Personally I would go for one where you can visit the workshop. I burned £240 on a well known bat last year that lasted half a season and 500 runs. In fact it was a replacement bat for one that fell apart after about a hundred runs. Not through use - it was a fault in the wood that wasn't visible on the surface. Nevertheless it doesn't fill you with confidence that the wood is actually grade 1. The 500 run bat was not a good looking thing but I decided to go on trust that it was a good piece of wood. I now think that was a mistake.
So for my next bat I will definitely visit the workshop. I was offered £10 off a replacement by email. I doubt that would have happened face to face. I think the replacement bat was one of those that didn't turn out that well so was put to one side to get rid of. If I'd been there I wouldn't have been the one that ended up with it.