OT--HDTV and Geek Squad

I figured I'd post here as you are all so knowledgeable. We are TV
shopping. Here is what I wrote a friend, and then I'll ask a question:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
we have been shopping for a new TV. Lloyd, I know you have ranted and
raved (can you distinguish between ranting and raving?) about computers
and cell phones. Have you shopped for a TV lately? We have sold our 32"
regular (not HD) TV. We are leaning towards a wall-mounted 50" HDTV. So,
how does one buy a TV? You go in the store, look at a bunch, and then
order it. Not any more!! It seems there are Plasma, LCD, and LED TVs. We
have a large open living room, dining room, kitchen. It has very high
vaulted ceilings with 4 skylights. Well, now, many of the Plasma TV's
will have a huge glare when being watched in regular light. At night,
however, it will have rich, deep colors. OK, maybe the LCD/LED is better
(it costs 75% more). But, wait. We have couches that would be right in
front, but others at an angle. Well, some of these TVs will not be good
for this set-up. You see, at an angle, these colors get washed out. Oh,
then we have sound issues. The really nice narrow large flat screens
have lousy speakers with tinny sounds, so you have to buy what's called
a sound strip. Or, better yet, we could get surround sound (alias a home
theater). Oh, it gets worse. We have netflix. Well, apparently, regular
DVDs and DVD players will not work well with a HDTV. So, now we need a
Blue-Ray player. Ah, but these come with different features. We also
have a Roku box which connects to our TV and allows us to stream movies
directly from netflix (no DVDs needed). But if we get the right type of
Blue Ray player, it will connect to netflix so we can get rid of the
Roku box. Oh, and then some TV's have internet access so when I use my
laptop it will wirelessly connect to the TV and I'd have the huge
screen. We are NOT interested in that. My laptop works very well. I told
them Lloyd will attest to that (<g>).

So, this is keeping us busy. We do like Best Buy the best in terms of
service folks and generalized helpful sales people. They have a thing
where they send out a consultant. It costs $100 but if you buy from them
you get that amount credited. It is like a home decorator, just for
buying a f-TV! Anyway, he came out yesterday and was excellent. As a
result, we will NOT do the wall-mounted TV. I won't go into those
details, but there are good reasons not to do that in our situation.
Instead, we went out and bought a very nice TV table (actually a nice
piece of furniture). We will get the plasma TV and they will set it up
during the day and we will see how it plays. If the glare is bad, they
will take it back and we will upgrade. We will also be able to listen to
the speakers. Apparently with our layout the acoustics should be good
and the speakers might be just fine. The consultant was very helpful.
It's a smart deal for Best Buy. They make $100 or they sell you stuff
anyway!

At the moment, we have our eye on a Panasonic. Oh, I forgot to tell you
that many of the newer TVs all have 3D capability. We are NOT interested
in that. So, Lloyd, let's hope your TV lasts forever! If it doesn't, I
guess you would let Neva do the buying!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

OK, my questions for this group:

1) Any comments on the above? We really like the Panasonic 50" Plasma,
but we are not sure if glare will be a problem. But, my main question is:

2) The Best Buy consultant at first recommended a 60" or greater LED TV,
but quickly switched. He mentioned many times that they do not work on
commission, so he is looking at what's best for me. My question: surely
there must be some incentive for him to suggest the most expensive items
and then back down. Perhaps they get some bonuses on the totality of
sales they make? So, does anyone know if they are truly independent with
no incentives whatsoever? I'm curious.

Mel

> On Jun 8, 6:00*pm, MZB <m...@prudigy.net> wrote:
> My question: surely
> there must be some incentive for him to suggest the most expensive items
> and then back down. Perhaps they get some bonuses on the totality of
> sales they make? So, does anyone know if they are truly independent with
> no incentives whatsoever? I'm curious.


Simple: The profit margin on the LED TV's is the higher and/or they
have more LED TV's in inventory. Also it's a bigger ticket item,
therefore more revenue for the company.

Why care about the potential bonus for the salesperson or his/her
motivation for suggesting a certain model? You should be buying the TV
you think is the best and fits your budget, not the one the
salesperson is hyping.

On Jun 8, 7:00*pm, MZB <m...@prudigy.net> wrote:
> I figured I'd post here as you are all so knowledgeable. We are TV
> shopping. Here is what I wrote a friend, and then I'll ask a question:
>
> *>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> we have been shopping for a new TV. Lloyd, I know you have ranted and
> raved (can you distinguish between ranting and raving?) about computers
> and cell phones. Have you shopped for a TV lately? We have sold our 32"
> regular (not HD) TV. We are leaning towards a wall-mounted 50" HDTV. So,
> how does one buy a TV? You go in the store, look at a bunch, and then
> order it. Not any more!! It seems there are Plasma, LCD, and LED TVs. We
> have a large open living room, dining room, kitchen. It has very high
> vaulted ceilings with 4 skylights. Well, now, many of the Plasma TV's
> will have a huge glare when being watched in regular light. At night,
> however, it will have rich, deep colors. OK, maybe the LCD/LED is better
> (it costs 75% more). But, wait. We have couches that would be right in
> front, but others at an angle. Well, some of these TVs will not be good
> for this set-up. You see, at an angle, these colors get washed out. Oh,
> then we have sound issues. The really nice narrow large flat screens
> have lousy speakers with tinny sounds, so you have to buy what's called
> a sound strip. Or, better yet, we could get surround sound (alias a home
> theater). Oh, it gets worse. We have netflix. Well, apparently, regular
> DVDs and DVD players will not work well with a HDTV. So, now we need a
> Blue-Ray player. Ah, but these come with different features. We also
> have a Roku box which connects to our TV and allows us to stream movies
> directly from netflix (no DVDs needed). But if we get the right type of
> Blue Ray player, it will connect to netflix so we can get rid of the
> Roku box. Oh, and then some TV's have internet access so when I use my
> laptop it will wirelessly connect to the TV and I'd have the huge
> screen. We are NOT interested in that. My laptop works very well. I told
> them Lloyd will attest to that (<g>).
>
> So, this is keeping us busy. We do like Best Buy the best in terms of
> service folks and generalized helpful sales people. They have a thing
> where they send out a consultant. It costs $100 but if you buy from them
> you get that amount credited. It is like a home decorator, just for
> buying a f-TV! Anyway, he came out yesterday and was excellent. As a
> result, we will NOT do the wall-mounted TV. I won't go into those
> details, but there are good reasons not to do that in our situation.
> Instead, we went out and bought a very nice TV table (actually a nice
> piece of furniture). We will get the plasma TV and they will set it up
> during the day and we will see how it plays. If the glare is bad, they
> will take it back and we will upgrade. We will also be able to listen to
> the speakers. Apparently with our layout the acoustics should be good
> and the speakers might be just fine. The consultant was very helpful.
> It's a smart deal for Best Buy. They make $100 or they sell you stuff
> anyway!
>
> At the moment, we have our eye on a Panasonic. Oh, I forgot to tell you
> that many of the newer TVs all have 3D capability. We are NOT interested
> in that. So, Lloyd, let's hope your TV lasts forever! If it doesn't, I
> guess you would let Neva do the buying!
> *>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>
> OK, my questions for this group:
>
> 1) Any comments on the above? We really like the Panasonic 50" Plasma,
> but we are not sure if glare will be a problem. But, my main question is:
>
> 2) The Best Buy consultant at first recommended a 60" or greater LED TV,
> but quickly switched. He mentioned many times that they do not work on
> commission, so he is looking at what's best for me. My question: surely
> there must be some incentive for him to suggest the most expensive items
> and then back down. Perhaps they get some bonuses on the totality of
> sales they make? So, does anyone know if they are truly independent with
> no incentives whatsoever? I'm curious.
>
> Mel

I have learned not to trust anyone who says they do not get a
commission, or similar dollars in proportion to some revenue
somewhere. Maybe the Best Buy "consultant" does not get a direct
commission on all the sales he/she generates, but you can bet that
somewhere somehow a part of the take-home pay is tied to sales valumes
or store profitability or something. And the consultants almost
always hang around the big ticket items or the high volume medium-
priced ones (e.g. cameras)... Ben Myers

On 6/9/2011 10:29 AM, powrwrap wrote:
>> On Jun 8, 6:00 pm, MZB<m...@prudigy.net> wrote:
>> My question: surely
>> there must be some incentive for him to suggest the most expensive items
>> and then back down. Perhaps they get some bonuses on the totality of
>> sales they make? So, does anyone know if they are truly independent with
>> no incentives whatsoever? I'm curious.
>
>
> Simple: The profit margin on the LED TV's is the higher and/or they
> have more LED TV's in inventory. Also it's a bigger ticket item,
> therefore more revenue for the company.
>
> Why care about the potential bonus for the salesperson or his/her
> motivation for suggesting a certain model? You should be buying the TV
> you think is the best and fits your budget, not the one the
> salesperson is hyping.

I absolutely agree with you. I was just curious about the "I don't work
on commission line" but yet they start you off with the most expensive
items. Again, the consultant backed off very quickly and we found him to
be quite knowledgeable and helpful. We had shopped around a lot before
meeting with him and only made some minor changes after meeting with him

Mel

On Thu, 09 Jun 2011 11:40:15 -0400, MZB <> wrote:

>On 6/9/2011 10:29 AM, powrwrap wrote:
>>> On Jun 8, 6:00 pm, MZB<m...@prudigy.net> wrote:
>>> My question: surely
>>> there must be some incentive for him to suggest the most expensive items
>>> and then back down. Perhaps they get some bonuses on the totality of
>>> sales they make? So, does anyone know if they are truly independent with
>>> no incentives whatsoever? I'm curious.
>>
>>
>> Simple: The profit margin on the LED TV's is the higher and/or they
>> have more LED TV's in inventory. Also it's a bigger ticket item,
>> therefore more revenue for the company.
>>
>> Why care about the potential bonus for the salesperson or his/her
>> motivation for suggesting a certain model? You should be buying the TV
>> you think is the best and fits your budget, not the one the
>> salesperson is hyping.
>
>I absolutely agree with you. I was just curious about the "I don't work
>on commission line" but yet they start you off with the most expensive
>items.


It's called " salesmanshiip ".

On Jun 9, 12:34*pm, "RnR" <rnrte...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 09 Jun 2011 11:40:15 -0400, MZB <m...@prudigy.net> wrote:
> >On 6/9/2011 10:29 AM, powrwrap wrote:
> >>> On Jun 8, 6:00 pm, MZB<m...@prudigy.net> *wrote:
> >>> * My question: surely
> >>> there must be some incentive for him to suggest the most expensive items
> >>> and then back down. Perhaps they get some bonuses on the totality of
> >>> sales they make? So, does anyone know if they are truly independent with
> >>> no incentives whatsoever? I'm curious.
>
> >> Simple: The profit margin on the LED TV's is the higher and/or they
> >> have more LED TV's in inventory. Also it's a bigger ticket item,
> >> therefore more revenue for the company.
>
> >> Why care about the potential bonus for the salesperson or his/her
> >> motivation for suggesting a certain model? You should be buying the TV
> >> you think is the best and fits your budget, not the one the
> >> salesperson is hyping.
>
> >I absolutely agree with you. I was just curious about the "I don't work
> >on commission line" but yet they start you off with the most expensive
> >items.
>
> It's called *" salesmanshiip ".

No. "Bad salesmanship." Sales 101 says to find out how much the
potential mark has to spend, first... Ben Myers

> On Jun 9, 11:39*am, Ben Myers <ben.myer...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Sales 101 says to find out how much the
> potential mark has to spend, first... Ben Myers

Reminds me of an old story I heard years ago.

Customer: "How much do you want for this one?"
Salesman: "How much ya got?"

-------
A customer approaches a farmer's fruit and vegetable stand and
remarks, "You've got watermelons priced at $4.00 each, whereas the
farmer down the road has them for $2.50 each."

The farmer replies, "Well, why don't you buy watermelons from the guy
down the road."

Customer: "He's out of watermelons."

Farmer: "Yeah, well when I'm out of watermelons I price them at $2.50
as well."

On Thu, 9 Jun 2011 09:39:42 -0700 (PDT), Ben Myers
<> wrote:

>On Jun 9, 12:34*pm, "RnR" <rnrte...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, 09 Jun 2011 11:40:15 -0400, MZB <m...@prudigy.net> wrote:
>> >On 6/9/2011 10:29 AM, powrwrap wrote:
>> >>> On Jun 8, 6:00 pm, MZB<m...@prudigy.net> *wrote:
>> >>> * My question: surely
>> >>> there must be some incentive for him to suggest the most expensive items
>> >>> and then back down. Perhaps they get some bonuses on the totality of
>> >>> sales they make? So, does anyone know if they are truly independent with
>> >>> no incentives whatsoever? I'm curious.
>>
>> >> Simple: The profit margin on the LED TV's is the higher and/or they
>> >> have more LED TV's in inventory. Also it's a bigger ticket item,
>> >> therefore more revenue for the company.
>>
>> >> Why care about the potential bonus for the salesperson or his/her
>> >> motivation for suggesting a certain model? You should be buying the TV
>> >> you think is the best and fits your budget, not the one the
>> >> salesperson is hyping.
>>
>> >I absolutely agree with you. I was just curious about the "I don't work
>> >on commission line" but yet they start you off with the most expensive
>> >items.
>>
>> It's called *" salesmanshiip ".
>
>No. "Bad salesmanship." Sales 101 says to find out how much the
>potential mark has to spend, first... Ben Myers


Actually that's a matter of opinion and what you are selling. I agree
with you more, the larger the ticket item (the greater the price).

From my experience, I've seen too often salespeople either qualify and
then try to upsell or just plain shoot for the moon and come down.
Sometimes they want you to think they're saving you money by the
latter and look like they are your friend.