Stupid retail stores!!

[dolphinius_rex]

I am *SO* sick of going into retail stores, and asking questions about media, and getting really stupid replies. Or worse yet, people who think they can get away with lying to me.

Example, I go to retail store "A" (I don't want to get sued!) and walk into the computer department and I ask what their highest quality media is. Now if this is a return visit for me, the people have usually wisened up enough to say they don't know, which is a fair, and ABOVE ALL honest answer. Now, the really annoying one's usually respond like this (almost ALWAYS without fail!) well it's brand "X" (usually mentioned is Sony, or Memorex, depending on the store)... okay, that in itself sounds reasonable right? here's where I get pissed off; I ask them WHY they consider the media the best quality? 5 times out of 10 I'm told they feel this way because that's what the most people buy from them.... 4 times out of 10 they say it's the one they personally prefer and it's never given them any problems, however after further questioning I discover that only means that the burn process doesn't fail, and has nothing to do with actual CD quality. And 1 person out of 10 will say, you know, I just kinda like it, or I don't really know.

Very similar things are said when a sales rep is asked about the highest quality CD burner available in store. I'm almost ALWAYS told Plextor, or Sony, but nobody EVER knows why, or even offers any reaosn better then, "that's what I've heard"

Some times I ask which drives support 99min CD-Rs. *MOST* reps. will admit they never heard of 99min CD-Rs, one person went the extra mile and tried to do an impromptu websearch for the information. He didn't come up with anything, but I was really impressed that he tried! and 1 person (and I REALLY chewed him out for this) immediatly pointed me to a Plextor drive (not the new 48x that I believe actually does support 99min CD-Rs) I believe it was either a 24x or a 32x plextor drive, which does NOT support 99min CD-Rs, only 94:59min. This says to me that the person was pretty much going by reputation of the drive, and had no actual knowledge.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, it may be normal for computer sales reps to be REALLY stupid, but it doesn't have to be! And I for one try to visit computer stores whenever possible to help educate the "certified" idiots out there.

The sad thing is, I can't even get a job in this sort of field because I don't have the certification!!

anyways, that's my rant

[Ian]

I feel your pain. When out media shopping I usually hear the store employees recommending the black bottomed media to people, telling them they "sound better".

[TheWizard]

They may not be as stupid as you think, depending on what brand their boss wants them to sell.

I concur, most of the computer salespeople at retail stores are morons, but this is business. Black-bottomed discs are usually more expensive than silver-bottomed discs, hence of course salespeople will try to sell the more expensive discs, especially if they are working on commission.

I agree, it's kind of depressing, but it's business.

[dodecahedron]

dolphin, sounds to me like you are baiting them...
your problem is that your expectations are too high .
do you think it's any better in any other field of sales?
say electronics, home appliances, cars, pet shops, whatever?
i think not!

[dolphinius_rex]

Dodecahedron:

Perhaps I do expect too much from them sometimes, but I still don't think that excuses them for attempting to feed me false information.

and since you bring it up, I would DEFFINATLY expect such knowledge from a pet store, and I know that several petstores do go the extra mile on that one, since my sister used to work for petsmart. They are VERY gruling on the knowledge of the animals.

As for other fields, it depends. I always have high hopes, but I always come prepared in case the sales rep is useless. That's why I like webpages like this one it makes it easier to stay informed!

[Ian]

I love Petsmart. So does my dog.

Great employees too.

[dodecahedron]

Perhaps I do expect too much from them sometimes, but I still don't think that excuses them for attempting to feed me false information.
...
As for other fields, it depends. I always have high hopes, but I always come prepared in case the sales rep is useless. That's why I like webpages like this one it makes it easier to stay informed!

yes, your'e right, no excuse and we should expect knowledge from sales reps..but like you say be prepared and don't take their answers to be absolute...

[Inertia]

Perhaps someone should start a CD-R boutique (akin to the high-end audio boutiques). Then the technobabble trained employees could sell essential products like the AudioPrism CD Stoplight for only $54.95.

But wait, there's more. You also wouldn't want to be without ""...the most significant improvement in CD playback since the invention of the CD", the AudioPrism CD Blacklight. This miraculous device is only $39.95.

Handmade custom CDR's could be sold that were made in a submarine or a space station, giving them special molecular alignment for "vastly superior performance".

They might sell for $125 or so per CD-R, but the true CD-Rphile would buy into the ego exalting distinction of owning something than the commoners couldn't understand or afford.

Need some audio cables? Only $250 (RCA) or $295 (BNC) for a 1 meter AudioPrism Digital Rx Cable. Longer lengths available for only an additional $125 per meter.

[Turkeyscore.com]

Yeah, At one store, a sales rep was saying which cd drives were good, Said nothing about lite on..

[dolphinius_rex]

Inertia: I used to work at a recordable media retail store, that's all they sold!

[Matt]

Employees in the computer department at a Best Buy make what? $5-$8/hr? I'm not expecting them to know why one thing is better than another. I've seen some of the "training" material that BBuy hands out to them and its absolutely attrocious.

From the stores point of view all of the media "works" some just has a higher profit margin than the others. For example when you go to buy a printer, the associates will recommend a "gold" printer cable vs a regular which costs about $5-$10 more. Why? Better signal to noise ratio? etc? Along with 5 printer cartridge replacements ... please.

Best Buy should renamed to be Best Buy"er Beware".

[pkstar7070]

I am *SO* sick of going into retail stores, and asking questions about media, and getting really stupid replies. Or worse yet, people who think they can get away with lying to me.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, it may be normal for computer sales reps to be REALLY stupid, but it doesn't have to be! And I for one try to visit computer stores whenever possible to help educate the "certified" idiots out there.

The sad thing is, I can't even get a job in this sort of field because I don't have the certification!!

anyways, that's my rant

since you are so smart -- "knowing which burner supports 99 min cd", why can't you get certified like those reps did? ANd why are you without a job?

[dodecahedron]

since you are so smart -- "knowing which burner supports 99 min cd", why can't you get certified like those reps did? ANd why are you without a job?

you might want to think a little before making such comments, when ressurecting a very old topic.
dolphin has a job now. selling optical media! a much more professional and "certified" (as you put it) job than those sales reps.
he knows what he's talking about.

and even if he didn't have a job, that doesn't make his statements any less true.

[pkstar7070]

since you are so smart -- "knowing which burner supports 99 min cd", why can't you get certified like those reps did? ANd why are you without a job?

you might want to think a little before making such comments, when ressurecting a very old topic.
dolphin has a job now. selling optical media! a much more professional and "certified" (as you put it) job than those sales reps.
he knows what he's talking about.

and even if he didn't have a job, that doesn't make his statements any less true.

i have problems with comments like this "And I for one try to visit computer stores whenever possible to help educate the "certified" idiots out there." Why are reps idiots? is it just because some of them don't have adequate knowledges about cdr? Those reps could be very knowledgable in other areas of hardware, who knows. IF you want me to respond in a nicer manner then maybe the original poster should edit some of the words, its ok to rant but its not ok to insult others by calling them idiots because those guys don't have as much about CDR.

[dodecahedron]

fair enough...