Sound & Vision, Hyderabad

[kumareshwar]

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.

 

[audiodelic]

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.

 

[santosh titus]

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.

 

[anooj30299301]

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.

 

[nileshbafna]

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.

 

[kumareshwar]

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.

 

[Sanjay Khanna]

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 !!!

 

[sameer kumar]

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

 

[kumareshwar]

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.

 

[sameer kumar]

Hi,

The only thing I expect is courtesy and value for my money, which I believe, is the least any seller has to give.

True,I agree with you.

Sameer

 

[Nikhil]

Ha ha ha ... just had a good laugh at this thread because I think Shantanu has his head firmly embedded in his rear end most of the time. Shyam has been very good. Uday is the assistant who does the demos and was very patient with me the last time I went there. But I do agree that Sound & Vision has ridiculous attitude when you walk in. I'm just surprised it was Uday.

I think its good to post on vendors here. Let them see what others think of their services.

 

[churfsan]

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.

Hi Kumareshwar,

Can you tell me where you finally bought your equipment? I am also from Hyderabad, and find that it is quite difficult to locate good dealers for AV equipment.

How is USK Electronics (Somajiguda circle)?

Thanks
Churfsan

 

[kumareshwar]

Hi,

I purchased the Wharfedale speaker system from Vector, Panjagutta. It is above 'Subway' adj to the new Flyover. Mr. Srinivas was the person who gave the demo etc. If necessary, pls contact Mr. Sesha Reddy who owns the shop. Mobile No. 9849036080.

Showroom Contact Nos: 040-23350088/99

USK also is quite good. They deal in Denon, Polk Audio, Focal etc. I was given a good demo and the staff was very courteous.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Eswar.

 

[sksblr]

Hi Kumareshwar
I think you are simply blaming the dealer because of your agony, your first mistake is you visiting his place inspite of he avoiding you. So you have been there due to your urgency to find out things, you are not paying him any thing for your demo he has invested, like materials, time etc. you are not doing him a favour by visiting his shop.
Coming to your next complaint about the demonstrator see no body in this world is still born who has got the complete knowledge of audio, you had been there to listen to the systems he had, not to certify his staff. If you are a good listner you can judge the speaker with any kind of music, you should have asked him to play diffrent gerne of music.
I would like to share one of my friends experince who had it in Dubhai(UAE) he took an appointment with a X company for demo of hi end AV products, he paid them 500 bucks of their local currency for the a 2 hour demo, which they said they would adjust the amount if he bought the materials. Believe me he said they showed him only one package of speakers when insisted for the second they asked him to pay 200 Bucks more...... he said he was very unhappy and walked out and said that they did not have the courtesy to talk to him properly they treated him like a dog and finally he bought the equipments form a bangalore dealer.
Take my sugestion first decide with the purpose of the speaker weather for music or hometheater, then the budget, brands, do not listen to many speakers and models it will confuse you, divide the brands according to their origin like made in china, USA, Europe, Taiwan etc. first go through the specs of different speakers choose the speakers and then only listen to them do not freak out for timepass as it would increase your temper. I wish you goodluck for your new system.
Srinivas
Bangalore.

 

[Sujit]

Hi Kumareshwar
I think you are simply blaming the dealer because of your agony, your first mistake is you visiting his place inspite of he avoiding you. So you have been there due to your urgency to find out things, you are not paying him any thing for your demo he has invested, like materials, time etc. you are not doing him a favour by visiting his shop.

sksblr

OUCH - You have been unnecessarily harsh on poor Kumareshwar ..IMHO. Please cut him some slack!

What he felt is commonplace - anyone in his situation would feel the same!

Why should anyone pay to listen to a demo - What is the purpose of a demo room if its not to give PROSPECTIVE customers a demo - do you always buy anything that you request to be shown? Say for instance you walk into a cloth shop - do you hand over a 500 rupee note before you enter? How will anyone buy a vehicle without a test drive? Before you know it you will be recommending we must pay for the product brochures too!

you are not doing him a favour by visiting his shop.

YOU cant be farther from the truth! OH YES - HE IS DOING HIM A FAVOUR! HE is not the only dealer in town you see!! What next - Be grateful for them selling to us?? HE gets an opportunity to SELL something to me - it is NOT the other way around!

Coming to your next complaint about the demonstrator see no body in this world is still born who has got the complete knowledge of audio, you had been there to listen to the systems he had, not to certify his staff. If you are a good listner you can judge the speaker with any kind of music, you should have asked him to play diffrent gerne of music.

If the person has no knowledge about audio he has NO BUSINESS being in audio business! Its basic to be expected to know things about YOUR OWN PRODUCTS!! Will you spend on a quack or a proper doctor??? - Or how will you feel if you found out that the doc is actually a quack with a fancy clinic!

I would like to share one of my friends experince who had it in Dubhai(UAE) he took an appointment with a X company for demo of hi end AV products, he paid them 500 bucks of their local currency for the a 2 hour demo, which they said they would adjust the amount if he bought the materials. Believe me he said they showed him only one package of speakers when insisted for the second they asked him to pay 200 Bucks more...... he said he was very unhappy and walked out and said that they did not have the courtesy to talk to him properly they treated him like a dog and finally he bought the equipments form a bangalore dealer.

I am sorry but your friend got shafted!! I have auditioned a lot of things all over middle east - including some eclectic Bang & Olufsen stuff that was clearly beyond my reach - and no one asked me for any money!

This is India - and here if the dealer is not interested to give a HOME DEMO - esp for mid and high end (let alone one in his shop) - then he is not worth it!

Take my sugestion first decide with the purpose of the speaker weather for music or hometheater, then the budget, brands, do not listen to many speakers and models it will confuse you, divide the brands according to their origin like made in china, USA, Europe, Taiwan etc. first go through the specs of different speakers choose the speakers and then only listen to them do not freak out for timepass as it would increase your temper. I wish you goodluck for your new system.
Srinivas
Bangalore.

Personally , I don't care where the stuff is made - what matters is how it sounds! And when one is spending one's hard earned money, one MUST listen to all the brands - some even more than once - and only then decide what to buy. But Yes - This can get confusing - and there are many variables! ... Which is why you need the repeat auditions to make sure! To insinuate that someone does it for 'timepass' and 'freakout' is wrong! I have been guilty of auditioning equipment i cant afford - but because for my love for all things Audio! ...And normally these are the impressions that result in a sale down the line - when the finances are better! (like now!)


No business is likely to succeed doing the things you advocate!

 

[ckn]

sKsbir's post on kumareshwar is unwarranted. I agree fully with sujit when he writes that charging for a demo is ridiculous.
Hi end audio is not cabbage and carrot that we go casually and buy. Since it is something that appeals to the senses (and that in itself is a changing one), we do need to hear systems many times before we fork out the money. We are prompted towards some equipment or the other by reviews that we read in magazines or websites or forums. Those may be biased, paid for or the plain truth. But we have to prove it to ourselves. For that our ears are the best.
For e.g I read glowing reviews of a PSB new series of speakers and went eagerly to audition them. I was almost convinced that I should buy them after reading those reviews. But what a difference when I heard them! Nowhere near what had been written. Was the reviewer pushing the product or was he being untruthful? Most probably not. He called it the way he heard it. I need to do the same- follow what my ears tell my mind and then make up my intellect about whether to buy or not.
A dealer who refuses to give you audition or throws attitude at you should probably quit this line of work.
BTW, I finally ended up buying speakers that were a lot more expensive than the PSBs- so it is not even about money, it is all about what sates the senses!
cheers
ckn.

 

[kumareshwar]

Dear sksblr,

I strongly suggest u read what people post on the forum before u dash off ur totally unwarranted and uptight opinion and advice. Who told u that I visited them after he had tried to avoid me? Before u start expressing ur opinion, I would recommend that u apply a great of caution. I strongly suggest u go find some other ppl to give advice to. We join the forum for genuine reasons and not sound off like u have done.

Reg ur friend's experience of paying for a demo in Dubai which I am quite aware of is in the UAE, I can only offer my sympathies. If u r quite content with such attitude from dealers, pls go ahead and have fun. As far as I am concerned, I will have nothing to do with such dealers and this kind of unwarranted opinion, which, I sincerely hope in good faith, u shall desist from in future. I really am unaware of how u spend ur time, but I have other things to do than to pass time goin for casual demos. Any ways, I wish u luck in spending ur time and money on "genuine" demos.

Eswar.

 

[Sujit]

Don't worry about it Eshwar.. Guess it's not rocket science to guess who this individual may be and what his motivations are.. Of all the things on the forum he found your thread worthy of his first ever post! ... And I am the king of England!

 

[kumareshwar]

Hi Sujit,

Its not that I am upset but I really cannot understand his motive behind the post in response to mine which was dated more than a month back.

Such comments are really unwarranted and the administrators of the forum should do something abt it.

Thanks anyway, buddy. I know we have live with all kinds. As I often acknowledge, its only because of the sound advice given by Venkat and many others that I have been able to buy a system that gives me great satisfaction and also value for money. I am very happy that I have joined the forum. Ya, a jarring note makes others more musical. haha.

Cheers.

Eswar.

 

[cha_indian]

One thing is for sure...Shantanu likes to sell his ware by downgrading/downplaying other brands he doesn't deal.
He has this 'i know everything' attitude that sometime is pain in the a**