Almost 40 yrs in Electronics and never have i had such a rude salesman  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: peteb2
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2017, 12:24:45 am
content: Almost 40 yrs in Electronics and never have i had such a rude salesman. Having worked for a few years now in professional/industrial electronics and used Wiltronics more than a few times now i have gotta say i have NEVER had to deal with such a rude salesman as the one i just had representing this BIG firm in all my years. I know we aren't meant to blow stuff here and diss a Business but it's NOT this excellent Company at fault it's just the rude as sales guy whom i happened to end up with...At a time when things are very competitive in the spare parts industry you'd think that those who're making their living moving their employer's product would stay on the side of the fence such that at all times they represent their employer in an absolutely excellent light so as not to make their customer today an non-customer tomorrow...What worries me is that there are other customers who're being treated as badly as was and i just want to say... remember its not the business that's being objectionable, just some individual that should know better at their end.

author: Conrad Hoffman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2017, 04:23:00 am
content: An electronics salesman walked in, smiled and said, "Heat sinks!"I threw him out. Any fool knows that heat rises.

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 28, 2017, 04:34:37 am
content: From my occasional stints in retail sales in the past, there is one thing that I have had made very clear to me - look after the customer! Even if you are flat chat and another customer walks in, you must at least acknowledge their arrival, preferably with a quick verbal comment, if possible.Further, from what I have gathered over the years, in regards to the customer base you have - the greatest cost is to gain a new customer. Retaining them is much easier. Losing a customer is never good - especially when the reason is one that should never have happened in the first place. Bad experiences tend to get reported ... and not to management, but to the broader population. Inevitably, there will be some potential future customers that will have been dissuaded and the tarnished reputation can affect a whole range of secondary issues.If a salesperson has had a bad day, then they need to be taken off the sales floor. Depending on their "issues" this may only need to be until they cool down - or it may need to be permanent.Even if the customer has been troublesome, they need to be treated as respectfully as possible.

author: Koen
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2017, 04:39:43 am
content: An electronics salesman walks into a bar and orders a Whisky, simple. The barman takes the piss and asks him who he works for, what the whisky is for, how many employees are concerned, what the projected annual volume is before finally submitting him a twelve page NDA.

author: basinstreetdesign
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2017, 06:49:42 am
content: Call his employer and tell them about it and that you will never buy anything from them again as long as he is the rep for you. He will stop being so rude in short order.Some time ago I heard of "the rule of 200". If one customer is dissed by a bad sales rep he will tell ten friends. Those ten friends will tell 5 more each and each of those will tell 4 more. It quickly becomes uneconomic to be rude to customers, potential or otherwise.And we get to watch it in action right here!

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2017, 07:08:50 am
content: +1 for bypass him! let somebody else have a job.

author: Assafl
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2017, 07:21:55 am
content: Hmmm - have you ever acquired electronics at Fry's?I wouldn't Fry's salespeople rude - but rather as exhibiting less than perfect knowledge of the products they are selling. Okay - I was trying to be PC. Exhibiting no knowledge of the products they are selling is more the norm there.I'll settle any day for a rude, annoying salesperson who can teach me a thing or two (rather than the "that is a great choice - oh and that is a wonderful choice too - what the differences are? let me read the box...").As an aside - Sometimes having an ultra helpful nice but ignorant guy following you around is more annoying - if they are rude I far feel less guilty about shooing them away.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2017, 01:06:38 pm
content: I don't see any value with component sales reps and am surprised they have not been phased out. Prior to the internet, that was my source of data books and such. They would come in with their trunks loaded... Then it was CDs...

author: Tomorokoshi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2017, 01:10:54 pm
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on March 02, 2017, 01:06:38 pmNow they stop by with internet web site links!

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2017, 02:45:16 pm
content: Quote from: Assafl on February 28, 2017, 07:21:55 amI can second this. I have had Fry's people not just demonstrate ignorance, but in the worst form of asserting factually wrong information. It is sad that Fry's in many locations is the best available retail electronics source. Thank heavens for internet sales.

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2017, 02:55:07 pm
content: I only wish we had something as NICE as Fry's around here. The last electronics shop (that wasn't a Radio Shack) that I know of around here has been long gone. There is another but they are mainly for electrical equipment and wiring stuff like network cables, connectors, patch panels, etc. No stock of components at any level. We're otherwise stuck with Best Buy and HH Gregg which are strictly consumer electronics (and overpriced at that).

author: rcbuck
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2017, 10:12:06 pm
content: Fry's reminds me of the old Radio Shack advertisement:"You have questions? We have clueless blank stares."

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2017, 10:14:44 pm
content: Maybe he was having a bad day? Who knows, not saying that excuses his behavior but maybe you'll deal with someone else next time.

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2017, 01:22:41 am
content: Quote from: rcbuck on March 02, 2017, 10:12:06 pmThe last person who understood electronics that worked at Radio Shack quit around 1986.IE when I quit and started working for the computer shop at college

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 03, 2017, 02:17:44 am
content: Pretty much all the Radio Shack storefronts in my area were the same. The sales-drones would hover around the front door waiting for a a customer wanting to buy a new cell phone (preferably a pretty girl). When I walked in, they would breathlessly ask "can I help you find something?" As a time-saving measure, I developed a business-like method of saying "probably not" and walking briskly past them to the back of the shop where the actual electronic stuff was.The problem was, when I grabbed what I came for and went to the cash-register, all the drones were still buzzing around the door, and there was nobody to take my money. Toward the end there, in response to their opening question, I would reply, "Yes, you can help me by going back to the cash register after I grab my merchandise."

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 03, 2017, 03:00:31 am
content: In Australia we didn't have Radio Shackper se. We had Tandy Electronics - but it carried all the RS gear. I occasionally worked with one of the managers to help out every now and then and one of the things he did not like was that I knew too much about the technical aspects of everything in the shop. He was not concerned about me having that knowledge, but by getting caught in technical discussions - especially with time-wasters who had nothing better to do than engage in unproductive chatter. I had to rein that part of me in, sometimes severely.He was a damn good manager and salesman, but wasn't a tech-head by any means. When mobile phones were becoming common, he resisted getting one. When he finally succumbed, he would only turn it on to make a call - and then he would turn it off. His contact list was a little black book - literally.As the electronic components side of the business fell by the wayside the chain became another Harvey Norman or Big W - just as happened with Dick Smith - and the level of technical knowledge just wasn't necessary to sell the stuff in the store. He did reasonably well.These days, Altronics is keeping fairly true. Jaycar is drifting - but at least they still have components.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2017, 02:12:36 am
content: I absolutely love Fry's Electronics - the sales people always left me alone so I could browse and look at the items at my own pace.As for technical information - well, I usually create my own shopping list beforehand with the information I would probably need. With the advent of smartphones and high bandwidth over the air internet, I can now even do my own research at the store floor.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2017, 06:17:48 am
content: That's what I like about Fry's too, I can browse for hours without a sales droid so much as approaching me. I don't get down there very often but it's nice that it's available when I need something.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2017, 08:27:41 am
content: Try Middendorp Electric, 520 La Trobe St, Melbourne. Most rudest sales jerk ever. He looked and acted like a meths addict with rotten teeth.I was designing and building some disco lights back in 1980. I needed some cable to connect these lights to my control box. When I walked into the shop (in my suit as I had just started working at IBM), the salesman asked me curtly "What do YOU want?" I said wanted four core flex capable of 15A per core. He then said at me,"What wires?" and then immediately yelled "You're supposed to know what you want before you f---ing come in here!" A bit shocked, I then said three actives and one neutral. I reluctantly took the cable as I needed it then, but I never shopped at any Middendorp outlet since.Lawrence and Hanson were a great alternative to these rude bastards. Tough titties, Middendorp, you lost a customer for life. Black listed for 37 years.Incidentally, the disco lights worked a treat. I wanted to hire them out, but unfortunately for me I discovered the disco era was over.

author: Back2Volts
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 04, 2017, 10:19:42 pm
content: Quote from: Assafl on February 28, 2017, 07:21:55 amFry's job applicationhttp://homepage.smc.edu/engfer_mark/frys.htm

author: mmagin
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2017, 10:33:20 pm
content: Quote from: Back2Volts on March 04, 2017, 10:19:42 pmThis is disturbingly accurate if a few years out of date.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2017, 06:35:59 am
content: Be nice to sales droids, they are actually people under that smooth shiny polyester shirt exterior. They also have families, lives and also appreciate a smile, a brief acknowledgement that they as people are actually something, and that you are at least willing to treat them nicely.I always try to be nice to them, and keep on the good side of relations, even when I am not going to buy anything from them. Tell them that up front, and tell them you will contact them when needed, and keep the details. There are some salespeople I have moved companies with, just from the service levels they have shown. Then there are some i just deal with as little as possible, because of the salespeople trying to meet impossible targets.Of course all that goes out the window when it is an unsolicited call, with that 3 second silence, saying there is a call droid calling to try to tell me he is from "Microsoft" and trying to ask for the owner of the computer there. Depending on the accent I know where they are calling from, and can use the right insults, or better yet just use another language they probably cannot understand, and where there is a rich selection of insults available to use.Edit, I cannot spell again, dyslexia strikes agian.