How knowledgeable are hi fi sales staff overall?

[southall-1998]

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.

Judging a book by it's cover......Tut-Tut!

S.

[hifi_dave]

Never done that. Some of my best customers have been scruffier than me.

I treat all my customers spending £10 or £10K with the same respect and expect the same when I'm shopping.

[Macca]

Judging a book by it's cover......Tut-Tut!

S.

Yes, rookie sales mistake that. I used to sell used commercial vehicles and you would get blokes walk on the lot, expensive clothes, fancy watch, all the patter, would want to see everything, but never bought a thing. Whereas scruffy blokes with paint on their jeans would never leave empty-handed because they had turned up actually needing to buy a van instead of to pamper their ego.

[Pharos]

Many years ago I had great service from Grahams in London, and somewhat resentful treatment by KJ when I asked to hera 10 pairs of loudspeakers costing £10k a pair.

RA told me that Peter Qvortrop of AN used to drive to potential customers' addresses at a time separate from engagement with them in order to gauge their wealth, this determining what he would later charge when deal was made.

[Macca]

Many years ago I had great service from Grahams in London, and somewhat resentful treatment by KJ when I asked to hera 10 pairs of loudspeakers costing £10k a pair.

RA told me that Peter Qvortrop of AN used to drive to potential customers' addresses at a time separate from engagement with them in order to gauge their wealth, this determining what he would later charge when deal was made.

More likely to se if it was worth the bother of pitching them the expensive stuff. Audio Note goes from affordable all the way to super-silly. Your not going to waste time demming the cheaper stuff to a millionaire. Plus there is always the risk he might be satisfied with that. So you sell a £20K system when you could have sold £200K.

[Minstrel SE]

There are service engineers and experienced owners on this forum that are more knowledgeable that most sales people I have ever met. I dont think the shop sales people like the hi fi forums

Ive had experiences where you feel intimidated to walk in and say anything. I know its not easy dealing with the British public and there is a question of how much time and encouragement to offer the tyre kickers. I just feel that if you get a spark of real enthusiam and quality time you will come back. Then again I am a sales persons nightmare as I like to sleep on it...show me a Systemdeck II and I will have think for a good while Im not naive and I know is about a balance of time vs reward for the dealer.

I dont like cocky sales people who rush you along. Everything just sounds so false and flavour of the month. They will seize on a tiny almost insignificant piece of information and suddenly you are in for a whirlwind of "this is what you want sir".

I know it cant be easy running a hi fi shop. Ive seen many close down. Yonks ago I found a good guy In Stockport but even he was demonstrating my first biased choices with the greatest profit margins. I remembered later that he did have Royd standmounts which he could have used for comparison but he didnt. I did alright but Im sure I could have got a better value source first system.

His profit aims do create a conflict of interests. I was hankering after some large real wood veneer speakers and I knew later I could have done better making savings there.

I liked his casual less pushy style though( in jeans and a t shirt) and thought I can do business again with this guy as I upgrade later. He had closed down 6 months to a year later so that was the end of that. Back to a sixty mile round trip or the happy box shop

[stewart]

I once arranged a demo of some speakers 2 weeks in advance with a shop in Sheffield. I live in Doncaster. The demo was on a Saturday morning so I rang them tea time on the Friday to confirm I was still coming only to be told , "sorry we have had to cancel you as we have arranged a big demo with another customer"
When were they going to tell me? When I turned up on the Saturday?
I had spent £1500 on a cd player with them a few months previous.
Called in a couple of weeks later to sort another demo and while talking to the sales guy another customer walked in and the sales guy shouted hello, turned his back on me and escorted the other customer into the demo room. I stood there for about 10 mins on my own and then left.
Never been back.
Bought the speakers from Sevenoaks in Leeds.


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[Pharos]

In essence that is the same thing Martin.

[Macca]

I once arranged a demo of some speakers 2 weeks in advance with a shop in Sheffield. I live in Doncaster. The demo was on a Saturday morning so I rang them tea time on the Friday to confirm I was still coming only to be told , "sorry we have had to cancel you as we have arranged a big demo with another customer"
When were they going to tell me? When I turned up on the Saturday?
I had spent £1500 on a cd player with them a few months previous.
Called in a couple of weeks later to sort another demo and while talking to the sales guy another customer walked in and the sales guy shouted hello, turned his back on me and escorted the other customer into the demo room. I stood there for about 10 mins on my own and then left.
Never been back.
Bought the speakers from Sevenoaks in Leeds.


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That's terrible. I'm surprised you went back a second time.

[southall-1998]

I once arranged a demo of some speakers 2 weeks in advance with a shop in Sheffield. I live in Doncaster. The demo was on a Saturday morning so I rang them tea time on the Friday to confirm I was still coming only to be told , "sorry we have had to cancel you as we have arranged a big demo with another customer"
When were they going to tell me? When I turned up on the Saturday?
I had spent £1500 on a cd player with them a few months previous.
Called in a couple of weeks later to sort another demo and while talking to the sales guy another customer walked in and the sales guy shouted hello, turned his back on me and escorted the other customer into the demo room. I stood there for about 10 mins on my own and then left.
Never been back.
Bought the speakers from Sevenoaks in Leeds.


Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

You should have given them a bad review on Google.

S.