Sound & Vision, Hyderabad

Hi Folks,

Just visited Sound & Vision, Hyderabad this evening. They are presently operating from the residence of the gentleman who runs the shop as their shop is being redone. Went there with a friend to check out some Quad L-ite speakers after speaking to him over phone. First, he was mixed up about identities of prospective customers and kept saying he had given 'appointments' for people to go to his place to see things. Not that there were (m)any. Then, he didn't have the setup I wanted ready and asked if I could go back again for an audition. Fair enough. I said I would gladly do it the next day. He called his assistant and fixed the 'appointment' for me.

He was nice enough to agree to my request that I have a look at the Home Theater setup in his demo room. But the attitude of his assistant was really deplorable. First, he asked whether I had earlier been to their shop and I said I had visited them a couple months ago. Then, he reluctantly gave a 5-6 min demo of a movie on a Monitor Audio setup and when I wanted to listen to some music CDs I took along, he said that their high end DVD Player does not play CDs and gave a demo of what he had. When I asked to him to play the same on the Definitive Technologies setup that they had, he claimed that there was some technical prob.

He was literally sneering at us as if, according to him, we didn't even deserve a demo. This became worse when I insisted that I would be back for the next day's demo ONLY if I could listen to my CDs. The way he literally looked down on us was totally unpardonable. Of course, we walked out on him.

I really feel it would serve their interests better if they teach their employees how to treat prospective customers. Maybe, Mr. Shantanu should consider a change of not only the decor of his shop but also his staff and their mindset. I don't think insulting customers is the best way to 'sell' things. After all, they are not giving them free. I have earlier visited quite a few malls abroad and acquired a few thgings and no where had I had such an experience.

As for tomorrow's demo. I have had enough.

Hyderabad needs more custom installers so that there is competition and people strive to be better.

I previously consulted shantanu for my HT also. At least in HT, I had more the technical knowledge than him. The guy has decent knowledge but mostly of products that he carries not all round knowledge.

He recommended a Denon entry level player over the Oppo 983H i was going for.
I mean anyone knows Anchorbay is a notch above DCDI.

I wouldn't call my experience with him negative but definitely not up to standards.

I do agree with kumareshwar, the owners of these hi-end shops have to be carefull on this front. They should be advising their assitants to take care of their prospective customers. Naturally they may have a snobbish feeling due to the handling of high end products. I presume, India will mature out in a period of time.

Two things can be done from our end, first - walk in with confidence (equally snobbish), second - we need to do a little home work of their products up front.

hi,

I've been to Sound & Vision and met a person named Uday. He was a nice guy. Initially talked to Shyam and I assume Shantanu on phone. Bith were ver y helpful. This might be because I do not much in this area.

Mr. Uday made me compulsory audition me a NAD, Music Hall(CD + receiver), Cambridge CD player and others(do not remember) with Mordanunt short and other speakers etc. We talked a lot , just that inputs from his side but all of them seemed good people to deal with.

PS: I have not yet made any purchases, not decised yet on a 2.1 or 5.1 receiver.

I had been to vector systems too on kindofblue's sugestion if I wanted to check Norge an dit was good and rated high power. There was this guy named Srinivas - young chap and he was the BDM. I dare say I knew better than him productwise but yes he knew them goos as well.

He too gave compulsory audition in their HT room to show DAC cables they were using are good. Killbill was the movie, it was time wasted. There were Dali(2 lakhs) subwoofer and Denon high end receivers etc etc but it was not at all enjoyable. I just bought the cable - 16 gauge.

I asked him other movies but was ignorant.Why for cables eh..
If it is of some help he quoted two systems prices:

Denon A/V 2307 - 40500
Marantz A/V 7001 - 32000. He said these are on discounts so...

Please check anyways and this was week back.

Thank you all for the help in my thread and I will come back soon but be active here all the while. Special thanks to Venkat.

even i have been to sound and vision once but not as a customer.i was there to meet him regarding the promotion of our brand cables and active a/v products which we distribute in india.first of all it took me a whole 1 life to get his appontment as he was reluctant to even meet me.when we meet he sounded as if he has got all the best material on his hand and any thing he dose not deal is just a piece of scrap which is fit for nothing.he is just not ready to listen to you.noe even knowing about what i am talking he just concludes that he has got a better and competative product in hand.
it was a nice experiance for as a marketing guy to know at least that there are people who say "no" jus for the sake of saying it.i think this king of an attitude do have any gain and at last there is some thing to loose only and nothing to gain...........it is no harm in listening to someone.

I believe I am a victim of mistaken identity. Mr. Uday, the person who gives demos there, seems to believe that I had taken a prolonged audition for over 4 hours some time ago and had a heated argument with him. I did visit their showroom once a few months ago, but the demo lasted barely a few minutes and I came out quite impressed as I didn't have any real knowledge of the quality to expect at the time. There was no reason for any argument whatsoever. Mr. Uday seems to be in the habit of getting into such situations and on top of it getting mixed up with identities of people. Poor man. I can only sympathise with Mr. Shantanu for his employee's mistake which cost Sound & Vision a prospective client. Not that it matters much to them as their attitude suggests. I even took 50k along as I had a serious interest. Of course, I have spent my money elsewhere where I got both a quality product and courtesy.

I must say that my experience with them have been good. I had a problem with my NAD 521i CD player which I bought from them 4 years ago,which I had mentioned on another post. They fixed it promptly and the much maligned Uday allowed me to test it on their system with my own CDs.Later, their sound engineer also helped me with a query on speaker impedences which no one on this forum has yet answered !!!

Its a genuine store and they dont hard sell.If you like typical marketing follow up,they are out to disappoint you.After sales service is excellent.

Cheers
Sameer

Hi,

I am not someone who makes unwarranted comments against people. I am very sure that you might have had some very pleasant experience with them. I was talking abt mine. I have no reason whatsoever to malign Mr. Uday's reputation or of Sound & Vision for that matter. It was not my fault if Mr. Uday has a problem with remembering customers and bearing grudges against customers. I really do not know what made him behave in that manner. However, whether hard sell or hardly sell does not matter to me in any way. As far as the "typical marketing followup" is concerned, I do not care much for it. The only thing I expect is courtesy and value for my money, which I believe, is the least any seller has to give. It is a differenet matter that others may be happy with downright rudeness. To each his own.

Sanjay, I am happy that you have received good service. I did not. Hence, the opinion.

Cheers.

Eswar.

True,I agree with you.

Sameer