Speaking of audio snobs

jeffsg4mac

jeffsg4mac

Republican Poster Boy
<font color='#000000'>Since we are talking about audio snobs I will share a great story with you that happened some time ago. There was a high end store in tampa bay that when it first opened was in a very rich section of tampa called carrollwood. One day a friend and I were out running around looking at stereo stuff and we came across this store. They sold all the high-end gear, Mark Levinson, Magnapan, Krell, Conrad Johnson, Peruex, ect. My friend was wanting a new preamp anyway so we went in to check it out. Well, I guess we were not dressed correctly (we just had on jeans, tees, and hats) or did not have the right car, or smelled funny because right from the start we were ignored. The sales guys were behind the counter gabbing, saw us come in and look around and just ignored us completely. After about 10 minutes of this, my friend wanted to listen to a couple of things and wanted to have some fun too, but more on that in a second. We walked over to the guys and he asked if he could listen to one of the preamps. The guy gave a sigh and grabbed a few cd's and started toward the room. My friend, little did this guy know, was pretty well off with his finances and could afford anything in this store he wanted. My friend now was really getting pissed at this idiots attitude and so the fun began.

He wanted to hear everything, after about 30 minutes or so of this guy sighing and reluctantly playing stuff, my friend walked back out and asked to see the owner. Shocked they all started asking why, what was the matter, ect. Finally one of them walked out back and brought the owner out. My friend laid it on thick right in front of the rude, stuck up sales guy. He told them that he was going to purchase a complete system and was ready to spend 50,000 or more and that for being treated so rude he was taking his business somewhere else. Well the owner was not much better and said that we should have made an appointment, blah, blah, blah. We left the store and went straight over to my friends business, he owned a moving company. Now here is the good part. Sometime during the week  he acquired a bunch of empty boxes as he does use them for his moving business. These boxes were all empty Mark Levinson, and Wilson audio boxes. We taped them all back together, loaded them with some junk and sealed them up. We stacked about $100,000 dollars worth in my truck and headed back to the stereo shop. I wish a had a picture of the owner when my friend had him look out the window of the store where I backed up the truck loaded with all those audio boxes. It was priceless


True story I swear.

Edited for hawke LOL
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Rip Van Woofer

Rip Van Woofer

Audioholic General
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You'd think these nimrods would know that quite often the seriously rich &quot;dress down&quot;.</font>
 
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Z

zumbo

Audioholic Spartan
<font color='#000000'>What a cool story.
Got one for ya.
Called local &quot;high-end&quot; stereo shop to see what speaker brands were offered. They told me &quot;high-end&quot; brands. OH boy, here we go! I asked if they had Def Tech &amp; Paradigm as the phone book stated. &quot;Oh, we no longer carry those brands,&quot; he said. Well I'm thinking it is about time this SOB tells me something. He informs me that they have B&amp;W &amp; Monitor Audio. I asked if he had something in the price range of three. He said, &quot;no sir, this is a high-end stereo shop.&quot; Well, normally I would not have went by, but I wanted to hear B&amp;W and Monitor. Turns out, these bad boys sounded fantastic &amp; I COULD get a system around three. I am spelling it out like that to make a point of how it sounded on the phone. I guess the SOB thought I meant 300. Well I made these guys switch back &amp; forth BTW both brands as I tried to decide on which one I liked better. After about four hours of listening &amp; studying systems &amp; prices. I got as much literature as possible from each brand on different models &amp; left. I had a stack of paperwork. I never told them I was the guy on the phone, but it sure was fun making them work. I did not purchase from them, ended up with MB Quart from YAWA. Now these people know how to treat a customer. Got the same sound at a fraction of the cost.  
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zumbo

Audioholic Spartan
<font color='#000000'>Oh, by the way, I prefered the B&amp;W's over the Monitor Audio. Both were fantastic though!</font>
 
jeffsg4mac

jeffsg4mac

Republican Poster Boy
<font color='#000000'>What a bunch of idiots to make a statement like that, You should have went back there though after you bought the other stuff. It is fun to rub it in. Very fun  


What I really love is when you are listening to something and you ask about a brand they don't carry, they always say something like &quot; Oh this brand kills that brand or we have had problems with that brand&quot; I kid you not this happend to my friend in florida just 4 days ago. He was listening to a sub-woofer at a shop in tampa, not that shop, and the guy was playing an integra receiver, my friend asked what the guy thought about the Denons and they guys says and I am quoting directly &quot; Oh this integra really beats up on the Denon stuff&quot; &nbsp;But they don't carry denon and have never compared the two, but it beats it up anyway. He told me he wanted to choke the guy. Try it youself next time you are in a store. Listen to one thing and then ask about something they don't carry and you know is a little better or about the same and see what they say. I could never run a shop and be dishonest about a product even if I did not carry it. &nbsp;I Just could'nt do it. &nbsp;BTW my friend has a 3802 so he knew full well what the denons are all about.</font>
 
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A. Vivaldi

A. Vivaldi

Audioholic
<font color='#000000'><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">What I really love is when you are listening to something and you ask about a brand they don't carry, they always say something like &quot; Oh this brand kills that brand or we have had problems with that brand&quot; </td></tr></table> &nbsp;Yeh, that happens a lot. What a coincidence! I was at a store once listening to some speakers and asked if they carried psbs and the guy said &nbsp;&quot;Oh, we used to carry those but we think these Regas sound much better&quot;. &nbsp;I don't know if they sounded better, but they were certainly more expensive that's for sure. I'd be willing to bet the store in question probably never carried psbs.</font>
 
A. Vivaldi

A. Vivaldi

Audioholic
<font color='#000000'>Speaking about audio snobs... I once bought a stereo pre-amp that sounded great in the store, but when I got it home and hooked it up to my stuff it didn't sound good at all, so I decided to return it. The salesman sure was nice to me when I was auditioning it, and he got even nicer when I decided to buy it. When I returned it however he got pretty irate. How dare I take one of his fabulous pieces back to his store! I paid cash for it. It wasn't an outrageous sum, about $500 I think, but he didn't want to give me my cash back, instead he was going to give me a check that I had to wait for in the mail. He had no problem taking my cash of course, but when I wanted it back he said that the store simply didn't have that much cash right now. Which was a lie, because after getting nowhere with this guy I asked to see a manager. The manager went into the safe and got me my cash back, without hassle. This salesman actually got physically angry and had the nerve to say to me, right in front of the manager even &quot;You just want the money back don't you? There is nothing wrong with that amp&quot;! Yeh, right. If I needed the money so bad then why did I buy a pre-amp the day before? Who does this guy think he is to talk to a customer like that anyway? He broke one of the fundamental salesman rules, never get angry. I was almost about to drag this guy from behind the counter and mess up his pretty hair. Why is it that just because you buy something at a high-end snob store your not entitled to any rights? They should know that the world of audio is highly subjective. Subjectivism is great when it works for them, but they don't seem to like their highly subjective clients too much when they want to return something. Places like Best Buy never question me or get angry when I return something. In fact, you'd think these small independent high-end shops would go out of there way to treat the customer like a king so they could take some buisness away from these mega stores, but I guess they don't need to because they know there are all kinds of uninformed rich people out there to sucker.  Always ask about the return policy on high-end audio stuff. Many stores won't take back expensive cables and interconnects (gee, what a coincidence) or may give you a hard time. On a positive note, not all high-end stores are bad. There are some good ones that believe in and stand by the products they carry. On an unrelated note but snobbish nonetheless, I was recently refused to use the bathroom at a high-end wine &amp; liqour store. The clerk said that people &quot;disrespect his bathrooms&quot;, and I might hurt myself on all the stock back there. he said... &quot;even if the president came in here, we wouldn't let him use the bathroom&quot;. Well, our humble cowboy of a president wouldn't have bought a $55 bottle of wine like I was going to. I finally got to use the bathroom after complaining to the manager, he said he'd let me use it &quot;this time&quot;. Too bad for him and his store that their isn't going to be a &quot;next time&quot;. I'll buy my wine elsewhere thank you. I'm tired of all this stuck up BS! Mabye I should just become a normal person and not care about anything!
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<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
zumbo : <font color='#000000'>I did not purchase from them, ended up with MB Quart from YAWA.</font>
<font color='#000080'>How did/do you like those MBQuarts? We'll be auditioning some of those shortly.</font>
 
Z

zumbo

Audioholic Spartan
<font color='#000000'>Looks like you will audition the Vera. I have the S-Line. They are true MB Quart. Magnificent! If you read about the build of the drivers at the MB Quart website, you will see they are similar. Even the way the drivers are set in the box. The Vera are going to be overpriced, but I am sure they will have a better sound. Not enough to justify the cost I bet.
Wish you would do a review of the S-Line line! These speakers sound wonderful! I would say the sound is similar to B&amp;W or Monitor, at a fraction of the cost. Looks like the cost has gone up since I purchased mine, but still a very fair price!</font>
 
zipper

zipper

Full Audioholic
<font color='#000000'>I had a similar experience with an Armani &amp; Rolex-wearing Lexus salesman once. But we're not talking about cars.
&nbsp;I went to check out the Pioneer 563a @ Bestbuy &amp; I was fortunate enough to talk to the only guy there that knew anything about audio. He suggested I save my money &amp; buy a more upscale model. Since the 563 was the only model of SACD/DVD-A player they had, he told me where I could find other models. Now, I know this guy doesn't work on commission, but I was still impressed with his honesty even if it was just his opinion, &amp; I told him so. I already knew where to find other, more expensive models, but it was refreshing to deal with someone at a chain store that would be that honest.
&nbsp;I've actually had pretty good luck with most of the salesmen at the local HiFi's, although I have been tempted to put my dunce cap on a couple of times for certain ones that display a little attitude, just to test them.
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Z

zumbo

Audioholic Spartan
<font color='#000000'>Oh, I have another good one. I went to a local mass merchant just to see what they had. When I walked through the door, a salseman came up &amp; asked if he could help. I plainly told him I wanted to see the BEST speakers he had in the store. This nimrod walked up to a Bo$e satallite system &amp; said, &quot;This is our top-of-the-line.&quot; I let him have it. I said, Bo$e are garbage! I walked around the room &amp; noticed they had middle-of-the-line Polks, &amp; even Cerwin Vega, which is better than Bo$e. He walked out &amp; sent a new salseman in who knew a little more about speakers. Anyway, he kicked up the volume on the Polk system &amp; that was enough for me. You folks have a nice day! After I had left, I started thinking those Bo$e might have sounded better than the Polks!
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<font color='#000080'>What surprises me is that since booze is always excluded from promotions - they can't possibly have as high a mark-up - so WHY do these people push them so hard?

I think they seriously believe they are better. Their marketing techniques are that good.

Hmmmm.... It might be a REALLY cool thinig to go into some of these stores with a &quot;dunce cap&quot; on and write an article about how I was treated and what I was told. Figure out which stores equip their salesmen.

If we shake up the industry a bit, perhaps they will be forced to do some education (beyond the grade school diploma requirement). I don't expect much from a Best Buy or Circuit City employee -mind you, but the people in charge of the departments could certianly put together a basic training manual for people to understand the principles behind the equipment they are selling.</font>
 
H

hopjohn

Full Audioholic
<font color='#000000'>I think many of us have to remember that we are much more educated about audio than the general public. There are many, many people who have absolutely no clue about audio systems including people that work at boutiques and regular mass market chains and if you were to try and share your knowledge with these people, many wouldn't even care to listen.

As an example, my best friend works at a place that does installation of components, whether they are sold through the store he works at or not. He was called to do an install on a receiver and TV, DVD, the norm. He gets there, hooks all the stuff up, shows the wife how to use it, even draws her a little chart for what button to push for what source she wants to use. Well he gets a call the next day and it's the husband bitching about how it doesn't work. So he goes back out there and they've re-wired everything and have it totally screwed up. He patiently ignores the fact that they've just undone everything he did the previous day, and hooks it up this time in a fashion where they never even have to change functions on the receiver, every thing went through the tv then into video 1 on the receiver. The guy calls back again and asks to speak to my friend. The husband says &quot;Why are you not using all the cables?, your leaving things unplugged!!!&quot; My friend says &quot;Why are you being redundant?, and again &quot;Why are you being reduntant?&quot; the guy then asks why he said it twice. He answers &quot;Why are you trying to use three video connections from your DVD player?&quot; LOL


On a more serious note, I used to work at best buy so I can see the other side of the coin from a salesmen's perspective. I know now why they act they way they do at times, though it doesn't by any means make it acceptable for them to be jerks or ignore you if your wearing a t-shirt.

I have to admit I hated my job there, and I have a pretty quick fuse, but I really only got visably upset with a customer one time. In all fairness, I was having a bad day and this person just pushed me over the cliff. He came in the store with a huff and puff about how &quot;I&quot; didnt have this, and &quot;I&quot; didn't have that and he then went on to say &quot;I&quot; just lost 1,200 dollars because &quot;I&quot; didn't have the merchandise. So I proceeded to tell him, in a not so kind way, how the retail chain works, and what my job responsibilites were. Not at anytime did I ever, try as I might, influence inventory purchases, yet &quot;I&quot; was to blame for what some inventory control person failed to buy enough of so this gentleman could have what he wanted. After the guy stopped his rant I &quot;duded&quot; him. That is to say, I called him a dude because I knew it would piss him off, and since I worked at best buy, what credibilty did I have to lose anyway, right? He then asked, where the manager was, and I told him I didn't know, but if he happened to find him my name was John, and I'd be happy to explain to him how &quot;I&quot; was reponsible for losing this store 1,200 dollars. Needless to say I didn't lose my job, nor even receive a warning since all the guy really wanted to do was bitch and make people uncomfortable. &nbsp;That's all many customers really want to do when things don't go their way. You just have wade through the spit storm, and then things calm down. It happened all the time.

Since the time I gained a better perspective I've tried to be more rationale about how I interact with audio salesmen. I figure as long as I can examine the stuff for myself then I really only care what they think up to the point where they know something without me having to find out for myself. Beyond that I could care less what comes out of their mouth, though I will pay them the courteousy of pretending to.</font>
 
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