What questions should I ask before buying expensive AV gear online in India?

Five questions, asked in writing before money moves. A seller who answers all five without blinking is the kind you want; a seller who changes the subject has answered you too.

First: are you an authorised dealer for this brand? Show me. The proof is the brand's India website, not the seller's word.

Second: will the invoice be a GST invoice in my name? Without it you have no proof of purchase the service centre will accept, and no input credit if you are a business buyer.

Third: does the official India warranty apply, through the authorised distributor? Warranty terms differ by country, and grey stock can be refused service even though the product is real.

Fourth: is this brand-new, sealed, current Indian stock? Not grey, not refurbished, not an open-box unit repacked with fresh tape. The wording matters: "new" alone leaves room; "new, sealed, current Indian stock" does not.

Fifth: who takes my call if it fails in month eight? Not "our support team", a name and a number. A specific answer means someone has thought about it. A vague one means you are the first person to ask.

Why these five and not twenty? Because they cover the three ways an expensive AV purchase actually goes wrong in India: wrong import channel, no paper trail, nobody accountable afterwards. Everything else (price, EMI, delivery date) is easy to compare and hard to get badly wrong. Warranty channel is the reverse: easy to skip over and expensive to discover later, usually with a 15 kg receiver sitting dead in the rack.

I would also add a habit rather than a question: at two or three lakh, do not make it a midnight card payment. Make it a conversation first. How a seller behaves when you ask about the room tells you a lot about how they will behave when something breaks.

We will answer all five for any product on the site, in writing, before you order. Send the model on WhatsApp and ask.