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Terrible advice heard at PC World

Toonbay

Toonbay

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 25, 2010
332
76
Whitley Bay, North East UK (God's Country)
Just had to share this story...
Was in my local pc world today looking at the macs.
A guy opposite was buying an iPad and was asking various questions about it
The final one had me dumbfounded in the advice given by the pc world guy.

Bloke ask if he can stick his memory card in the iPad

Pc world guy says yeah no problems it goes in here at shows him the slot/tray where the sim card goes for 3G

I could not believe it and really wanted to say something but had to stop myself.

I think its shocking that advice is given like that about products, reason I don't tend to shop in there very often
 
While your experience is unfortunate, it's far from unusual. The problem lies in the fact that many retail shops cannot pay enough to attract knowledgeable sales people, nor do they train the ones they have. Then it gets worse when it comes to Apple, not because of the products but because they generally sell themselves. What I mean by that is many people already know what they want when they arrive in the store, so product knowledge is not that important. This is what the shop owner counts on. There are many other reasons, but the bottom line is always the same. Retail shops (with the exception of Apple) generally will give out very misleading information, which in many cases is not intentional.
 
You will find this everywhere.

The guy at Best Buy will say something untrue about the Sony VIAO laptop.

The guy at Home Depot will say something untrue about the Makita cordless drill.

The guy at the grocery store will say something untrue about the point of origin of that pineapple.

The lady at Sears will say something untrue about that blouse on sale, and the other guy will say something wrong about the lawnmower.

It stems from all the reasons the previous poster stated.

Nowadays, the smart consumer does all his own research on the internet and never relies on ANYTHING the sales person says without verifying it first.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
You forgot about the Apple store employee that tells an old couple that the mac mini is physically incapable of running photoshop :p
Click to expand...

LOL. If that actually happened, wouldn't said employee be fired on the spot if overheard by a manager? Or would he get away with a stern warning? :D What do we know about "quality control" of Apple retails people?
 
Night Spring said:
LOL. If that actually happened, wouldn't said employee be fired on the spot if overheard by a manager? Or would he get away with a stern warning? :D What do we know about "quality control" of Apple retails people?
Click to expand...

He would probably get an "atta-boy" for driving sales. Apple retail is driven by the same store metrics and sale structures as any other place.
 
kufford said:
He would probably get an "atta-boy" for driving sales. Apple retail is driven by the same store metrics and sale structures as any other place.
Click to expand...

I'm sure it varies from store from store, but the staff at the Apple stores I've been to usually don't spout out misinformation -- if they don't know / aren't sure about something, they disappear off to the back to check. "One second, I'll just ask / look that up for you," they say, and either come back with an answer or a more knowledgable staff person.
 
After several years of experience in retail and in wholesale catering specifically to a chain of retail outlets I have made the observations that many store owners do not want to educate their staff because
a) it would mean paying them more and staff are, in many owners/managers opinion an obstacle to profits, not a necessary tool to effect sales.
b) the more educated an employee, the greater the risk that said employee will leave for alternative employment with greater benefits.

Unfortunately this thinking is counter productive, but most are too convinced of the validity of their current strategy because they have been successful so far (yet fail to understand that they have effectively limited their success). As such, you will continue to experience piss poor service along with annoying misguided sales tactics (every time I am asked "Can I help you?" I feel like replying "No thanks, I'll help myself").
 
netdog said:
The Apple people at PC World are trained by Apple.
Click to expand...
It is unfortunate then that PC World employ people that are so bad at fact-retention.

I hate the place. It's my closest computer store by a long way, yet I never shop there.
 
hell yes you should have jumped in to correct the sales person or at least told the customer after the sales person had left.

but it is true all sales staff at all shops will say anything to drive a sale, that's why I specifically say 'no thanks' when they ask 'can I help?'
 
Criticising the sales rep is all well and good but you had an opportunity to step in and stop an unwitting member of the public from wasting his money on a device that might not suit him.

Not only that, but you also had a chance to embarrass the salesman and maybe even educate him too!

But nope, you kept quiet and walked on by. Shame on you.
 
Night Spring said:
I'm sure it varies from store from store, but the staff at the Apple stores I've been to usually don't spout out misinformation -- if they don't know / aren't sure about something, they disappear off to the back to check. "One second, I'll just ask / look that up for you," they say, and either come back with an answer or a more knowledgable staff person.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately it's not the same at every Apple store. I was lied to in the Apples tore in Sheffield, and I've been blatently lied to several times in the Apple store in Cardiff (UK). I will say though, there are some excellent staff in the Apple sore in Cardiff as well. it's just a shame that they aren't all so honest and up front.
 
Members of the sales staff at computers stores know just a little bit more than the average person about the products they are selling.

Any smarter, and they would head off to the better jobs instead of working for barely over minimum wage.
 
I've had terrible luck at Best Buy. The guy told me that I wouldn't be able to use my 2007 Macbook Pro on the newest IPS monitors. That was wrong.
 
notjustjay said:
You will find this everywhere.

The guy at Best Buy will say something untrue about the Sony VIAO laptop.
Click to expand...

"It's much better than an Apple laptop."

notjustjay said:
The guy at Home Depot will say something untrue about the Makita cordless drill.
Click to expand...

"It has to be plugged in at ALL TIMES."

notjustjay said:
The guy at the grocery store will say something untrue about the point of origin of that pineapple.
Click to expand...

"We take regular apples and pickle them in the back of the store, and after two weeks, voila!"

notjustjay said:
The lady at Sears will say something untrue about that blouse on sale, and the other guy will say something wrong about the lawnmower.
Click to expand...

"It's fine for a man to wear with a little modification."
"You can hem it with this lawnmower."
 
thejadedmonkey said:
You forgot about the Apple store employee that tells an old couple that the mac mini is physically incapable of running photoshop :p
Click to expand...

Apple store employee: One of the best features of the mac mini is this new connection called HMDI. The only thing is you have to use an Apple monitor, let me show you that.

Me: I took a few minutes to help the kid out. He was grateful

Misinformation is everywhere.

I feel for these people, thrown out to the wolves. also known as the consumer.
 
At Best Buy, I heard a woman ask if the Magic Mouse would work with an iPad. After checking, the sales guy assured her it would.

At another Best Buy, I was once told the 802.11n Time Capsule I wanted had a slow hard drive, so the internet would be slower than my old linksys 802.11g router.
 
j_maddison said:
Unfortunately it's not the same at every Apple store. I was lied to in the Apples tore in Sheffield, and I've been blatently lied to several times in the Apple store in Cardiff (UK). I will say though, there are some excellent staff in the Apple sore in Cardiff as well. it's just a shame that they aren't all so honest and up front.
Click to expand...
Perhaps you might elaborate on the extent of the lies you were told in these shops. Making a sweeping statement that you were lied to without explaining what hapened would leave me a little wary of dealing with these apple stores. A little info and I can make a judgement myself
 
My dad once coughed up $40 for a special "highspeed" USB 2.0 cable cause the sales guy said that the USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 cables were different in that the 2.0 had a faster "chip" in it.

At least, Best Buy has a good return policy.


EDIT: Haha, even their webpage lies:


Dynex 9'8" USB 2.0 Cable (TE-USB-3AB)

The Dynex 9'8" USB 2.0 Device Cable is an extra long cable that works with all USB-compatible devices. It provides faster transfer rates than USB 1.1 cables when used with USB 2.0-compatible items. The 24K gold plated contacts ensure error-free data transmissions and the cord is double shielded to ensure immunity to electromagnetic and radio waves.
Click to expand...
 
kevingaffney said:
Perhaps you might elaborate on the extent of the lies you were told in these shops. Making a sweeping statement that you were lied to without explaining what hapened would leave me a little wary of dealing with these apple stores. A little info and I can make a judgement myself
Click to expand...

Sure, stuff like:

The longer you use an LCD the brighter the screen will get.

If you're not happy with your pirchase and it's exceeded the 14 day returns period, we'll still happily refund you

Macs never slow down with usage

Both those screens are exactly the same - this was said while holding two iPads side by side in store. A store model and the one I was replacing. My reply was "ugh that one has a yellow screen and your store model has a blue hew to it". I went to another member of staff who gave up after I put the iPad next to six different devices (all of the ones on the table) and proved the colour of the screen was significantly off as well as the brightness

There are other examples, but sadly I don't have an elephants memory

My experience is that it's always the same staff members. As I mentioned earlier, other staff are excellent.
 
Toonbay said:
I could not believe it and really wanted to say something but had to stop myself.

I think its shocking that advice is given like that about products, reason I don't tend to shop in there very often
Click to expand...

A lot of stores do that here in Ireland. Generally if I overhear b*ll***t like that to a customer I interject whether the staff like it or not.
 
That is absolutely disgraceful. I work at a John Lewis in the technology department and we pride ourselves on having THE best customer service in the UK. If a manager overheard me saying that then I would lose my job, no questions asked.
 
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