It's a long read, but I highly recommend this article for the inside story on the shady crap they pull in electronic retail stores. Some of them have happened to you, and some you already know how to guard against ... but cumulatively? They'll still make you sick.
I remember sales guys used most of these at The Good Guys too, where I was a cashier for about three years. I was always particularly fond of #11, 21, and 23. And oh yes, #12 could have been written about me! Ah, good times, good times.
I tend to shop at stores so exclusive they run a credit check on you AFTER you've bought and paid for the equipment, not to mention peerage investigations to make sure you are "the right kind" of person who should be owning Krell or Wilson or Audio Research. Nothin says "snob value" as that certain kind of ultra-high end audio parlor whose wares are available for perusal "by appointment only."
Seriously, my first real quasi high-end purchase occurred in a store in New Haven CT, where after having been IGNORED by the sales staff one day as I was browsing, I huffily went to the bank, took out $300 of my very hard-earned YSD summer work study money, went back to the store, and aggressively-but-politely insisted that I wanted to buy an amp (an Adcom GFA, which I happily owned for some years after). They sold it to me, and--go figure-- even though I never bought another bit of equipment there, I was a welcome peruser-of-hideosuly-expensive-stuff from that day forward, on a pleasant first-name basis with all the sales staff, etc...
I've always wondered: if I'd have bought $3000 worth of equipment, would they have adopted me and let me marry into their families?
Posted by: Anthony | June 13, 2007 at 12:16 PM