This comes up all of the time, and a lot of dealers don't understand the ramifications of them buying seperate upper halves and lower halves and selling them as "rifles".
If a dealer is snapping them together from upper halves and lower halves, he becomes responsible for paying the excise tax, which he can't do unless he's licensed as a manufacturer, in which case he has to pay it on the higher value of what he's selling it to you for versus what what we sold it to him for when we pay the tax.  As a private individual, you/me/anyone legal to purchase can assemble all of the rifles we want for PERSONAL USE.  Anyone assembling for RESALE is subject to the11% excise tax, and a dealer FFL does not allow a dealer to assemble, or even to legally sell you both components, or all of the parts,as that represents a rifle in what is legally described as "knock down" condition.
Even at $700, a dealer has lost money if he sells you a NEW CAR A4 w/6-position stock that was purchased as a complete rifle at dealer pricing, and that's before he paid to have it shipped to him.
Hope that helps.
Steve/RRA

Steve also please comment upon what the warranty is when a customer calls up on his dealer assembled kit rifle and it does not work?

Going with low bidder is not always the best choice.

Nobody wants to end up with something that isn't what they thought that they were buying.
Several times each week I have to tell some poor guy that what he thought was a RRA rifle is, in reality, something built on a factory-shipped stripped lower or a lower half .  He could have one of our uppers on it, or our parts kits in it...but also very well may not.   I get to hear about our A1s (we never made, used, or shipped an A1). I get to hear about our fluted varmints (never happened).  And more.
That's one of the reason we went to laser engraving the uppers that are sold as upper halves and rifles differently from stripped uppers etc....to better let us and you determine how they left the factory.  We certainly warranty the FACTORY assembled uppers, lowers, and rifles...and we even try to help people who got taken advantage of, but we can't warranty what isn't ours.
Yes...some dealers are exposing themselves to some horrible personal and tax liability.  Many don't even understand that they are doing it.   Some dealers do survive on a next-to-nothing margin on the base rifle to sell accessories that may have a better margin and make their profits there, but I don't know of anyone who routinely sells below cost.
I'll go back to the axiom that if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Stick with reputable dealers (physical or on-line).  If in doubt about a configuration, get a serial number and call me...I can tell you how it left the factory.  Be leery of complete RRA rifles with single-stage triggers...as a general rule, we don't make them (we do under certain circumstances, but it represents less than 1% of what we send as complete rifles).  Ask about the box, warranty card, and manual.  Be smart about what you buy.
"Nuff said."
Steve/RRA