Quote Originally Posted by Rambozo View Post
The reason a lot of LWS's don't mark prices is that they charge different prices to different customers. It kinda sucks, and like some musical instrument shops, you are expected to haggle for a price. I hate that and generally will not shop at a place like that. One thing that helps is to apply for an account at a LWS, and then they tend to treat you better. I still like to support the smaller mom and pop shops, but all the ones in my area have been bought up by the big chains, and the customer service was lost in the transaction. It's kinda sad when I get better communication and customer service from on online seller, than a local shop I can walk into and talk to someone.

I wonder how much the difference is for opening an account with them, versus getting the student discount. I bet it's really not much better. At my old job, we dealt with numerous suppliers for welding supplies, simply due to outrageous prices from ALL the LWS! At school, my instructor told us that the welding suppliers in this area are outrageously expensive and that he wouldn't do business with any of them (if he wasn't the head of the welding department at the local JC). He said the same about all the steel suppliers as well, and I've found that to be true too!

I didn't pay much attention to it when the salesman was talking about refills, but I think he said a regular price on filling the 150 CF bottle was like $92.00...the 250 CF bottle was $108!!! And all this time I thought you were supposed to get a discount on refills by buying a larger bottle! The only reason I got the $35 charge for the Argon was because of my new (empty) cylinder purchase. I really wish I could have gotten a used cylinder off of Craigslist or locally (and inexpensively). What is the point of buying a new cylinder if it's going to get traded in for a used cylinder the first time you exchange bottles?