I buy where they sell

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freitasm

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#10504 26-Nov-2006 16:00

I walk into a Telecom NZ store and get the answers I need in a few seconds.

I then walk across the mall to compare prices at Vodafone NZ store. Cannot get attention from anyone in 5 minutes, the store has other clients waiting.

I go back to TNZ and order 3 Bluetooth headsets. And no, the TNZ store wasn't empty and a staff left his drink behind to be with me as soon as I walked in.

Stores can only sell if they are prepared...

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#53695 26-Nov-2006 16:19

Absolutely - unfortunately no matter how hard companies try to enforce this behaviour, it all depends on the individual.
For me DSE are the worst. I often go in there and have never ever been approached UNLESS I am looking at big ticket items, eg TV's, computers.

One time I was in need of mic for computer - I had a budget and a need but no idea what to buy. I stood in DSE Hamilton store for several minutes - staff members wandered by and no one asked to help. I left after trying to get someones attention but they conveniently picked up the phone and DIDNT get another staff member to attend to me.

By chance I was in Rotorua couple of days later and called into DSE. After walking around the store for about 1 minute staff member approached me to help. He was knowledgeable and actually upsold me to another model slightly higher than my budget. I then spent another 10min with his manager and wrote out a compliment for the excellent service.

About a year later I went back to same Rotorua store - alas no one came and the guy I dealt with last time was not there.

I have a theory why this occurs to me that involves attitudes to socio-economic and ethnic groups - my casual dress clearly identifies what groups I would fit into.

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#53698 26-Nov-2006 16:39

It is all the customer service.
Customer service, follwed closely by product quality etc.. but without the service....
/ramble
DSE service has always sucked, I know a few DSE employees and honestly the lack of training and how they are taught nothing aboiut the products, Its basically ALL up to THEM in their OWN time to learn answers to our questions.

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#53701 26-Nov-2006 17:24

I have had a very good experience from Telecom stores/dealers bar one in auckland (store...rude) and one in Tauranga (dealer.. Pushy for sales)

I have usually found Vodafone stores/dealers to also be pretty helpful but they do vary, I have had a really nice expeience in a couple of the Digimob/Firstmobile stores recently, happy to help even though it was not big ticket stuff.

I make a point, if pursued through the shop only to be asked ten seconds later after I walk in "can i help you?", my wallet shuts very fast and permanently in that shop, there are plenty of other outlets..

freitasm

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#53702 26-Nov-2006 17:56

riahon: I have a theory why this occurs to me that involves attitudes to socio-economic and ethnic groups - my casual dress clearly identifies what groups I would fit into.

I agree sales people tend to do this... And I always wear jeans and t-shirt, so that helps creating my image. I once bought a car from Fiat and drove to the Chevrolet dealer who a couple of hours before didn't even bother to talk to me just to call the manager, show the new car and say "your staff lost a sale"...

The whole point of this post is to show that branding loyalty is not something that important. Service and attention is important, having the right people is important.

I wouldn't mind waiting longer if the salesperson had acknowledged my presence with a "I will be with you in a minute" or something like this. But I waited there, loittering with intent by the desk, waiting to grab his attention, but not even a nod. That made me walk back to the TNZ store, where I was in and out in a couple of minutes, and they got a sale.

You can imagine how I feel when I connect to a call centre and they say "The average wait is 45 minutes".

alasta

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#53707 26-Nov-2006 18:22

riahon: Absolutely - unfortunately no matter how hard companies try to enforce this behaviour, it all depends on the individual.
For me DSE are the worst. I often go in there and have never ever been approached UNLESS I am looking at big ticket items, eg TV's, computers.

I have also had varying levels of service from Dick Smith over the years. Sometimes, they're really helpful but sometimes they just don't want to know. Often their staff seem to be quite young and inexperienced, but I usually do my own research before I buy anything, so all I really care about is being able to deal with a staff member who has the right attitude.

I would much rather deal with Dick Smith than Noel Leeming or Bond and Bond though, because the latter two always push the extended warranty scam to hard and they usually scowl at you when you turn them down.

paradoxsm

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#53731 26-Nov-2006 20:12

Extended "warranties" let's not go there. Bond and bond / Noel leeming are the kings for this. I have never bought anything from them (no, once a "gemei" mp3 player as no-one else had them though I managed to knock down the price immensley) or related companies and never will.

the staff must make some huge bonus from these hence the whole push it down your throat, I have even had them just "add it" to the bill like it's a service charge.

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#53733 26-Nov-2006 20:17

paradoxsm: Extended "warranties" let's not go there. Bond and bond / Noel leeming are the kings for this. I have never bought anything from them (no, once a "gemei" mp3 player as no-one else had them though I managed to knock down the price immensley) or related companies and never will.

the staff must make some huge bonus from these hence the whole push it down your throat, I have even had them just "add it" to the bill like it's a service charge.

Yes, I imagine they would. I used to work for one of the big box retailers (please PM me if you want to know which one), and we used to do occassional promotions when we would order a large quantity of computers, sell them with very slim margins, and then try to sell extended warranties on as many as we could. The extended warranties had a profit margin of over 400% on them, so that made up for the lack of margin on the actual computers.

None of us were earning commission, but we were offered money to put towards a staff party as an incentive to really push the extended warranties.

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pebbles

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#53825 27-Nov-2006 13:36

Hmm... I got an extended warranty for my camera which I got from Noel Leemings, and my brother got one on his dvd recorder too, which came in handy recently as without it he would have had to pay for repairs on it. But I may be slightly biased there, as I get them for about a quarter of the price :P

paradoxsm

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#53868 27-Nov-2006 19:50

Extended warranties CAN be useful, (I opted for one on my laptop but made them screw the price right down to 2.5% of the sale price (normally 10%) as these items normally break very easily and the hassle of invoking the consumer guarantee's act is often tiresome and also it;s nice when you want to keep a good rapport with a retailer.

if they offer you a $80 warranty on say a $500 mobile phone, politely turn it down! ....Cough, I U G, Cough, Cough Cough.

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#53876 27-Nov-2006 20:24

It's all a matter of economics.

For example, I bought a new camera last month for $600. Bearing in mind that I always choose brands that I have confidence in, I would estimate that the probability of it developing a fault when it's between one and three years of age would be about 15% at a conservative guess. Factoring in changes in technology, I would expect a replacement camera with similar features to cost about $450 during that period of time.

Therefore a three year extended warranty on that product would be worth 0.15 * 450 = $67.50. Of course, the failure rate and replacement cost here are judged subjectively, but it's hard to imagine that anyone could make the figures stack up in favour of Noel Leeming's $150 price for an extended warranty on this product.

Then there's the argument that you still have some comeback under the Consumer Guarantees Act.

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#53885 27-Nov-2006 21:10

Extended warranties can be useful however for the big chain stores (Harveys, Noel Leeming/Bond & Bond) they are the icing on the cake in terms of commission for the salesperson. Screw them down and if they won't negotiate tell them you'll reconsider and go elsewhere.. it's the same for cash - you will get at least 10%-15% off the ticket price of any large value item at the same stores by doing a little negotiating.

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#53921 28-Nov-2006 07:59

I shop at harvey Normans a lot. Last time I was there, I went to the electronics area, and chose an iron (had just broken the old one).
The lady said "you shop here a lot eh.." (even though I had never purchased from her in particular), and even though I had already said "I'll buy this one please", she gave me a further $10 off "for being a frequent customer".

Even in a retail store ALWAYS ask for a discount. Say its cheaper down at 'the other place'

patrickstarr

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#54210 29-Nov-2006 21:24

Wow that's really good!. Umm I enjoy shopping at Harvey Norman, the Telecom store down here is very good. Although when I got my sisters phone for her I encountered something a bit odd. There was a sales rep there I wont say who but she was dealing with a customer that wanted to hire purchase a phone and she was speaking sooo loud that everyone in the store can hear what she is saying. He was also looking around the shop as well (the shop is tiny) and if she had something that they needed to know then she would yell out to him and tell him. Thats about all I have experienced at a Telecom store. At a Vodafone store they also provide great customer service, they gave me the right info within 5 mins which is really good. But the worse place to go to is Noel Leeming.

As for the Warranties for down here, no one pushes me to buy warranties (probably coz I look under 21 although I am haha) but yeah if they ask if I want to extend the warranties I politely say "no thanks" I especially say no thanks because on the Target program they say that you don't need to purchase an extended warranty as the products needs to last a while or something like that. If the company doesn't do the repairs you can sue them. It's in one of the trading acts or something. Its been a while since it was on so unfortunately I can't say what one it was.

pebbles

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#54240 29-Nov-2006 23:08

As for the Warranties for down here, no one pushes me to buy warranties (probably coz I look under 21 although I am haha)

Ah, you don't have to be 21 to get a warranty Patrick, unless people just assume I'm a lot older than I am that is...

patrickstarr

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#54252 30-Nov-2006 00:58

pebbles:

As for the Warranties for down here, no one pushes me to buy warranties (probably coz I look under 21 although I am haha)

Ah, you don't have to be 21 to get a warranty Patrick, unless people just assume I'm a lot older than I am that is...

Yeah I know (I have only been asked about warranties once but more times when I had my oldest brother with me), I think I wrote that part because when I was down at the centre the other day I was approached by one of the Save The Children people and they asked me if I was over 21 years of age and I go ummm no. So she says "oh ok then have a nice day" so thats probably another way of getting out of something that someone is selling.

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