I was looking at the "price paid" thread and realized that my local dealer in Seattle is quoting exorbitant amounts of money for the models plus huge tax rates, and they are not willing to go down a penny! I would be happy to drive down to Oregon if I can get a good deal there, but the catch is they don't say the prices on the phone and it's a 3h trip after all.

If anyone has recently bought a Roland HP203/207 or DP990 in the area, or knows/can find out the price... can you please PM me? Any information is greatly appreciated!! (I can also tell you the specific store I'm interested in)

Nadia,

The only Portland Roland dealer for the HP series is Michelle's Piano. Hopefully this is the one you're interested in.

Two things to consider

Retailers of Roland's HP series are contractually bound to not give phone quotes. These contracts are set up to prevent dealers from siphoning off sales from neighboring dealer territories. Obviously, this scheme makes price comparison difficult for consumers. Also, a dealer receiving your call cannot be sure that you are a potential customer. You might be a rival dealer pretending to be a customer or even someone from Roland itself (although that is unlikely). You may get an indication of price on the phone if you mention the best price you have been offered locally on the specific piano you want and ask if it's worth your while to make the road trip to get a better price.

The other thing is that you probably don't have your local dealer's best price. You mention "quoting exorbitant amounts of money for the models plus huge tax rates". In my experience at least, getting quotes on different models does not get you bottom line prices. Those prices become part of the conversation when you have narrowed down your choices and are ready to commit to one instrument if the price is right.

Yes, I know I should negotiate the price, but they said they are not going to go down and the prices are set by the manufacturer! Maybe I'm just not good at bargaining, but I'm not sure how else to go about this. In any case, they are probably not going to go down $800-1k, and that's about how much more they want (for HP-207) than the average listed in the "prices paid" thread. 10% sales tax doesn't make it any more affordable either.