I dont trust anyone who works on commission to help me back a decision based on my needs; it will bebased on their commission, so I do the research myself. For those who can not/will not do the research, simply do what all my friends and family does, and call me to do it for them. ALL my recent purhcases have been on line. For price, selection, and even customer service, the e stores are beating out brick and morter every day. Let the silly fools who must have it in their hands THAT day pay the extra money and deal with the salesmen.
@Curves: I do not blame you, but I do personally take slight offense to not trusting the sales person. I worked Electronics retail for 2.5 years roughly 1 year of that(in the middle) was commissioned. I was always more concerned about my customers needs/happiness than I was my paycheck. That is why I was voluntarily demoted down to a non-commissioned sales position. I did not like the pressure of having to make my paycheck if it would require me to lie cheat and steal. I know I was probably the exception to that rule, but still not ALL sales people are out to screw you over.
@Brandon Smith: No personal offense is intended toward you or any other commissioned sales people, I was one myself at one time, but the fact is, that you are in the extreme minority of salesmen if you want the customer to be happy more than you want the commission. Giving your complete trust to a salesman is like trusting a lawyer or a televangelist, which is just nuts (no offense intended to the lawyer/televangelists who read Giz).
@Curves: Actually, I cared more as a commissioned sales person than as an hourly one.
I worked for Best Buy during the transition from commissioned to hourly, and not only did the knowledge evaporate from the store, but so did the will to actually care about the customer.
As for people complaining above about a salesperson not wanting to show a customer certain other brands. I can understand it. I had a lot of people who came in demanding to see an RCA because they only bought American Made TVs because they wanted quality etc. I, as an hourly person, had no problem telling them that they were smoking crack.
I had one lady who wrote my name down on the sales slip. A year later when she had problems w/ the TV and it was just out of warranty, she insisted that I sold her the TV. I responded perfectly honestly, "Ma'am, if you bought an RCA TV it was because you demanded it, not because I wanted to sell it to you."
She dropped the TV off outside the store w/ a sign that said "Shit from Best Buy!" on it. After she left I wheeled it into the store so Security could watch it. She didn't come back, so I had it repaired and used it for 2 years in my college dorm room.
Call it anecdotal, but I knew which floor models didn't hold up to customer use/abuse. I knew which models had remotes that broke easily. I knew which models had a higher than average percentage of faulty power supplies.
I actually cared about this information, because I didn't want to sell people crap. But as an hourly sales person? If you were even remotely a jerk to me I'd ignore you.
eh, i'm sketchy on the notion of accepting advice from anyone who's on commission. i'd rather do my own research, thankyouverymuch. if i'm going to plunk down some serious change for a new toy and risk disappointment, i'd rather blame myself than feel like a sucker for trusting someone who was collecting a percentage.
@dave the wet sprocket: You're assuming that the person on commission is out to gouge you utterly.
You seem to have missed the part about keeping employees for a long time. If the customer walks away happy with their purchase, they will be back. If the customer feels gouged, then they won't.
Real commission sales people tend to understand that creating not only store loyalty, but salesperson loyalty is key to their paycheck.
If you return the item because you feel ripped off, then they lose that money out of their next paycheck.
keep in mind that monster cables make best buy's store brand look cheap in comparison and those are still costly. i think best buy is pretty well pleased with the pricing of monster products.
Gentlemen, I've been reading around the blogs and it seems as though people are not fond of our pricing. I generally laugh at these little chickenshits and go to sleep on my mattress stuffed with hundred dollar bills and cashmere sweaters, but these are increasingly tough times. What do you guys in accounting have to say about this?
*one guy speaks*
Ahem, well sir, seems the Litigation Division is starting to turn a profit. I think we can afford to lower the price and quell some of the negative feedback.
Brilliant! I knew I hired you eggheads for something.
@Kaiser-Machead: Gentlemen, it has come to my attention that conversations from a confidential staff meeting have been leaked and published on a prominent blog. You know, that one that OMG! Ponies! frequents. Now it seems to me that a security breach like this means heads in this room are going to roll. What do you have to say about that?
*one guy speaks*
Well, sir, you could indeed fire us all to be sure of eliminating the source. Or...
Or? Or what?
Or you could make even more money by suing the pants off this Kaiser-Machead dude.
Brilliant again! Gentlemen, run a whois search and track down this defenseless chump. Mwuah ha ha ha ha!
@bosskev: Sir, it appears that username 'Kaiser-Machead' closed all of his accounts, liquidated his assets and is now um....off the grid. We believe his last known location was a woodland area somewhere in upstate New York.
@Maxximtl: well, they're not exclusive and apple actually makes a good product. several even. monster is just a sad company and frankly i don't know how they haven't made a bajillion dollars yet with their margins being HUGE. i don't even think the margins on drugs are even that high.
@Nick: Where is the difference? Monster cables make a GREAT product, one of the best matter of fact, the thing is for these cables it can cost them $10 to make the thing which the sell for 100-200% markup when a $5 cable can do the same thing. Monster cable by no means is a horrible crappy cable and actually makes a difference on 40ft+ runs when trying to do 1080p 120mhz 1.3b specs and all that jazz, but im sure theres a monoprice cable or bluejeans cable that can do that quality now for ALOT cheaper.
You guys got it all wrong, I for one buy Monster cables, not as an HDMI cable, but as an accessory. That's right, I wear my Monster cables, they don't even go near my TV. I just slap one on around my neck and let the ladies oggle. Little kids often look up to me and aspire to one day have Monster fortune.
and again i step to the forefront in my continuing quest to help educate people... if you know someone that is going to buy cables direct them to monoprice.com so they can get quality cables cheap. f' monster. i tea bag them my good man, i tea bag them ever so gently.
I bought a "cheap" VGA cable for my Xbox 360 from monoprice. There was noticeable ghosting and poor image quality.
Bought the 360 VGA cable from Monster, and voila...perfect picture. Others I know have also had similar experiences with the 360 VGA cables.
Definitely not defending Monster, because my $2 HDMI cables from monoprice are just fine. But as the article points out "usually" unnecessary is probably the best way to describe Monster cables.
@hooshies: I bought some monoprice HDMI cables a while back, the connector fit was too loose for my TV, 1 foot of cable would pull the connector out. I also had a blurriness problem with a VGA cable of a similar company, but can't remember the stats. Fixed with good wires from reputable companies, at a modest price.
The 'Monoprice FTW ' manta is old, and often as ignorant as dumping out your wallet to pay for the most expensive cables at Best Buy.
@Lizard_King: I don't think it's so much of 'Monoprice FTW', rather 'reasonably-priced cables FTW'.
And although HDMI is probably the most referenced cable when it comes to monoprice, I'm more likely to buy Cat5, audio, or RCA cables, not to mention splitters, Y-connectors, etc.
Monster does make high quality cables. I don't think anyone argues that.
The problem is that a high quality generic cable might cost $10, whereas a low quality generic would be $5 (just by way of example). I have no problem spending twice the money for good shielding and a ferrite ring, but never 10x the price.
So, their pricing has been reduced from wildly ridiculous to seriously laughable? Let me know when they further slash prices down to merely overpriced.
@admoseremic: This pricing terminology is all very helpful, but is there a chart somewhere I can reference? I don't want to get confused when I try to determine how much I'm getting ripped off.
@mac404: There is no chart, but you can simulate the variable pricing data easily. Take a construction-grade 2x4, mark it off every foot, then bend over and insert. You'll find each marking informative.
I'm not much of a cable buff, and could care less about the price. If I can get one that does the same thing for less Monster wont even cross my mind. So yeah "thanks?"
@firefox 3.5 eats memory like candy_eagles3: I dunno man, I've been using those $30 6ft network cables that Best Buy sells for a while now, and my internets are so much faster.
[I hate to think that I even need to add this, but here goes:] /sarcasm
BTW - Your name is excellent. I've got 4 FF windows open (178 MB) and 6 Chrome windows (67 MB). FF is dying on that basis alone.
@ScottRose: LMAO you call that usage? 1 Instance of FF with god knows how many tabs = 382mb... Yes, you heard that right... three hundred and eighty two... Hell that's even more than Outlook...
@UnderLoK: Ah, my FF windows each have no tabs (or one tab, depending upon how you want to look at it). I've got 22 tabs between my 6 Chrome windows. Which is to say nothing of the 2 windows of IE I've got open and 1 in Safari.
(Never let them tell you that any browser is 100% compliant with any standard. I've seen the same page render differently on all 4, not counting default fonts, or different versions of the browsers. :\ )
05/27/09
05/27/09
05/27/09
05/27/09
05/27/09
I worked for Best Buy during the transition from commissioned to hourly, and not only did the knowledge evaporate from the store, but so did the will to actually care about the customer.
As for people complaining above about a salesperson not wanting to show a customer certain other brands. I can understand it. I had a lot of people who came in demanding to see an RCA because they only bought American Made TVs because they wanted quality etc. I, as an hourly person, had no problem telling them that they were smoking crack.
I had one lady who wrote my name down on the sales slip. A year later when she had problems w/ the TV and it was just out of warranty, she insisted that I sold her the TV. I responded perfectly honestly, "Ma'am, if you bought an RCA TV it was because you demanded it, not because I wanted to sell it to you."
She dropped the TV off outside the store w/ a sign that said "Shit from Best Buy!" on it. After she left I wheeled it into the store so Security could watch it. She didn't come back, so I had it repaired and used it for 2 years in my college dorm room.
Call it anecdotal, but I knew which floor models didn't hold up to customer use/abuse. I knew which models had remotes that broke easily. I knew which models had a higher than average percentage of faulty power supplies.
I actually cared about this information, because I didn't want to sell people crap. But as an hourly sales person? If you were even remotely a jerk to me I'd ignore you.
05/27/09
05/27/09
You seem to have missed the part about keeping employees for a long time. If the customer walks away happy with their purchase, they will be back. If the customer feels gouged, then they won't.
Real commission sales people tend to understand that creating not only store loyalty, but salesperson loyalty is key to their paycheck.
If you return the item because you feel ripped off, then they lose that money out of their next paycheck.
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
*one guy speaks*
Ahem, well sir, seems the Litigation Division is starting to turn a profit. I think we can afford to lower the price and quell some of the negative feedback.
Brilliant! I knew I hired you eggheads for something.
04/29/09
*one guy speaks*
Well, sir, you could indeed fire us all to be sure of eliminating the source. Or...
Or? Or what?
Or you could make even more money by suing the pants off this Kaiser-Machead dude.
Brilliant again! Gentlemen, run a whois search and track down this defenseless chump. Mwuah ha ha ha ha!
04/29/09
Send the Anti-Escape Orb.
04/29/09
04/29/09
Apparently he's located at 112 N Westgate Ave in Los Angeles!
Let's roll. . .
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
@bosskev: Yeah, sire seems to work a lot better
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
I hearted you for that.
04/29/09
04/29/09
You say that like it's a bad thing.
04/29/09
Bought the 360 VGA cable from Monster, and voila...perfect picture. Others I know have also had similar experiences with the 360 VGA cables.
Definitely not defending Monster, because my $2 HDMI cables from monoprice are just fine. But as the article points out "usually" unnecessary is probably the best way to describe Monster cables.
04/29/09
The 'Monoprice FTW ' manta is old, and often as ignorant as dumping out your wallet to pay for the most expensive cables at Best Buy.
04/29/09
And although HDMI is probably the most referenced cable when it comes to monoprice, I'm more likely to buy Cat5, audio, or RCA cables, not to mention splitters, Y-connectors, etc.
04/29/09
The problem is that a high quality generic cable might cost $10, whereas a low quality generic would be $5 (just by way of example). I have no problem spending twice the money for good shielding and a ferrite ring, but never 10x the price.
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
Thanks but no thanks, I'll just use the 2 6' HDMI cables that i got for ~$7.00 total from one of last week's dealzmodo.
04/29/09
04/29/09
04/29/09
[I hate to think that I even need to add this, but here goes:] /sarcasm
BTW - Your name is excellent. I've got 4 FF windows open (178 MB) and 6 Chrome windows (67 MB). FF is dying on that basis alone.
04/29/09
04/29/09
(Never let them tell you that any browser is 100% compliant with any standard. I've seen the same page render differently on all 4, not counting default fonts, or different versions of the browsers. :\ )
04/25/09
- Alarm clock (if left to my own devices I become nocturnal within a week, that makes it rather hard to function in the normal world)
- Computer(s)
- High Speed 'net
- Wireless Router / Network
- Fridge
- Grill (anything that can be cooked on a stove can be cooked on a grill)
- Toaster oven
- TV (circa 1986 AOC 15" CRT, not cable compatible, thing has fricken dials... but, I haven't seen a better picture on anything <$700 so...)
- VCR (to work as a basic cable tuner / RF modulator for the crap TV, the actual VCR part is toast)
- PS2/DVD player (mainly used as a DVD player nowadays)
- Basic Cable (with Discovery, History, Comedy Central, National Geographic, and, if possible, SPEED)
- Cell Phone
- Microwave (it just takes so much less time to heat stuff up in the microwave. Also, popcorn)