Yet another frusterated shopping experience (1 Viewer)

[SteveMc]

[rant mode on]
So I made a stop into my local hi-fi shop yesterday since I hadn't been there in a while and I must say i left utterly perturbed! The salesman walks up doing his "What brings ya in?" shpeil and I start telling him what I am looking for..everything except for my new Pioneer HDTV. This guy is so misinformed it made me ill. He tells me that since my SD532 has such a great line doubler, it would look great with an Elite DVD player w/ progressive scan. While this is true, doesn't the internal doubler get bypassed in progressive mode?
What really ticked me off that everytime I brought up a piece of gear that I read about that they didn't carry (i.e. Kenwood's upcoming 400 disc changer) he looks at me like I'm a frickin idiot.
Then to cap it all off, I mentioned that I had "dots" on my display due to a defect (that has also affected theElite line as well, which they carry) in the CRT that caused phosphor burn in my red CRT. Since I also told him that I bought it from Sam's Club, he starts telling me that because of the price I got, it was definately a refurb model and that they aren't even authorized to sell it! Obviously the guy didn't have a clue what he was talking about. I did want to speak to someone there about employment, but I was too damn frusterated with this schmuck I figured I better leave it for another day. Funny how one comment can change your whole opinion of someone and ruin your entire shopping experience
[/rant mode off]

 

[george kaplan]

I think it's just a fact of life that so-called high-end shops are going to be a crap shoot for most people who have the interest in home theater to be members of this board. I certainly don't know a lot about this stuff, but I learn a lot from reading threads here, and then have to go to our local high-end place and deal with people who should know more than me, but know a lot less

. If I actually need help there, I specifically request one of the 2 salespeople who actually does know something. But mostly, these guys are in a business, where the model seems to be two-fold unforutnately:
1) Take advantage of people who don't know any better.
2) Have some sort of deal with certain brands. My local "high-end" place doesn't carry panasonic, so I can't look at an rp91, but they proudly carry bose. To be fair, they also carry Pioneer, Sony, etc., but come on. Bose and no Panasonic? This place carries plasma tvs that cost tens of thousands of dollars, but if it weren't for this board, I'd never have even heard of the $500 panasonic rp91.
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