My Adventures to buy a 42" Plasma TV in Thrissur (Kerala)

[VSG12777]

Adventures (contd...)

went "NEXT" yesterday. they have samsung 42B450 which they have quoted for Rs.46000. i'll get a further reduction of Rs.2500 for my old tv. they have Panasonic 42PV8 in their godown for which they have quoted for Rs.36000 (without exchange)

i thought the salesman here is quite good when he told me that "Plasmas are good compared to LCD as the former got a faster response time". But such thoughts got shattered when he explained response time as " the delay occurs while changing from one channel to another"

i've to also check with "Big Bazaar" and "Nadilath G-Mart" today or tomorrow.

Samsung 42B450 - this is a 2009 model. Price should be much lower as they would basically try to clear the old stock. 46k for that 2009 model 42 inch plasma is too much.

Panasonic PV8 - this is a 2008 model !! Price should be rock bottom for this one, even though it's a good panel. Even 36k I feel is too much for a 2 year old model. 2-3k extra would get you a 2009 model 42C10 easily.

Pls comment on this. do u think what he told is right?

This is plain cheating Anoop. The price of your old TV is never deducted from MRP. We generally bargain with the shop for the best price on the product we want to buy, and then talk about the old TV that we want to exchange. Then the value for the old TV is discussed. This is the way to get the best deal on the product you are purchasing. At least this is what I usually do. When we got our 42PQ70 plasma for 46k in July 2009, I talked about the old Thomson 29 inch TV at the end and a 3rd party guy came and paid cash of 3k and took it away.

So from what you have mentioned, the shop guy is clearly trying to take you for a ride. Beware!

---Venkat

 

[ani]

How much is he giving the X10 for and is it viable to buy it from there and get it to faridabad?

I got a quote of 38+ K for X 10 at Shyam lal Krishan Lal

I cannot comment how viable it is to take to Faridabad or get it delivered

 

[thevortex]

'Response time is the delay which occurs when changing from one channel to another'. I dont know whether to laugh or cry.

 

[VSG12777]

@thevortex:

Seriously. This is the sad state of our so called branded showroom salesmen, let alone salesmen in electronics stores.

 

[thevortex]

Yes, I do understand.

I have been frustrated to no end when visiting car showrooms when I have to absolutely tune out the mindless babble of the salesmen there when they make the most inane and utterly senseless comparisons with other models.

Begs the question - if these people are not interested in these gadgets, then why work in this line. But that is a bigger question outside the scope here.

 

[vchounal]

I was appalled by the attitude of sales staff in Samsung showroom in Noida. They were all sitting and chatting and very reluctantly one of them got up when I approached them. In general, they were not enthusiastic to meet the prospective customer(s).

 

[sachin_k5]

Begs the question - if these people are not interested in these gadgets, then why work in this line. But that is a bigger question outside the scope here.

I think the best thing to do is do your research, zero down on a few models then walk into the store rather than relying on the salesman to show your everything. I won't be surprised if 90% of the store sales are based on the salesman's "recommendation". I still believe the term "Caveat emptor" meaning let the buyer beware.

How about some forum members doing part-time jobs at electronics stores ? I promise to purchase every gadget from a hifivision salesman

 

[thevortex]

I think the best thing to do is do your research, zero down on a few models then walk into the store rather than relying on the salesman to show your everything. I won't be surprised if 90% of the store sales are based on the salesman's "recommendation". I still believe the term "Caveat emptor" meaning let the buyer beware.

How about some forum members doing part-time jobs at electronics stores ? I promise to purchase every gadget from a hifivision salesman

Its not like we have a choice, na? Needless to say I do my own research everytime. But then I rather enjoy the lead-up to the purchase - sometimes even more than experiencing the performance of the product itself .

 

[avidyarthy]

It is mostly the wives and children who influence TV purchases.

99% of the guys are just mute spectators who tag along with the choices made by the home folks ..... so what do you all expect? Most retailers realize this, so, why should they bother keeping informed, better-paid salesmen when the bulk of their consignment is to be disbursed to novices?

Going by the scale of manufacturing, LCD TVs outstrips Plasmas ... so, manufacturing cost of any LCD TV is pretty much on the lower side, LOGICALLY. The retailer now starts working on the returns that he would get. I guess, per piece returns on LCD is higher as compared to Plasma. Naturally, any retailer would love to sell more LCDs. Thats why this discrimination!

Agreed, prices of LCD is higher for bigger units .... upwards of 42". But, how many settle for those in comparison to the lower sized models? Thats another argument.

I have interaction with a senior service guy from Samsung who happens to be a relative of a very good friend. As per him, Plasmas are only used in Airports, Convention Halls .... brightly lit spaces .... exhibiting only static images .... blah .. blah. If a senior technical guy from a reputed company talk so, that too in an 'own' group, how the hell do we expect proper technical suggestions from retailer-hired sales guys????????????

 

[BLASTO]

Adventures (contd...)

went "NEXT" yesterday. they have samsung 42B450 which they have quoted for Rs.46000. i'll get a further reduction of Rs.2500 for my old tv.

Seems only 1-2k more than the best prices around. Iam sure there is room for bargain. If nothing else workout, this is the one you should end up with given the sad state of retailers in trissur.

they have Panasonic 42PV8 in their godown for which they have quoted for Rs.36000 (without exchange)

If it is a new piece, 36k is a good price. Remember that this is a 2008 plasma which does not have the black level degradation problem introduced by panasonic in 2009. State him that it is a 2008 model and you are willing to pay only 33-34k for it, If he is willing, pick it up without second thoughts. A lot of people here think that PV8 is better than C10 which is a 2009 model. If it is a demo piece, stay away!! A 2 year demoed plasma is worth nothing.

i thought the salesman here is quite good when he told me that "Plasmas are good compared to LCD as the former got a faster response time". But such thoughts got shattered when he explained response time as " the delay occurs while changing from one channel to another"

:yahoo: hyeah: :clapping:
Somebody stop me.. :clapping:

 

[BLASTO]

I have interaction with a senior service guy from Samsung who happens to be a relative of a very good friend. As per him, Plasmas are only used in Airports, Convention Halls .... brightly lit spaces .... exhibiting only static images .... blah .. blah. If a senior technical guy from a reputed company talk so, that too in an 'own' group, how the hell do we expect proper technical suggestions from retailer-hired sales guys????????????

Wow.. This guy is crazy, hez telling exactly the opposite.
Airports, highly lit areas, static images, convention halls are the exact places the plasmas are NOT to be used!!

Maybe he slept in the training class!!

 

[Bublu Bhuyan]

Maybe he slept in the training class!!

:lol::lol::lol:

 

[sanjay0864]

Wow.. This guy is crazy, hez telling exactly the opposite.
Airports, highly lit areas, static images, convention halls are the exact places the plasmas are NOT to be used!!

Maybe he slept in the training class!!

Or maybe his trainer was as ignorant as he is. Most people I have interacted with and I have interacted with very senior people, at consumer electronics companies are absolutely ignorant about their own products and would not know be able to tell you the difference between interlaced and progressive, even if their life depended on it.

 

[cmsajith]

I agree that the sales person is supposed to answer the questions a customer might ask. But do you all think that is it practically possible to get a sales person who has enough technical knowledge or academic background, they would prefer a different job than this. How many of us will be willing to do a salesman job, i believe nobody, then how can we ask others to do the job for us. Normally they will have a limited academic background and have the spoon feeded knowledge from the company and their primary job is to make the customer buy that product. Since we are going to use the product, the customer should do a research and never rely on sales person whose objective is to be loyal to the company. For clarifying our doubts which are specific to a model, one can ask the sales person as he would have been spoon feeded on the features of every models. I believe its every customer's duty to know the product before they buy.

 

[thevortex]

I agree that the sales person is supposed to answer the questions a customer might ask. But do you all think that is it practically possible to get a sales person who has enough technical knowledge or academic background, they would prefer a different job than this. How many of us will be willing to do a salesman job, i believe nobody, then how can we ask others to do the job for us. Normally they will have a limited academic background and have the spoon feeded knowledge from the company and their primary job is to make the customer buy that product. Since we are going to use the product, the customer should do a research and never rely on sales person whose objective is to be loyal to the company. For clarifying our doubts which are specific to a model, one can ask the sales person as he would have been spoon feeded on the features of every models. I believe its every customer's duty to know the product before they buy.

This, in my opinion, is the utterly wrong attitude for a consumer to have. With all due respect.

Why do we look down on the salesman's job? It is a paid job. It has its ups and downs. It does not matter whether one of us wants to do it or not. The person taking up the job should want it.

And if he wants it, he has to take the trouble to know more about it. This 'chalta hai' attitude is what we see on the roads, in our civic supplies and all through our society. And that is why we are where we are.

OK - end of rant.

 

[ani]

Every salesman at doesnt take up the Job since they are Interested . Most of them just take it up just because it offers money . Also to have an expertise in something one has to experience the whole range of stuff Rite from cheap Chinese stuff to Bang and Olufsen (sorry a metaphor) . Also the pressure of sales .

I believe its his duty to sell us wotever crap he can . And its our right to make an informed choice . Why is this Forum for ?

I think we should let the poor salesman do his job, and let Ill-informed Arrogant people buy Sony , Bose crap at Skyhigh prices . Let them by Samsung LED TV's Thinking that they are OLED screen i them . later finding out that they are only LCD with LED back lit and then again buy SAMSUNG introduces REAL LED later with a snazzy ad. We need these kind of uninformed people to have difference.

 

[cmsajith]

Just putting my thoughts..with all due respect..
Yes, its a paid job, how much, will be less than 10K in any circumstances. Since its a less paid job we are not interested. If we are paid as we are getting now, people will think about that option, right? I will definitely think, as i am interested in this hobby. Also in my opinion, without a proper academic background nobody can answer those questions technically. This is same in foreign countries also, I have heard people who is having good technical background doing these kind of jobs as a part time job since they are paid well and also we can see the same kind of sales person, as mentioned above, there also.

Assume, they are paid more and having very good academic b/g and lets say they gave you some wrong information to get the deal or due to lack of knowledge, whom can we blame or penalise? The company or sales person or the shop? The company and shop can easily wash-off their hands and the sales person would say he gave you what he knew, then who will get affected, the customer. Yes, we can expect to get answer from somebody, but how can we take a decision based only on that unless it is official from the company (assuming sales persons are not from the company). I would never do that.

These are only my personal views, not to hurt anybody.

 

[thevortex]

You are letting them too lightly, cmsajith. You are a consumer - that is all. When you go to a shop which purports to sell you costly AV solutions and hires people with the express intention of attracting your attention and educating you about its features, then yes, as a consumer you should expect them to give you the right information.

Come on, guys - how hard is it for people to understand what is on the sales brochure? And how hard is it for people to say they really dont know instead of fudging on and on? It is just a question of attitude. Chalta hai attitude.

I have had laptop salespeople at Ezone come up to me and try and justify some Sony Vaio's outrageous pricing saying that it had 900 mhz RAM! I gave him a piece of my mind and made sure to pass on feedback at the front desk. Now, if more people were to do the same, there are possibilities of getting people who are actually reasonably well versed in that field being put in that position. If we leave it be, we deserve what we get.

Us doing or not doing research has nothing to do with not having competent people at the sales counter! Even if the most knowledgeable staff were to be out there at the retail shop I would still do due diligence - if for nothing but to understand exactly what my needs are and to try and buy that product which tries and satisfies my specific needs completely.

But all this does not exonerate absolutely pathetic knowledge on the part of the sales staff at retail shops such as these. From a larger perspective these people are a blight on the industry as a whole. Take that example. What if - based on these misinformed comments from the salesmen - people decide to give Plasmas a go and instead settle for LCD TVs?

I am aware that some of it might be lack of knowledge and some of it might actually be purpose-driven speeches designed to drive people away from certain brands and towards others. But that is another malaise altogether.

 

[adder]

E
I think we should let the poor salesman do his job, and let Ill-informed Arrogant people buy Sony , Bose crap at Skyhigh prices . Let them by Samsung LED TV's Thinking that they are OLED screen i them . later finding out that they are only LCD with LED back lit and then again buy SAMSUNG introduces REAL LED later with a snazzy ad. We need these kind of uninformed people to have difference.

No offense,but people who buy sony or any other aren't ill informed.People in this very forum pay sky high prices for audio gear only a for a little better subjective sound quality,in the same way people pay more for video to.

In the case of sony ,their 40" lcds in the grey market are the cheapest FHD lcds one can buy in indian soil,in the showroom they are expensive because of high import duty of around 30% or more,where as the lcds from samsung and lg are assembled in india which are subjected to only 5% custom duties.
Yet they are priced very close to their main rival samsung.so one can expect the profit samsung is making.

Sony is roughly in 2nd position in world wide lcd sales as of 1Q10 ,so do u think those millions of people who bought their lcds are ill informed.
Why are their lcds consistenly rated towards the top in the reviews,Why did sony dominate the crt world ,its because of their picture quality.

As for sales person words i don't buy them and they aren't to be blamed,look at panasonic recent VIERA ads ,they show a panasonic Z series plasma and show 600hz sub field and IPSpanel.:lol:

 

[VSG12777]

This, in my opinion, is the utterly wrong attitude for a consumer to have. With all due respect.

Why do we look down on the salesman's job? It is a paid job. It has its ups and downs. It does not matter whether one of us wants to do it or not. The person taking up the job should want it.

And if he wants it, he has to take the trouble to know more about it. This 'chalta hai' attitude is what we see on the roads, in our civic supplies and all through our society. And that is why we are where we are.

OK - end of rant.

I agree that the sales person is supposed to answer the questions a customer might ask. But do you all think that is it practically possible to get a sales person who has enough technical knowledge or academic background, they would prefer a different job than this. How many of us will be willing to do a salesman job, i believe nobody, then how can we ask others to do the job for us. Normally they will have a limited academic background and have the spoon feeded knowledge from the company and their primary job is to make the customer buy that product. Since we are going to use the product, the customer should do a research and never rely on sales person whose objective is to be loyal to the company. For clarifying our doubts which are specific to a model, one can ask the sales person as he would have been spoon feeded on the features of every models. I believe its every customer's duty to know the product before they buy.

You are letting them too lightly, cmsajith. You are a consumer - that is all. When you go to a shop which purports to sell you costly AV solutions and hires people with the express intention of attracting your attention and educating you about its features, then yes, as a consumer you should expect them to give you the right information.

Come on, guys - how hard is it for people to understand what is on the sales brochure? And how hard is it for people to say they really dont know instead of fudging on and on? It is just a question of attitude. Chalta hai attitude.

I have had laptop salespeople at Ezone come up to me and try and justify some Sony Vaio's outrageous pricing saying that it had 900 mhz RAM! I gave him a piece of my mind and made sure to pass on feedback at the front desk. Now, if more people were to do the same, there are possibilities of getting people who are actually reasonably well versed in that field being put in that position. If we leave it be, we deserve what we get.

Us doing or not doing research has nothing to do with not having competent people at the sales counter! Even if the most knowledgeable staff were to be out there at the retail shop I would still do due diligence - if for nothing but to understand exactly what my needs are and to try and buy that product which tries and satisfies my specific needs completely.

But all this does not exonerate absolutely pathetic knowledge on the part of the sales staff at retail shops such as these. From a larger perspective these people are a blight on the industry as a whole. Take that example. What if - based on these misinformed comments from the salesmen - people decide to give Plasmas a go and instead settle for LCD TVs?

I am aware that some of it might be lack of knowledge and some of it might actually be purpose-driven speeches designed to drive people away from certain brands and towards others. But that is another malaise altogether.

Vortex, I completely agree with what you said. The chalta hai attitude is what has spoilt this country and even continues to do so today.

As for salaries for the sales people in the showrooms etc, every job has its own responsibilities and duties. Even when I worked as Tech Support Exec for HP/Compaq for 3 years (more than 10 yrs back), I started off with a salary of 4.5k and I was involved in handling email / chat queries from HP/Compaq North American customers regarding desktops, laptops, peripherals etc along with preinstalled software.

I was put through a good training program where I had to learn about the various products, product features, technical specs etc so that I would be able to help customers solve technical problems with their machines thousands of miles away!

For a face to face sales person in a showroom, I feel it is all the more important that he knows about every product being offered in that showroom. The salesman should never influence a decision but be clear in putting forth the pluses and minuses of each product and leave the decision to the customer based on the presented info. Unfortunately this is NOT what is happening in India.

In a branded showroom itself, I find the salesman discouraging people from buying plasmas and pushing LCD TVs and so called LED TVs. Wonder when all this would change.

I like Panasonic's strategy though - they are pretty clear that up to 37 inches, they recommend LCD and above that size, they recommend and have only plasma. There is no overlap in sizes between their LCD and plasma ranges. This is something which is not there in Samsung and LG, where sizes do overlap.

---Venkat