Delhi the most pathatic A/V Dealership/professional place.

[sam9s]

Hi,

One more thing to add to this debate. I used to work for a shop in Bangalore for Onkyo HT and B&W and I was the kind of guy who used to do research, search the internet, update my knowledge with latest journals etc and I could set up any Onkyo receiver with my eyes shut. I used to read every single receiver manual to know all the features. You get the picture right? In walks this customer and takes a demo. I have spent 4-5 hours on a demo for this guy, done all the hard work to convince him, then he goes away and comes back a week later to our shop (Because our shop was also a library of DVD Region 1 movies) and tell me coolly that he had bought the system I suggested based on his needs at another shop. Why, because he had got it Rs 500/- cheaper say for a Rs 45,000/- system. So tell me where does this leave me as a sales guy cum tech head. Here comes the joke now, he now tells me that his system is not working properly, can I come to his place and set it up for him as it is a free service. So I tell him what about the other dealer from whom he bought it? He says that they delivered it, gave him the phone number for the Onkyo company guy to set it up, and the customer tried it himself and it does not sound as nice as it does in my shop. So soon I was out of a job and from pressures from my manager and I quit. So I am now totally into a different field now. Audio and HT is only a hobby now. I am sorry to say that we as a people usually do not do justice to a person who gives us genuine service.

I hope this presents the other side of the coin.

Vinod

Vinod I perfectly understand the other side of the coin, I agree the customer should atleast have given you a call before plunging in to the deal, but thats the hard fact of this profession, infact any profession that involves sales and marketing. You can never know which customer is a potential buyer, and for that reason you have to do the same hardwork of entertaining almost every one, without knowing who would actually buy. This is part and parcel of the job itself. take an example of call center sales, the first few calls in the morining sounds interesting and an agent tries his best to sell a product, but by the end of the day if he/she manages to sell nothing, his/her tone, enthusiatm, everything goes down, what if the last call he faces was actually a very high potential buyer...???? then in couple of days with only few sales he is like "this is an absolute thankless job" ....... I'd say it is buddy, this is a "part" of the sales job, you got to think/analyse before you decide to peruse this profession or any profession for that matter .....

Also my observation was not about not entertaining the customer, but entertaining by looking at his attire, arrival, high budget....etc etc and then showing as if you are some low lud, who is thinking to buy something totally out of your god damm family income ....... getting the picture ....... as hifiashok said go through this thread from begining and you will know what exactly are we pointing to ......

 

[tomkin]

Really a very very sorry thread this. Reminds me of my first two in one bought from Melody House, Chandigarh

Been a lurker here for few days but live in London. Thought i would share that with you, not to make you guys envious but to make dealers realise where they need to go in terms of service standards.

Recently bought a Yammy 767 and MA HD 5.1

And my search started about 8-9 months before the purchase as I had to sort all the wiring for home networking, concealed AV wiring, HDMI cables, HDMI over CAT6, Speaker cable, etc, etc.

The hi fi forums in UK are really informative so researching was not an issue. Having shortlisted Onkyo 608, denon 2311 and Yammy 765 went looking for dealers who stocked them and demoed them.

Went to two specialiest AV places to demo and the staff there was not only helpful but informative and confident. And demoed me whatever I had asked for.

At the third place I took about 4 hours for demo, changing the speakers and Subwoofer and the staff was extra helpful. Wanted to buy from them but they did not have stock (apart from demo stock) due to Christmas holidays and I was itching to buy. I told the guys at the shop that since they did not have it stock i will have to order from somewhere else. In the anticipation that they may shift some stock from their other branch. I was surprised when he said, "Sorry sir, we are not able to do business with you this time as we do not have stock when you need it. I am sure we can do business again"

That is what you call customer service. I wanted to buy from them as they took so much pain to demo it to me (well everywhere i went the demo was good).

Completely agree with ashokhifi customers trying to undercut the hi-end dealers with places like gaffar market. And then ending up with half the av quality of the demo.

But in my case, the service I got was so outstanding that I will go to them again in future and buy from them if the prices are right.

This is what is prevailant in India - Short term success. No wonder Lyrita is getting more business now and consumers are getting smarter and do their research properly.

Just my 2 pence.

Regards,
tomkin

PS: I am planning of visiting india in Feb, so to make the most of it, I was wondering if you guys can help me in some DVD/Bluray purchases.

I will be based in Chandigarh, what is a good source to buy DVDs and Blurays there? Or is it better to order online. Just dont want to be ripped off.