So anyone who knows me pretty well knows that I don't have a very high opinion of retail service agents or "experts" when going to buy electronics or music or movies etc. There are a number of reasons for this. The main reason however is that I used to work retail and I know that the majority of retail agents know nothing about what they are selling even though they are "experts" and I usually know more about what I'm looking for than the person who is trying to "help" me does. Because of this I rarely ask questions and if asked if I would like assistance I politely say "no thank you".
Best Buy is near the top of the list of such stores. The Geek Squad is a joke. I have co-workers who go to Best Buy on their day off to amuse themselves by finding easy questions that the Geek Squad does not know the answer to and repeating the made up answers to us at work the next day. Its not just the Geek Squad though. Its all their sales people. They supposedly have this rigorous training process and tests you have to pass to be able to get your blue shirt and keep up with the product info. I don't understand how that can be true and you can still have employees who think a CD player will play DVDs.
That leads me into my story. My father and I went to Best Buy this afternoon to buy a new DVD player as our old one had finally given up the ghost. Best Buy for what its worth is usually still a great option as far as prices go. I mean they usually live up to their name. So we went and found the aisle with DVD players. There were combos (DVD/VCR), single DVD, and Blu Ray players. And there was one 5 disc DVD changer. This was what we wanted but we were kind of hoping for a little more variety than just one model. About the time we are discussing this a sales expert comes over to offer his assistance. The following conversation is not exact but gives a general depiction of the actual events.
Sales Guy: Can I help you find anything?
Dad: Do you have any other multiple disc DVD players?
Sales Guy: We have some other ones over on this other aisle.
(we walk over to the other aisle)
Sales Guy: Here are some more 5 disc ones like the one you were looking at and some that do even more (there was one that was a 400 disc changer!)
Dad: (interested in two models of 5 disc changers that are similar to what we were already looking at and pretty similar to each other) What's the difference between these two?
Sales Guy: Uh... I don't know. Um... I think they're the same because this one says "with remote" and this one doesn't.
Dad: Well this other one has remote listed as included it just doesn't say it on the sales tag.
Sales Guy: Uh... oh yeah thats why I thought that.
Dad: What does SACD mean?
Sales Guy: Uh... I don't know... um... I don't know... uh... I don't really know...
Me: Um... are these DVD players?
Sales Guy: Yeah they are.
Me: Well they don't say they play DVDs, they only say CDs.
Sales Guy: They are DVD players.
(Conversation continues for a couple minutes with my Dad asking more questions and the sales guy continuing to tell us how much he doesn't know, all the while I'm still pretty skeptical about the DVD players thing but I don't want to embarrass the kid so I figure I'll wait til he leaves and alert my Dad to the fact that said "expert" is selling us a CD player instead of a DVD player. Soon my Dad is sold on one of these however and I decide to act)
Dad: (still trying to figure out the difference between the devices is looking at the back hookups on both with the Sales Guy) Well I think this is the one we want.
Me: Where is the video output?
(on one there is only a left and right RCA audio output and the other has more outputs for use with a surround sound system)
Sales Guy: Um... I don't know.
Me: Yeah these aren't DVD players.
Sales Guy: Oh... I thought they were. Um... is there anything else I can help you with?
Me and Dad in unison: No!
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