a premium based on some extra value that they perceive they are offering (although I'm not sure what that would be in this case.)
Just don't yank my chain about "best deals in the universe" when they aren't even close to being competetive to what I get as regular pricing, and then come to me whining about why i don't give them more business.
We won't even get into the other areas where they fall way short of my local dealer, like:
•lending me gear just cause I need something for a session.
•sending me collections of particular pieces to do free comparison testing for a week.
•giving me advice i can trust (not based on which manufacturers they have sweetheart deals with. Remember the fabulous Oram line?)