1. Home
  2. speakers
  3. 198764-143787

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
thecarpathian's avatar
thecarpathian
6,172 posts
 

It appears the shunned one has shunned his own thread.

jnovak's avatar
jnovak
503 posts
 

Sometimes these threads get so long that they’re just difficult to manage. I still work full-time and in the fall, I work two jobs. Maybe the OP is in the same boat.

hifidream's avatar
hifidream
161 posts
 

I don’t blame you for walking out. I went to the Audio Consultants in Chicago many years when I had no money and they always treated me well. I had moved to California for work and made a trip back to Chicago to buy my 20.1 Magnepans from them because they had earned my business with all the kindness they showed me (once I saved up the money). I am sorry to say that the store is closed but have very fond memories of spending many hours listening to great systems there. Luckily my off days were during the week most of the time so they enjoyed it too and I always told them to drop me if another customer came in. Wild story is that they sold me new speakers at a used price because they were the last pair coming out of the factory and didn’t know what was in stock. I was so pleased and they were really happy for me. I’ll never forget them. My wife surprised me and found a nice quaint store near our apartment for my birthday, and they also auditioned some great equipment. I’ll buy from them when I’m next in the market. . I agree that customer service is the cornerstone of a brick and mortar store, I’m willing to pay more to support them. 

kob's avatar
kob
30 posts
 

@milpai 

I read your post regarding the experience of being shown a product priced much higher than you were looking for.

I was selling mid-fi in the late 70s when I happened into a High End store. I let the salesman know what I did and that I was not buying anything that day.

When he started up the Hill Plasmatronics for me, I was hooked. 

rettrussell's avatar
rettrussell
238 posts
 

I’ve hung out in many high-end audio stores when I was w/o financial means and was (apparently) lucky to have been treated nicely.

In a similar vein, how many of us have been nervous to buy an LP because the “cool” sales clerk might sneer at our choice?

More to discover