Best Buy Magnolia Hi-Fi Rant

[Duffinator]

I go into my local BB that has a Magnolia inside it. I noticed they are now carrying Klipsch RF series speakers so I poke my head inside to see if the have the RF-83's the replacement for the RF-7's. This is my favorite Klipsch speaker and I wanted to see how the new version sounded. They only had the 82's and it was connected to a Denon 3808. In case you don't know I have a 3805 and while I don't know everything about how it works I know a fair amount. The sales guy tells me the Denon is three generations newer than mine. I quickly correct him that it's only two so now I'm ready for more incorrect BS from him.

He puts in a CD and tells me the sub is off. He has it in pure direct mode. Now with a Yamaha (it used to be this way) the pure direct turns off the sub. But with the Denon it leaves it in play which is my preference. After a couple of songs I'm thinking they sound pretty good. The newer compression driver sounds sweet. As I look at the display of the receiver I see the sub is on. I question him on it and he says the right hand display is the input. I again correct him and tell him the input is on the left. He then starts more BS and I correct him again. Then I try and explain to him that if the receiver thinks a sub is connected and is showing on the display then the crossover is active and if indeed there is no sub playing the speakers are not getting the full signal if it's not setup properly. Be careful out there when talking to sales people. On the plus side the guy was very friendly and did offer to check on the availability of some Mirage OMD-28's three times even though they don't have them on the floor for me to listen to.

My mid-fi world can be frustrating at times. How's your day going?

 

[Wafflesomd]

You can't expect much from them. Though they are labeled as HT installers, so I would expect more.

They try though, and they're job is dependant on selling things.

 

[Johnd]

I go into my local BB that has a Magnolia inside it. I noticed they are now carrying Klipsch RF series speakers so I poke my head inside to see if the have the RF-83's the replacement for the RF-7's. This is my favorite Klipsch speaker and I wanted to see how the new version sounded. They only had the 82's and it was connected to a Denon 3808. In case you don't know I have a 3805 and while I don't know everything about how it works I know a fair amount. The sales guy tells me the Denon is three generations newer than mine. I quickly correct him that it's only two so now I'm ready for more incorrect BS from him.

He puts in a CD and tells me the sub is off. He has it in pure direct mode. Now with a Yamaha (it used to be this way) the pure direct turns off the sub. But with the Denon it leaves it in play which is my preference. After a couple of songs I'm thinking they sound pretty good. The newer compression driver sounds sweet. As I look at the display of the receiver I see the sub is on. I question him on it and he says the right hand display is the input. I again correct him and tell him the input is on the left. He then starts more BS and I correct him again. Then I try and explain to him that if the receiver thinks a sub is connected and is showing on the display then the crossover is active and if indeed there is no sub playing the speakers are not getting the full signal if it's not setup properly. Be careful out there when talking to sales people. On the plus side the guy was very friendly and did offer to check on the availability of some Mirage OMD-28's three times even though they don't have them on the floor for me to listen to.

My mid-fi world can be frustrating at times. How's your day going?

I hear you Duffinator, but if the greatest travesty you experience this month is the BB guy misquoting which generation your receiver is, and getting a little confused on whether this model sends a signal to the sub in Pure Direct mode...count your blessings. That is not such a bad experience. At least you were knowledgeable enough to know the difference, and he is "knowledgeable" enough to admit his ignorance on the matter, or at least not argue with you about who knows better. Happy day.

 

[Duffinator]

I've been a Magnolia customer for several years but at this location the quality of their staff is getting worse. Too bad as they used to have a good reputation. I'm sure the long term Magnolia employees cringe at the thought of Best Buy owning them.

 

[stratman]

Man the kids at my local BB/Magnolia are clueless.

 

[Adam]

John makes a valid point that far worse things can happen to each of us. However, to the average consumer who is trusting the store employees' knowledge and spending money based on that - this is not a good situation. Duffinator's rant rings so true for almost all BB and CC audio/video employees that I've dealt with. Yes, a lot of us here will have done our homework and will be able to catch some of their mistakes - but there are many who won't know that the employee is wrong. I didn't use to, and there's still some stuff that they could get by me.

 

[avaserfi]

Man the kids at my local BB/Magnolia are clueless.

I applied for a job at a BB once, they told me I was over qualified for the HT department in my first interview, but sent me on to the second. The guy from the first interview wasn't kidding...I never got a call back after that. I didn't even mention my dislike of monster cables or bose the whole time too! It must have been something about me mentioning proper speaker placement or auditioning speakers .

 

[Adam]

I applied for a job at a BB once, they told me I was over qualified for the HT department...

Over qualified? Yeah, I'd say so. They would have worshipped you like a god.

 

[stratman]

I applied for a job at a BB once, they told me I was over qualified for the HT department in my first interview, but sent me on to the second. The guy from the first interview wasn't kidding...I never got a call back after that. I didn't even mention my dislike of monster cables or bose the whole time too! It must have been something about me mentioning proper speaker placement or auditioning speakers .

They probably saw you as dangerous since you wouldn't push cable (largest profit margin) nor give advise that would benefit BB only the customer. That's a worthy badge to have.

 

[darien87]

Luckily, I have a stand-alone Magnolia down the street from me. But even there, I have gotten bad salespeople. The last couple of times, I kept getting the same guy, whom I DIDN'T want to deal with, because I knew he was a shmuck. He's probably the newest one there, and as such, I guess he's the most eager, which makes him always the first one to come up to me. The last time I went in there, I wanted to hear the difference between an amp and a receiver, but the dork couldn't even figure out how to put the set-up in stereo mode. Lame.

 

[Seth=L]

I wish I could get a job there and show them how it is done.

 

[stratman]

I wish I could get a job there and show them how it is done.

They wouldn't hire you.

 

[Seth=L]

They wouldn't hire you.

I wonder why not.

 

[stratman]

You're over qualified! Now I, on the other hand.........just on looks alone, would be given the keys to the store!

 

[Seth=L]

You're over qualified! Now I, on the other hand.........just on looks alone, would be given the keys to the store!

I do like keys to hi-fi stores.

 

[stratman]

That's right, just pull up that van to the front door and POW! Seth's got a brand new theater.

 

[Alamar]

I'm surprised that the employee knew that there was a pure direct mode let alone what it might do ...

I still remember the time a BB guy tried to push "magic" DVI cables my way ... heh.

 

[Davemcc]

I just managed to spend 20-25 minutes alone in the Future Shop demo room playing with the Energy RC series, quite loud. No salesman even spoke to me.

 

[agarwalro]

This article about B&M sales men in HT area makes for an interesting read, http://hometheatermag.com/bootcamp/404deep/

 

[NeverSeen]

Heh... I had a part time job at Ccity selling big screens a couple years ago...

I remember people would come in thinking they would spend a couple thousand dollars and would come talk to me and walk out with nearly a $10,000 receipt.

Ohhhh the good old days. I would sell a $2000 TV and hit about $3000+ in cables and HT stuff a couple times, every day. I was able to tell them anything i wanted and get them to walk out with it. The rare occation someone knew more than i "acted" to know, i'd quickly end the sales pitch and move right on to the next person. I would get the wife convinced because i knew the guy was already stoked that his wife would let him buy something that it didn't matter. If i could talk her into something, no problem I could talk him into it in a heart beat.

The only good thing i did was not push bose, i would push polk and infinity unless the people were so sold on bose that they wouldn't consider anything else, even after hearing how garbage bose was next to anything polk makes.

Oh, and i also pushed the Onkyo and HK gear over the sony and low end pioneer crap we sold. That was nice of me too.

My average sales would be a 50" HDTV, Polk RM satalites, Onkyo receiver, about 5 sets of monster cables, about 100 foot of MC speaker wire, a MC powercenter of some sort, Service Plans on at least the TV and Receiver, and probably a DVD player (because they were never sure if the one they use now is progressive scan).

Of course now that i'm more into the HT world and actually know what i'm talking about, I don't think i could go back and continue to lie to these poor people.

The discount was amazing and i was able to sleep at night, so no complaints for me . Thanks for bringing back the memories .