Staff don't understand what they're selling
That's the headline in the latest Which? Magazine that looked at electrical stores selling digital boxes and DVD players. They sent staff out to buy a DVD recorder that could record Freeview programmes while using another digital box to watch a different channel. This should have been an easy task just buy a DVD recorder with a digital tuner.
They tried eight branches each of Comet, Currys/Currys.digital, and John Lewis, all the branches of John Lewis offered the right equipment as did all Currys.digital. However at various Currys and Comets they were offered DVD recorders with analogue tuners, or HDD recorders that wouldn't play or record DVDs.
Asking for a High-Definition player did better (possibly because they're newer and more expensive) with everyone offering a Blu-Ray player over the now defunct HD-DVD models, however at one branch of Currys.digital they were offered a £300 standard definition DVD recorder.
Am I surprised? Well if you've been reading my entries for a while you'll know the answer, remember most of these stores are selling HD televisions that are being displayed without being fed an HD-source. I bet they haven't even heard of FreeSat yet or think it's something to do with Sky.
6 comments:
Correction: some staff don't know what they're selling. ;-)
I'm not surprised about John Lewis — that store has quality staff. Their goods might not be cheap, but the people selling them have a clue. And a returns policy.
You are right, shouldn't tar everyone with the same brush. The trouble is, of course, that unless you know what you're talking about you can't judge whether they do and that sort of defeats the purpose in asking; unless you're Which? magazine or a blogger ;-)
This is true of course.
I still remember my mum dragged me along to Curries [yes, I'm looking at you, Curries!] for the exact reason that she didn't know what they were saying.
Neither did they.
Picture the scene: A hyperactive teenager enthuses "ah yeah man, that PC is a good PC, right?, but this one here has the new 8.2 hyperdrive." My mum nods in considered agreement, as if she knows exactly what he's saying.
Hyperdrive? Hyperdrive?! What is it, a space ship???
Surely this kind of BS should be illegal?
Well there's mis-selling of goods and misrepresentation etc. so there are laws in place. Trouble is unless you record their falsehoods or get it down in writing it's your word against theirs. Did you catch that thread on p.o.t. regarding the beauty products and what their POS staff were claiming?
In this case even if you did get it in writing there would be nothing you could do. "Hyperdrive" is the trade name of a range of Flash-based hard disks. Don't forget we also have HyperTransport, hyperthreading, and other similarly futuristic names.
I am reminded of a blooper involving Brian Blessed. He was presenting some sf-themed game show, and the clip in question was of him awarding the winning team their prize, which was a Palm Pilot each (which dates the clip considerably). After announcing the prize, he made a momentary pause, and then mumbled, "Sounds like a wanking device." I have never been able to relate to Palm Pilots in the same way since then.
Incidentally, when I was in Staples yesterday, I noticed that they now sell a small range of USB-powered 'executive toys', like tiny plasma balls. One of them is a set of "speaker mice". At first I thought that sounded quite exciting, though I wondered how they would arrange the speaker so as not to be covered by your hand. Looking closer, it turned out that they were in fact just small speakers in the shape of mice - the squeaky things with the ears, that is, not the input device. I can easily imagine someone might read the text and just pluck the box from the shelf without looking more closely, which carelessness would surely be followed by disappointment.
Hmm — but did this trademark exist in 1998?
On the note of deception, take a look at this:
http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/dawkins.html
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