Why Buy Direct From The Manufacturer?

Maybe Etymotic doesn't update their website that often?

I don't know, I've found cameras retailing at their manufacturer's site for 40% more then their street price..

This seems to be very common with high-end earphones.
Shure sell their E4s for $300 but there's a site I found through this place's price-comparison section that has them for not much more than half that.

Basically, the manufacturer doesn't need to be competitive as everyone (including other retailers) buys them off them at some point. So, they sell the product to the public at an over-inflated price not because they hope or expect many people to pay that, merely so that when people do buy direct from them, they'll make a huge profit.

It would be interesting to hear from a manufacturer why they sell it for so much more. It is a n extremely common thing. My guess is they have some obligation to sell at the "manufacturers suggested retail price" (MSRP), which with electronics is often higher than the street price.That makes no sense - they're the manufacturer, so they can set the MSRP to be whatever they want.

And lots of companies drop their prices over time, why should headphone manufacturers be any different?

My Ear Phones have the twisted cable so I am hoping that they are not too out dated. I was surprised that the right earphone wasn't red though.

But a lot of certified re-sellers offer the same product at a significantly reduced price.
There should be absolutely no problem with the warranty if you buy from one of them, that's the whole point of them being certified.

In the case of Shure, they're very generous with their warranty - you get 2 years from the date of purchase, so long as you have proof of purchase. If, however, you don't have proof, you get 2 years from the date of manufacture, which is marked on the earphones themselves.

If you don't mind me asking, what do you mean by 'bad service'?

You mean from the retailer?
Or subsequently from the manufacturer?

The truth is no company is perfect and you'll always get some cases of poor service but that doesn't mean that you should ignore all the resellers and only ever buy from the manufacturer.