Why is Best Buy always the company with the idiot sales people? I admit there are lots of idiots who work at best buy, However, are any of those employees A/V enthusiasts? No, all they know about A/V stuff is what the Monster or Bose rep told them. That’s all those employees care to know though. I would also argue that there are WAY more idiots who think they know everything who come and shop at Best Buy.

Example: Customer “I’ve done a lot of research and I want a 240hz LED… Absolutely no plasma!” If these people had used any kind of credible source for their “research”, they would have found that the TV’s with the most accurate picture are plasmas. Unless of course you enjoy watching “digitally noise reduced”, lime green grass.

I found this interesting review of the Weizhi Audio Power Distributor.

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue52/weizhi.htm

Apparently it is a “passive power conditioner” Funny he didn’t provide any measurements or anything in his review… I guess his ears are just that good.

@jedrgy Best Buy is just the easiest name to throw out there 😉 They’re almost the “only game in town” in terms of a nation-wide, consumer-electronics-focused retailer that targets the largest demographic of customers.

We don’t expect to get any sort of useful information at Walmart. And most people simply never go to a “higher end” or specialty electronics retailer. Best Buy is where a huge portion of the population goes when they want consumer electronics along with some buying advice. And it’s because a lot of people DO want that little bit of advice that we knowledgeableA/V enthusiasts get so bent out of shape over the misinformation that comes out of so many Best Buy employees’ mouths!

Of course, the REAL problem is that there’s typically some truth and accuracy mixed in with a bunch of falsehoods and inaccuracy! It’d be easier if they just got everything wrong. But the problem is that we have to sift through what they said and then go, “this part was right, but that part was wrong, and this part is accurate, but that other part isn’t quite right.”

In the end though, most customers come in with SOME idea already in their head and what they are REALLY looking for isn’t the truth – it’s confirmation of what they are already thinking! Do they really want the best television? NO! What they want is to hear that what they already have in mind IS the best television. Point them towards something else and they just get frustrated and basically think that you don’t know what you are talking about!

It’s a tough situation. I worked at FutureShop (Canadian Best Buy) for a couple of years, but I eventually couldn’t stand it anymore. I knew my stuff, took a lot of time with most customers and never had a single return in two years. But MAN! So many times it was like pulling teeth and I’m sure I lost a lot of sales, simply because I actually wanted people to get the very best product for their purposes, not just the product that we were selling with the highest commission that week!

@Rob Ops! I guess I should have put some LOL’s in my post. I was really being sarcastic. I know Best Buy is the store people love to hate. Because I think we’d all agree you get misinformation everywhere.

Your right about customers. Most people have already made up their mind and just want you to validate their decesion. A lot of times if you don’t tell them what they want to hear they ask someone else. One thing that’s helped me disagree with people is to no longer use the words “good” or “best”. Instead I use accuracy. People can say they blown out edge lit LED looks “better” but I can say it’s inaccurate and the plasma is more accurate. Of course, that’s about the time they find somebody else to validate their opinion. But I don’t care cause I don’t work on commission.

Loved the bit about “Are geek girls becoming sort of cool?” Liz offered a good explanation that geek guys are becoming cool and by extension geek girls are too. And you’re right Liz: people would much rather interact with a person who knows what they are talking about. I have raised a very cool audio/video/tech geek daughter who is now away at her freshman year in engineering at college. Even though she is a geek, she embraces her femininity and is having a blast being hotly pursuied by legions of cool geek engineering dudes.

It’s about time that this country threw off the Dilbert stereotype of people in technical fields. In Europe and Asia, engineers and scientists carry much more personal and professional prestige than they do here. Maybe our disillusionment with the bubble economy will make people more appreciative of those who are out there doing the real work of creating and adding value to our lives through technology.

Tom, I couldn’t agree more regarding Star Trek TOS re-masters with new special effects. I am a real stickler for faithfulness to original creative intent, but am not blindly opposed to any changes. Paramount really pulled it off with these Blu-rays. This is the level of special effects that the original creators wanted to acheive, but fell short because of budget and technology. The new scenes blend seamlessly with the gorgeous HD captures of the orginal film sources. As you said, George Lucas could learn a lot from Paramount’s example.

@jedrgy – “passive power conditioner” might be a pretty accurate description…I looked up “passive” in the dictionary and one definition is “inert or quiescent”! 😀 lol

I don’t know, I think it’s still the case that hot girls are hot. If they happen to be hot AND geeky, then they simply become even more attractive because being geeky makes them seem more attainable. Being geeky – just by itself – doesn’t make a girl or a guy hot all of a sudden :p

You look at Felicia Day or Veronica Belmont or Cali Lewis or any of the Team Unicorn girls and they are already good looking. And any guy, geek or not, would think so. Buy geek guys just go gaga over them because they are good looking AND geeky.

Then there are the “geek-friendly” girls; the ones that geek guys fawn over because the girls consistently work on geek-targeted media. I’m talking about girls like Summer Glau, Eliza Dushku, Natalie Portman, Olivia Munn, etc. Those girls aren’t necessarily geeks themselves, but they consistently show up in “geek-friendly” shows, so geek guys feel like they get to call them “their own” :p Again though, these women are hot. Full stop. The fact that they are in media that is popular with geeks just puts them “over the top”!

@Rob

Support for your theory or pre-existing hotness: http://www.veronicabelmont.com/media/

😀