in a thread about which electric forklift would be "best", [that seemed to me was getting a little "off topic" from the question asked], duodeluxe made a couple of points that were very interesting to me, (and hopefully to someone else, to keep me from typing for only my own amusement).

My remark was that; "Any dealer that won't at the least provide a demo unit should not be considered."
this prompted a reply from duodeluxe that [among other points] said;
"What if a customer said they wanted a mechanic to come and fix their forklift truck for free and if they liked their work then they might call them back next time..... Better yet call 5 different ones and then see which one you like the best."
to which I reply;
Many times I have had customers [who were new to me or the company I worked for] call and offer me the -chance- for their business if I could fix the problem some other companies tech was stumped on, with the caveat that they didn't want to pay for a service call just to be told the same thing the other companies tech said, especially they the tech could not fix it. It's not exactly the same thing, as they were willing to pay IF the tech could fix it. It may not be exactly the same as wanting a totally free service call, but close.
I have also had MANY customers expect a free couple of hours while the tech goes through the customer's in house safety training that the customer safety department put on before the tech could do any work at the customer's location, all before a penny of billing would be considered.
I would love to hear how anyone else has handled that situation.