What's your experience with snooty HiFi salesmen?

hilde45
It isn't the quality of the equipment that these store have. It was their equipment that brought me into the stores. It was My Preparation to make sure they could accommodate me, their arrogance, their inability to provide a professional experience and finally paper thin walls between listening rooms. That just doesn't fly with me. I cold have gotten a better experience at Radio Shack. At least there you know what to expect and can accommodate for that i you own mind.
Another store that yo did not mention and notice again I am not going to say it. Their sales man after hearing about my previous experience went all the wany to ask me what I had for a system so that he might try to match it. Only he connected some tiny 2way bookshelf speakers to a Mac and though he would reproduce my home experience with full sized towers. Also when he couldn't produce anything that I had on a lengthy music list or means to play either a CD or DVD Also, those 2way bookshelf speaker were EXCELENT speakers in their own way. I would love to put some of their towers next to mine and compare them. but a tiny 2way is never going to sound like my towers. Had he chosen to connect to proper speakers that he had in front of him and been able to play something I know! He probably could have made a sale, but I ended up getting a far less expensive AV Receiver just becasue I know what to expect for NAD instead of something that NO ONE was able to demonstrate to me. WhY else would I g to a brick and mortar store?

@esarhaddon 

You're right. Not all my experiences have been good and a couple stores you didn't mention were problematic.

But -- whatever the gear -- I had good experiences at:

Crescendo Audio

Aural HiFi

Gold Sound

Soundings

Salespeople change and sometimes stores get feedback that helps them get better. 

When people on this forum swear, "I'm never going back" they may have hit a wall. That's unfortunate.

They may also be admitting, tacitly, that they don't know how to help the sales people help them. They don't know how to relate to people. Because, we're all people in this thing, I take it.

Can't really recall any. But then I just avoid people who are likely to annoy me and try not to dwell on it. It's like 2nd nature now. Also helps to do due-diligence beforehand, so I can provide my context and targeted questions from the get-go. 

Funny enough, I've encountered a couple big dealers via Facebook friends - not for audio related business - who turned out to be real sh*t-heads. Fortunately there are PLENTY of dealers and manufacturers I really do like. And I've maintained a good relationship with my main dealer for some 15 years. 

So, no problems with bad salespeople here. If anything, it will be entertainment if/when it happens. 

Audio Dimensions? I visited that place many times!

Harry was a great guy. I said was because he was quite old when I last visited but perhaps, he is still around. I'm not even sure if the store is still in business.

ozzy

@upshift and @szeidman2002 My shop was in Boca. As for Sound Advice, the guys who started it came into my shop one day--4 of them. They proceeded to laugh at me and my shop and told me that "they will run me out of business" in a month or two.

Well, MR X put his profits up his nose, they were so in debt to Sony that they took over the company, and eventually:

The company later went public until being acquired by Tweeter for around $150-million in 2001. After two filings for bankruptcy in less than one year, all 94 Tweeter / Sound Advice stores have officially closed down as of today.Dec 3, 2008

They were from Detriot and had been somewhat successful up there. If you lived there in the early ’70’s you might remember them. I don’t.

They were "big time" for a while, but they never sold what I did. You may have also visited Sound Components in Miami, started by a man I know who’s father owned a mint in South America. He was better capitalized that I was by a mile! He started recording live music with a Stellavox and achieved some notariety in the "big boy" Audio world. He is now working at some big company--I don’t remember which one. The store is still in Miami, but I have no idea where or who owns it. It used to be in Coral Gables. Hi-Fi Associates was owned by a man who’s dad started a large rental trucking company and he was VERY well capitalized for a while. As I remember, he opened a few more shops and his dad eventually pulled the plug.

I could tell many stories of those days down here, but will not. Suffice it to say, it was a VERY small group of us and we all knew each other pretty well, for better or worse.

And yes, it was an interesting time in SO FL in those days...we will leave it at that.

Oh, for those who wonder, I still listen to my Tympani I-C speakers/ARC gear from the late 1970’s and they are still the most accurate speakers made--the newer ones obvioulsy improved. Put them next to any other speaker and YOU choose. Many don’t care for them, but if they are set up properly with excellent tube gear, well, if you hear them, you will understand. Not for everyone, but for me, as good as it gets.

Cheers