How knowledgeable are hi fi sales staff overall?

[Joe]

I bought my tv on a Sunday and they were open all day. I don't know if that is typical.

The staff are always very young as you'd expect as they no doubt don't pay them much, so there is going to be a limit to how much they can know. But they are not selling any weird, high end kit so not catering to the enthusiast. I'm sure they know enough to sell the things they do.

They are also, in my experience, always helpful and friendly. Some 'specialist' dealers I used to frequent in London were the reverse, and acted as if they were doing you a favour by deigning to speak to you.

[Spectral Morn]

They are also, in my experience, always helpful and friendly. Some 'specialist' dealers I used to frequent in London were the reverse, and acted as if they were doing you a favour by deigning to speak to you.

KJ West One.

[Joe]

KJ West One.

The very worst in my experience was Billy Vee in Lewisham. The staff there were downright rude, as opposed to just stand-offish.

[Spectral Morn]

The very worst in my experience was Billy Vee in Lewisham. The staff there were downright rude, as opposed to just stand-offish.

Never in there.

Walrus ignored me, KJ were very arrogant and thought I would just give them money for no effort. Best experience I had was Fortress Audio. Fabulous shop, great kit and very friendly. Sadly they didn't last.

[jollyfix]

Walrus, never knew what mood they were in, sometimes you were lucky if they got up from the desk at the back of shop to open the door, let alone show any more interest.
Oranges and Lemons another, how dare you enter the shop and disturb me from Facebook.

[walpurgis]

Walrus ignored me

Same here.

But KJ always seemed OK with me.

Last dealers I frequented were Audio T in High Wycombe and Harrow Audio in Harrow (obviously ). Both have been patient and helpful. Not been for a few years though.

[jollyfix]

Mike Manning when he had a shop in Taunton. Great staff, very good, knew what they were talking about. The Yeovil shop good too, from my experience.

[tapid]

I was drove all the way up to doug Brady s in Warrington to pick up some dedicated speaker stands for my shan shimna s ( made from the same
concrete materials ). They were 50 quid but the guy actually gave me a tenner back towards my petrol money, how nice was that !. Made quite
a difference to s.q. as well. Mind you he probably thought I was a bit mad and needed helping perhaps ?

[narabdela]

Some 'specialist' dealers I used to frequent in London were the reverse, and acted as if they were doing you a favour by deigning to speak to you.

Had that experience at Cymbiosis Leicester about twenty years ago when I went in with a view to upgrading the LP12 I owned at the time. Admittedly I was wearing my 'gardening' clothes at the time, but that was no excuse. Needless to say, I didn't trouble them with my business.

[magiccarpetride]

I feel it depends on the type of shop and it depends on your knowledge, research and experience.

If you are looking for high end stuff then ideally you want a specialist dealer in the know. I cant imagine many of the experienced people on this forum would put up with a chain store. Im not going to mention names but Ive never felt they really know how to steer someone in the right direction beyond flavour of the month and whats left in the stockroom. Ok some try to be helpful but I find many pushy and brash while sounding vacuous. Theres nothing worse than a stilted conversation where I feel patronised by someone who knows less then me. Im nodding politely but thinking why I am I having this conversation because its embarrassing

I have always favoured a minimalist style approach. A dealer in jeans and a t shirt that knows all the designers makes his own amplifiers in the back room and has done clever research on a small selection of products. A sofa, brew and nothing which registers on the BS detector.

I want to feel the dealer knows his onions. Ok they cant know or stock everything but my bias will steer me towards what they do have on demonstration

I like the idea of a particular dealer who just displays and demos headphones in a farmhouse somewhere. I think its worth making the effort to go and get a proper selection and proper service.

I will deal with sales people if I feel they can really add anything or offer a proper demonstration. If they can't, I want as little interaction with them as possible

I stopped visiting hi fi shops where it is obvious that they have one person on the lookout for what kind of a car did you drive into their lot. Then based on the worth of your automobile, they'd adjust their pitch.

Another confusing thing for me is the fact that, after forging relationships with some local 'gurus' (i.e. older dudes who spent their entire lives selling audio equipment), I get differing, sometimes downright contradicting advice from those guys. For example, one 'guru' would claim that any cartridge with spherical stylus is garbage, and that only elliptical stylus makes sense, while another 'guru' would claim the opposite. And so on. In the end, looks like it's just another person's opinion, and there doesn't seem to be any real expertise on sale there.