Ya those types of stores always have good sales. My buddies all bought R9800pros for sale @ 299$ while most stores sold them for 350$+.
Ya those types of stores always have good sales. My buddies all bought R9800pros for sale @ 299$ while most stores sold them for 350$+.
Ban him for causing a bit of laughter?
I for one am very interested in all the junk the SO CALLED computer salespeople say. Most of it is all lies.
The one thing that bothers me more than most is all the Anti AMD junk some of them say like AMD is less stable, Won't run all Applications that Intel will run and like the other poster already said, AMD is fast out of the box but has poor Silicon and gets slower with use. That is total junk.
I have heard so many lies at Best Buy, CompUSA and even some Mom and Pop stores I don't even know where to begin.
One call to Tech Support once made me laugh for days. "My COmputer you sold me won't power on" After much questioning they asked, "I did not pay my electric bill and my Electricity was shut off, would that make a difference?"
That one made me laugh for weeks!!
I for one am very interested in all the junk the SO CALLED computer salespeople say. Most of it is all lies.
The one thing that bothers me more than most is all the Anti AMD junk some of them say like AMD is less stable, Won't run all Applications that Intel will run and like the other poster already said, AMD is fast out of the box but has poor Silicon and gets slower with use. That is total junk.
I have heard so many lies at Best Buy, CompUSA and even some Mom and Pop stores I don't even know where to begin.
One call to Tech Support once made me laugh for days. "My COmputer you sold me won't power on" After much questioning they asked, "I did not pay my electric bill and my Electricity was shut off, would that make a difference?"
That one made me laugh for weeks!!
Schadenfroh
Elite Member
- Mar 8, 2003
- 38,416
- 4
- 0
Kaido
Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
- Feb 14, 2004
- 51,839
- 7,361
- 136
Oh the stories I have...
CompUSA...nearly everytime I go in the store I come out with material for a funny story. Especially when I'm in the CDRW drive section and hear the salesdudes explaining things to customers, lol.
My favorite CompUSA story was when I was in the Mac section. Sorry guys...I love AMDs but somtimes the Mac section just calls to me...it's like walking past a jewelry store at the mall, you see all the shiny things and want to go in and have a look. Anyway I was checking out those 20" iMacs and overheard a salesman (didn't have a choice...I was like 15 feet away in a busy store and I still could hear the guy) trying to sell a customer a Mac. Apparently he had just shown him all of the computers except the G5 with the 23" display. At this point the salesman got really excited (talking loud + fast) and proceeded to tell the customer that he could LAUNCH THE SPACE SHUTTLE WITH THIS COMPUTER!!! No joke. He repeated it 4 or 5 times. He was like, with this computer, you could probably launch the space shuttle. No, wait, you CAN launch the space shuttle with this. That's how powerful this machine is - you can control the space shuttle with this computer!! He was very animated about it. That kept me laughing the rest of the day, especially when I remembered that the first space shuttle had been launched in 1981...
A recent experience at Best Buy...I took my bro down to help him find a laptop for college. He picked one out and the tech explained their warranty and additional services. One of those services involved the hi-tech, labor-intensive skill of downloading AND installing Windows updates and Norton antivirus updates for the low, low price of $70 (right there in the store, too!). I just shook my head and laughed when he walked out of earshot. I should start my own business and advertise that I'm willing to do that for $20 less than Best Buy...rofl...
CompUSA...nearly everytime I go in the store I come out with material for a funny story. Especially when I'm in the CDRW drive section and hear the salesdudes explaining things to customers, lol.
My favorite CompUSA story was when I was in the Mac section. Sorry guys...I love AMDs but somtimes the Mac section just calls to me...it's like walking past a jewelry store at the mall, you see all the shiny things and want to go in and have a look. Anyway I was checking out those 20" iMacs and overheard a salesman (didn't have a choice...I was like 15 feet away in a busy store and I still could hear the guy) trying to sell a customer a Mac. Apparently he had just shown him all of the computers except the G5 with the 23" display. At this point the salesman got really excited (talking loud + fast) and proceeded to tell the customer that he could LAUNCH THE SPACE SHUTTLE WITH THIS COMPUTER!!! No joke. He repeated it 4 or 5 times. He was like, with this computer, you could probably launch the space shuttle. No, wait, you CAN launch the space shuttle with this. That's how powerful this machine is - you can control the space shuttle with this computer!! He was very animated about it. That kept me laughing the rest of the day, especially when I remembered that the first space shuttle had been launched in 1981...
A recent experience at Best Buy...I took my bro down to help him find a laptop for college. He picked one out and the tech explained their warranty and additional services. One of those services involved the hi-tech, labor-intensive skill of downloading AND installing Windows updates and Norton antivirus updates for the low, low price of $70 (right there in the store, too!). I just shook my head and laughed when he walked out of earshot. I should start my own business and advertise that I'm willing to do that for $20 less than Best Buy...rofl...
CKTurbo128
Platinum Member
- May 8, 2002
- 2,702
- 1
- 81
I remember a time back in 2001 when a Best Buy salesman was selling a new PC to this 50 year old woman. Apparently, the woman wanted to buy one of the cheaper, slower PCs (Pentium III 600 MHz?) for just surfing the web and checking e-mail, but the salesman wanted her to buy the more expensive P3 1 GHz PC. The reason why (according to him)?
?You need a 1 GHz PC; anything slower will crash the Internet.?
:roll:
?You need a 1 GHz PC; anything slower will crash the Internet.?
:roll:
He "doesnt remember where he bought it" but he "thinks its newegg". Sounds to me like he got hosed on ebay.
VirtualLarry
No Lifer
- Aug 25, 2001
- 56,587
- 10,225
- 126
Well, there actually *is* some truth to that, in the general sense. I saw some ultra-cheap PSUs on Computergeeks.com, that lacked a proper "UL" certification. Basically, those things are probably fire hazards waiting to happen, and there is a reason why they are half the price of other brands in their class. I think it's a quasi-legal grey area to sell those things to consumers in the US.
There's also some truth that NewEgg sells items from large lots direct-from-mfg, that were sold originally only for system-builders, not end-users. (I got this information from another AT thread, discussing the origins of NewEgg, and ABS Computers.) But that's not illegal, just an issue between NewEgg and their suppliers.
VirtualLarry
No Lifer
- Aug 25, 2001
- 56,587
- 10,225
- 126
WOW. That's crazy!
I used to hang out (years ago, when I was younger), at TRU during the x-mas buying season, in the video-game section. I used to answer questions and recommend games all the time to customers. I was also asked a few times if I worked there, I always answered truthfully, "No". I was never bothered by the staff; truthfully, they are pretty overworking during x-mas season, so they were probably happy to be asked less questions by the customers. Plus, I used to be a video-game junkie, so I pretty-much knew my stuff. I thought that it was interesting, that a few years later, during the hey-days of the 16-bit console era, they were actually hiring seasonal staff for their stores to demo games to customers. I don't recall whether that lasted more than a year or two, and I'm certain that it had nothing to do with me, but supports the idea that helpful service I was providing was valuable enough for TRU to hire people to do that later on.
I am curious under what kind of charges that they might consider pressing.
Then again, BestBuy did try to have that guy arrested, for trying to pick up (or buy?) a pre-order GF4 Ti.. remember that?
Honestly though, if you could "prove" that the salesman was fraudulently misrepresenting their products, in order to make a sale, that alone could be grounds to provoke an investigation by the state AG.
I think that the only "charges" that you would have been guilty of, would have been making a BestBuy salesperson look like a complete dumbass in front of a customer...
Btw, another true BB story:
A friend of mine wanted to purchase a CD-burner, after I had myself acquired a Yamaha 6416S burner, and found that it worked well. So we went to NH (no sales tax), and went looking for a Yamaha CD-burner at the tech counter at BB. The CD-burners were behind the glass case, so I had to ask the tech to take one out so that I could look at it. (Retail-box Yamaha 8424). I specifically asked for SCSI, but he handed me one that was an IDE model. I handed it back to him, and told him that I specifically wanted a SCSI model.
A little bit of side information - Yamaha already had their SCSI 8x models on the market, and had only recently started production of their IDE 8x models. They didn't have an IDE-specific packaging, instead, they re-used the same SCSI packaging, and affixed a sticker to the front, to cover over the "SCSI", with "IDE". Pretty simply really, but kind of a hard-to-notice nuance. The detailed description on the side of the box didn't have a sticker, so it still said that it had a SCSI-3 interface on both boxes. (The only reason that I knew about this was that I worked for a reseller at the time that carried these same drives, otherwise I might not have looked closely enough to notice.)
So I basically pointed this out to him, he wasn't a young kid, and seemed to at least have some passing technical knowledge, but not anything in-depth.
When I returned the IDE box and asked again for the SCSI model, he start to say something about that he had sold several of those earlier in the day... and then kind of stopped. He had the strangest look on his face, kind of a mixture of dawning enlightenment and a fearful understanding of what he had done, and the natural consequences - that probably all of them would end up being returned, because they were the wrong model.
So, other than the fact that the tech was kind of clueless at what we were looking for, the story does have a happy ending - my friend found one of models we were looking for as a discounted "open box" (probably due to a return from a previous day), looked basically unused, and he used his 10%-off BB coupon, along with no sales tax. So he got the $299 list drive for something around $230, which was slightly less than I paid for my 6416S, which I think was actually a factory refurb whitebox not retail.
Once heard a customer tell a salesperson he wanted a printer for transparancies and couldn't decide on laser (back when lasers were very expensive) or inkjet. Salesman told him laser would be better because inkjet would only "paint" on the media and it might fall off. A laser would actually "burn" it into the media. I stepped in and told the guy that that was BS as the laser never touched the media, only a drum. The salesman countered that he was right because the media came out of the printer warm, proving that the laser had "burned" the image into it.
The people at BB convince my friends brother that them pen drives are easy sticks of ram to put in your computer. So he pissed away 100 dollars
LOL THIS IS THE BEST THREAD EVER. Stupid a$$ comp usa, best buy, and dell ALWAYS pull those stupid tricks by saying "fast" hard drive or "fast ram". "Gaming Machine" lmao these guys have no idea. They always talk about fast nvidia and ati graphics...........yeah..onboard. Then they never know about the latest stuff. "Oh this 2.8 p4 is the fastest out there". Or "They don't make computers with more than one gig of ram".
Jeff7
Lifer
- Jan 4, 2001
- 41,596
- 20
- 81
I only really had experience with one salesperson before - I usually buy my own parts, and do so online. 
Was at Walmart; she said that she'll only use Intel processors, because AMD makes junk that will either not work with any programs, or else their CPU's just fail in a few months. I said that the 4 AMD PC's I had at home would beg to differ.
Was at Walmart; she said that she'll only use Intel processors, because AMD makes junk that will either not work with any programs, or else their CPU's just fail in a few months. I said that the 4 AMD PC's I had at home would beg to differ.
Why are some of you so indignant? Maybe I'm just the odd man out but I feel no compunction for people who empty their wallets without the vaguest clue what they're buying. I'm not saying I don't find the thread entertaining - I do
I went to the local computer renasance store to see if they could find out what was wrong with my game server computer that I had built...I didnt have the time to put into finding the problem, I was too busy with school to fix it...so after paying my $20 to get back my system they told me it was a spyware issue. I knew right off the bat they didnt know what was wrong. The computer couldnt even use the internet because the built in NIC was bad. I RMA the board. The funny thing was that it had a fresh install of XP pro. I went in because the precessing power was at 80 - 100% at all time, and they said it was spyware. All they had to do was plug it into a hub and see that the NIC was bad.
Oh man these are great! I hear salemen telling innocent people (or me sometimes too) the worst stuff at fry's, though! I started keeping a list so I wouldn't forget:
One time I watched as a salesman tried to print out that little invoice to take to the front for an 865PE mobo and an athlon 64 3000. Needless to say I told the guy that the processor would not work with the motherboard on his way to checkout.
Also, I've seen them tell people not to buy "trashy seagate hard drives. This western digital costs a little more, but they are much faster and wont break in a year!"
"Don't buy AMD because soon AMD is going to only work with Macs because the next windows won't work with AMD computers."
"Don't bother with Windows 95. IBM makes OS/2 Warp and they will buy microsoft anyways so you are better off having that." (Yea, I know, OS/2 Warp was pretty damn good)
"Hyper threading means that it acts like 2 processors! That means that you get 32 bit times 2 which is the same as 64-bit!"
"The pentium MMX is much faster than the pentium 2 for watching movies and playing games because MMX stands for multimedia X. So if you do anything multimedia, get an MMX."
"The internet is just a fad, you don't need a modem because AOL is shutting it down." (back when 33.6 just hit the market)
"The corsair XMS RAM is more expensive because it increases the MHz of your computer!"
"The richochet modem is the same speed as DSL because you need an extra phone line if you get DSL."
Customer: "Can I put windows XP on this computer if I buy it?" salesman: "No because the sticker says windows ME and it means that it will only work with ME. If you want XP you have to get one with an XP sticker on it."
"Don't buy that epson scanner because it runs out of ink faster."
a customer to his friend: "I heard the XBOX was a computer so you can play the games on a computer too as long as it is from Microsoft."
I have more from Fry's, but not all from computers. I watched a salesman tell a customer that "It doesn't matter how many megapixels a camera has because you can always make it bigger on the computer. I would just get a kodak because those always make good pictures."
I was walking through the car audio section to see if they had all the light up hifonics amps in the little room anymore and the salesman asked if needed an amp and a subwoofer. I said, "No thanks, I already have a 12 inch ED A series sub." He told me:
"You should get a better subwoofer. You can't trust those internet brands, you are better off buying sony. This one here is 15'' AND i bet your sub can't handle 1000 watts like this one! This will REALLY shake your car!"
edit: whoops, not all of the computer ones are fry's! A couple are circuit city and compusa and the MMX one is from a local custom building shop that was open in those days.
One time I watched as a salesman tried to print out that little invoice to take to the front for an 865PE mobo and an athlon 64 3000. Needless to say I told the guy that the processor would not work with the motherboard on his way to checkout.
Also, I've seen them tell people not to buy "trashy seagate hard drives. This western digital costs a little more, but they are much faster and wont break in a year!"
"Don't buy AMD because soon AMD is going to only work with Macs because the next windows won't work with AMD computers."
"Don't bother with Windows 95. IBM makes OS/2 Warp and they will buy microsoft anyways so you are better off having that." (Yea, I know, OS/2 Warp was pretty damn good)
"Hyper threading means that it acts like 2 processors! That means that you get 32 bit times 2 which is the same as 64-bit!"
"The pentium MMX is much faster than the pentium 2 for watching movies and playing games because MMX stands for multimedia X. So if you do anything multimedia, get an MMX."
"The internet is just a fad, you don't need a modem because AOL is shutting it down." (back when 33.6 just hit the market)
"The corsair XMS RAM is more expensive because it increases the MHz of your computer!"
"The richochet modem is the same speed as DSL because you need an extra phone line if you get DSL."
Customer: "Can I put windows XP on this computer if I buy it?" salesman: "No because the sticker says windows ME and it means that it will only work with ME. If you want XP you have to get one with an XP sticker on it."
"Don't buy that epson scanner because it runs out of ink faster."
a customer to his friend: "I heard the XBOX was a computer so you can play the games on a computer too as long as it is from Microsoft."
I have more from Fry's, but not all from computers. I watched a salesman tell a customer that "It doesn't matter how many megapixels a camera has because you can always make it bigger on the computer. I would just get a kodak because those always make good pictures."
I was walking through the car audio section to see if they had all the light up hifonics amps in the little room anymore and the salesman asked if needed an amp and a subwoofer. I said, "No thanks, I already have a 12 inch ED A series sub." He told me:
"You should get a better subwoofer. You can't trust those internet brands, you are better off buying sony. This one here is 15'' AND i bet your sub can't handle 1000 watts like this one! This will REALLY shake your car!"
edit: whoops, not all of the computer ones are fry's! A couple are circuit city and compusa and the MMX one is from a local custom building shop that was open in those days.
He probably just used the wrong words to describe a problem that exists with inkjets. Back then, and even still now with some printers, most inkjet ink is water soluble (maybe why he said "paint") so the entire transparency can be wiped off relatively easily. Laser is more or less permanent (why he said "burned"?). Inkjet printouts can always be botched up if you have to carry something and it gets moist. If you're teaching a class or giving a presentation and need the transparencies, you're in big trouble if you realize all your cute diagrams have been smudged. Back when I was teaching and we didn't have projectors in the classroom yet, I used to religiously ensure all my inkjet transparencies were kept dry and seperated. So the issue is real, though many inkjet cartridges now use better formulations to prevent this problem, but way back then it was very much a big deal.
I was planning to do some home recording and make some voice-over CDs.
I went to the local PC/electronics shop (A well known chain in the UK called Maplin). I was looking at the vocal microphones and had seen a nice Sennheiser mic for about £50.
I then needed a pre-amp and appropriate connection leads, so I asked the rep if he could get what I needed.
'Good thing you asked me.', he said. 'I'm the resident expert on microphones and recording. I've done a lot of sound systems for bands.'
I showed him the microphone and said I would be connecting it to my PC for recording. 'Could you find me a pre-amp and the connecting leads, please.'
'Oh no. You can't use that with a PC. You need a PC microphone'. He pointed to the PC section and their 'multimedia' 3.99 microphones. 'You see, that mic there is a mono microphone. PCs only work with stereo microphones.'
I went to the local PC/electronics shop (A well known chain in the UK called Maplin). I was looking at the vocal microphones and had seen a nice Sennheiser mic for about £50.
I then needed a pre-amp and appropriate connection leads, so I asked the rep if he could get what I needed.
'Good thing you asked me.', he said. 'I'm the resident expert on microphones and recording. I've done a lot of sound systems for bands.'
I showed him the microphone and said I would be connecting it to my PC for recording. 'Could you find me a pre-amp and the connecting leads, please.'
'Oh no. You can't use that with a PC. You need a PC microphone'. He pointed to the PC section and their 'multimedia' 3.99 microphones. 'You see, that mic there is a mono microphone. PCs only work with stereo microphones.'
SneakyStuff
Diamond Member
- Jan 13, 2004
- 4,294
- 0
- 76
See that's why I want a job at Compusa, i'd be a just salesman!
EDIT: But these people that go into a Bestbuy, not knowing jack diddly about computers, they'll come out with what they get, that's all I gotta say on this matter.
HEHEHE But I do have one story, at a bestbuy I was goin to pick up a stick of RAM for 70ucks (512MB!) for my old system. I got it at the coutner, was walkin around the PC section, and some lady had a piece of paper in her hand, and it said "Get PC for internet, music, pictures" I guess those were her families instructions? The salesman walked her right up to a 2000 dollar alienware computer, and convinced her that if she didn't get this, she would be wasting her money. So he goes to "get the papers" or whatever it is they do, I politely walked up to her and told her she was being ripped off, she just thanked me, and walked out of the store, when the guy came back, he must have looked for her 5 minutes, it was kinda funny.
EDIT: But these people that go into a Bestbuy, not knowing jack diddly about computers, they'll come out with what they get, that's all I gotta say on this matter.
HEHEHE But I do have one story, at a bestbuy I was goin to pick up a stick of RAM for 70ucks (512MB!) for my old system. I got it at the coutner, was walkin around the PC section, and some lady had a piece of paper in her hand, and it said "Get PC for internet, music, pictures" I guess those were her families instructions? The salesman walked her right up to a 2000 dollar alienware computer, and convinced her that if she didn't get this, she would be wasting her money. So he goes to "get the papers" or whatever it is they do, I politely walked up to her and told her she was being ripped off, she just thanked me, and walked out of the store, when the guy came back, he must have looked for her 5 minutes, it was kinda funny.
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