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Visited a Store and was shunned

I live in an area where brick & mortar stores are not easily assessable to demo equipment. While traveling for business, I decided to stop by an establishment on the U.S. West coast. My interest was in the Dynaudio Confidence 20 since I’m looking to upgrade from the Contour 20i. I’m not here to name names or throw anyone under the bus, just purely to voice my frustration and disbelief on how I was treated.

I was greeted with skepticism and a general lack of interest in discussing the product. There were two gentlemen working that day and neither had any interest in answering questions or providing a listening demo. As a matter of fact, when I asked to listen to the Confidence 20 speakers one of them immediately said “no way”. Both speakers were on stands sitting next to several amplifiers so it wouldn’t have taken much time to setup.

I was intent on making a purchase that day and having the speakers shipped to my residence, but decided to leave the store based on my experience.

It’s a shame that most of us have to relay on equipment reviews when establishments such as this lack interest in the customers that support the hobby.

vette5451
parkergetdean
1,083 posts
 

my wife would say: "you are not buying zilch!"

larsman's avatar
larsman
3,160 posts
 

There's a store here in Northern California that would gladly let you audition up to 3 pairs of speakers for a $250 fee, which would be credited back if a purchase was made; otherwise you got an expensive audition. I paid the $250 fee, auditioned 3 pairs of speakers, and bought one pair. Discourages time-wasters and tire-kickers indeed, but also discourages many who legitimately wanted to buy something. It's not like the place is always packed with customers.... 

sounds_real_audio
1,099 posts
 

Perhaps if you had lead with that. Tell them you are there to purchase speakers an ask about shipping to your residence, "I was intent on making a purchase that day and having the speakers shipped to my residence,"  but decided to leave the store based on my experience.

Lots of people do like to stop in and browse  and they should be encouraged...

noromance's avatar
noromance
10,488 posts
 

I visited Goodwin’s High End in the Boston area as I was in the city on business. I walked in, no appointment.  I told them up front that I simply wanted to check them out and probably wasn’t buying anything. They were fine with that but said they may not be able to demo some equipment without an appointment.  We had a great chat and they demoed their top of the range Basis/Griffin/Rockport rig just for fun.

I ended up buying a ’S-class’ REL sub, and they kindly threw in a free copy of a Beatles album. It pays to be nice.

jl35
4,459 posts
 

@jallan I bought my first "real" system at The Sound Machine in 1978 while in graduate school...great memories...

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