I have seen a lot of online gear come into my shop for service I do the work and then point out that had they bought in my shop the work would have been covered by their warranty usually they will look a lot closer at my prices and see that they could have bought the same piece of gear cheaper from me with a warranty. As an instructor , salesman and service tech. I get to talk to my students early on and show them the benefits of buying at our shop but I also tell them to price it online and really look we are usually right there in value. I do know there are a lot of shops that are way over priced so You really need to look for the right shop as much as the right gear.