[Nook Color General] Jyveafk:
Just been to get the new Nook, for 139bucks, figured it'd make for a decent reader. Specs seem great, the display is beautiful, and though don't have plans to root/play with it as my other machines, it's always good to know it's possible. Had a 1st gen Kindle when it came out, but the keyboard/usuability/scrolling around, just never clicked. Found it very annoying to actually use in it's designed for role as a reader. Especially the location of the buttons to move around. So, when I saw this new Nook Touch, and had chance to play with it in the store before they were available to purchase, I figured B&N have created an excellent winner here. A neat device perfectly suited for it's role, REALLY great form factor to the point you can drop it in your pocket easily (cargo pants at least!). Great price. An obviously well designed piece of tech!

Good job I actually am aware of the device.

Got to the store, found the booth setup for the Nooks, and they had all 3 available to play with. There was a girl dealing with a customer, so I stood back and waited.

Found myself getting more and more distraught to hear what she was saying. She had an iPad and had no qualms singing it's praises, and that it can do so much more than what this 139 machine can do. The... customer? (not sure if going to be a customer if they're not going to buy the machine after being put off) admitted they had an iPad, loved it to bits, but was looking at this new Nook as it DID look a great device, more portable, battery life being good.

The girl /really/ did a bang up job putting this guy not only off the new nook touch, but the color nook too 'yah, don't think you can play mp3's on this, but my ipad is REALLY good, sync's up with Itunes just great, and the sound, it's awesome, and...'

Didn't want to look the annoying know it all, but couldn't help but mention 'it'll play most stuff you throw at it, it's not a bad machine for the price' and left it there. Ended up having to find another assistant who looked after me wonderfully. Not a hard job I'd think to sell something to a customer, he even mentioned how he had one himself and preferred it to everything else he'd tried (hey, could be lying through his teeth, but it's a nice thing to hear the person selling you the device has one and enjoys it!)

But...

sheesh, I hope that's not the typical level of knowledge being shown by staffing selling the hardware. To compare a 500 (minimum, I didn't ask what model/storage/3g plan she had) device to a 139 book reader seems a bit silly.

But to see someone actively try so hard to put a customer off wanting to buy a product from their store? Never seen anything like it.

Hopefully, B&N can give a bit of training to their staff on what they're selling if this is to be their main product coming up. There were a few other things this sales girl simply had no idea about, should be covered in <5 mins training (app stores, mp3 playing, youtube content, browsing). Not asking them to know the ins and outs of flashing CM onto it and getting a full app market on, but knowing that B&N DO have their own app market for stuff other than just books? Guess not on commission, so don't really care, but even so.

/phew, rant off.