I am currently working part time at a major national electronics store, and i am constantly amazed at how easily people will believe anything they hear concerning a speaker. Dont get me wrong, im not the one decieving them. For example, there is this clock radio made by boston accoustics or something like that. Right on top of the display it says something to the effect of "Must be heard to believe" It actually doesnt sound as good as some of the other $5 clock radios, but im constantly getting comments from customers about how amazing it sounds.... "wow! have you heard this clock radio right here, it sounds awesome, like it says here 'must be heard to be believed' ".....someone actually said that.... The first time i had a customer tell me something like that, i thought he was joking, so i said "haha, yeah right" but it turns out he was serious.... Now all i can do is just smile and nod my head in "agreement" .
Well, first off, its not that much extra, its a really good deal if you think about it. It covers everything that the manufacturers warranty doesnt cover like dust heat humitidy, you know, normal wear and tear which its going to get alot of being that its a clock radio. It even covers you for lightning strikes. Dont think of it as spending extra money on a service plan, think of it as saving alot of money if something does go wrong down the line.
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hope that answers your question...
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hope that answers your question...
So they really pressure you to sell them. You're selling it here, too!Chris8sirhC said:Well, first off, its not that much extra, its a really good deal if you think about it. It covers everything that the manufacturers warranty doesnt cover like dust heat humitidy, you know, normal wear and tear which its going to get alot of being that its a clock radio. It even covers you for lightning strikes. Dont think of it as spending extra money on a service plan, think of it as saving alot of money if something does go wrong down the line.
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Amazing thing, extended warranties. Those who sell the stuff are placing a bet that the gear won't break down, while you're betting that it will. The odds that you'll win are probably less than those of beating the house in Vegas. If the sellers actually lost money on those warranties they'd disappear in a heartbeat.
Funny story...
I was at best buy, and two middle aged ladies were buying a simple, 19" TV for their grandmother in a nursing home (no lie). The salesman (if you could even call him that), pointed them to your standard TV, nothing special. Of course, following that came the expected purchase plan pitch, but, after that, something I couldn't beleive. He told them to buy a $49, monster cable line conditioner/surge protector. He said that her old TV probably quit working because it wasn't plugged into one. They responded that the TV was 20 years old, he still stuck to his guns...
At any rate, after the guy walked away, I set them straight...
While they don't work on commission at best buy, buddies who have worked there have told me they do have incentives and pressure to sell contracts, or, accessories, or whatever comes down from corporate.
I was at best buy, and two middle aged ladies were buying a simple, 19" TV for their grandmother in a nursing home (no lie). The salesman (if you could even call him that), pointed them to your standard TV, nothing special. Of course, following that came the expected purchase plan pitch, but, after that, something I couldn't beleive. He told them to buy a $49, monster cable line conditioner/surge protector. He said that her old TV probably quit working because it wasn't plugged into one. They responded that the TV was 20 years old, he still stuck to his guns...
At any rate, after the guy walked away, I set them straight...
While they don't work on commission at best buy, buddies who have worked there have told me they do have incentives and pressure to sell contracts, or, accessories, or whatever comes down from corporate.
At one time, the entire extended warranty went into the salesman's pocket in lieu of commission - so you can see why they are motivated to sell the warranty.
Theoretically, most failures are infant failures and would fall under the factory warranty; so if a failure happens then, the store does not see a loss, they just return it as defective.
The warranty may get your appliance serviced, but who knows how long it will take. I had a warranty on a receiver and the speaker protection relay went bad. Best Buy had the thing for 9 weeks.
Theoretically, most failures are infant failures and would fall under the factory warranty; so if a failure happens then, the store does not see a loss, they just return it as defective.
The warranty may get your appliance serviced, but who knows how long it will take. I had a warranty on a receiver and the speaker protection relay went bad. Best Buy had the thing for 9 weeks.
Not so long ago, I bought an Epson printer from PC World. There was a woman promoting them (HP also had a sales rep there), and suggested I bought ink and a usb cable. "No thank you, it's supplied with ink, and I've already got a usb cable from the last printer," I said. I took the printer and started to look around the store.
A salesman came up to me, "Don't forget the usb cable for that" he said in earnest. "No thank you, I've already got one".
While looking in the software section, a salesman spied me from across the store. He hurried towards me, saying "don't forget the usb cable for your printer". "No thank you, I've already got one"
I made my way to the checkout. The cashier said, "won't you need a usb cable for that?" There was a prominent display of usb cables right by the checkout. "No thank you, I've already got one."
Maybe they make more profit from the usb cable than they do from the printer.
A salesman came up to me, "Don't forget the usb cable for that" he said in earnest. "No thank you, I've already got one".
While looking in the software section, a salesman spied me from across the store. He hurried towards me, saying "don't forget the usb cable for your printer". "No thank you, I've already got one"
I made my way to the checkout. The cashier said, "won't you need a usb cable for that?" There was a prominent display of usb cables right by the checkout. "No thank you, I've already got one."
Maybe they make more profit from the usb cable than they do from the printer.
Im actually surprised they were not pushing the ink more then the cable. The printer manufactures dont make all that much money on the printers themselves, they make it on the ink.
You can get a (insert make and model number here , Epson 54837colour) for say £80 and this will come with a black and a colour cartridge.
You want to buy more ink? £30 for a colour and £25 for two black. So thats £42.5, more then 50% of the printer you bought was ink price. Now you tell me it costs more to make the ink then it does the printer.
RIP OFF! - buy your ink from some other company rather then the one who makes your printer. We get our ink from CPC, costs £3 a black and £5 a colour.
You can get a (insert make and model number here , Epson 54837colour) for say £80 and this will come with a black and a colour cartridge.
You want to buy more ink? £30 for a colour and £25 for two black. So thats £42.5, more then 50% of the printer you bought was ink price. Now you tell me it costs more to make the ink then it does the printer.
RIP OFF! - buy your ink from some other company rather then the one who makes your printer. We get our ink from CPC, costs £3 a black and £5 a colour.
Hi All
FWIW
Some years ago I bought a TV for $2350 (AUS) and and extended warranty to take it from 1 to 5 years (for additional $150)
after 4 years I decided i had enough of an occasional flicker on some types of moving image.
After some to and fro with service shop under warranty (they did acknowledge there was a problem) but could not fix , identical models had same problem as did higher end Sony .
TThey conclude it must be a "Design problem" and could not be fixed - I tended to agree ..
HOWEVER the extended warranty fine print did NOT exclude "design Flaws"
In short - they couldn't argue with that and provided a brand new (and later model TV ) without the problem.
Of course I immediately took out an extnded warranty on that one too! (another 3 years to go...)
So in this case at least the warranty was worth having.
Just thought I'd throw in a happy ending
I took the risk and paid the extra.
Cheers
FWIW
Some years ago I bought a TV for $2350 (AUS) and and extended warranty to take it from 1 to 5 years (for additional $150)
after 4 years I decided i had enough of an occasional flicker on some types of moving image.
After some to and fro with service shop under warranty (they did acknowledge there was a problem) but could not fix , identical models had same problem as did higher end Sony .
TThey conclude it must be a "Design problem" and could not be fixed - I tended to agree ..
HOWEVER the extended warranty fine print did NOT exclude "design Flaws"
In short - they couldn't argue with that and provided a brand new (and later model TV ) without the problem.
Of course I immediately took out an extnded warranty on that one too! (another 3 years to go...)
So in this case at least the warranty was worth having.
Just thought I'd throw in a happy ending
I took the risk and paid the extra.
Cheers
Ahh, the good ole days
I worked at CompUSA about 12 years ago. They didn't make any money on hardware or much on software. Accessories and extended warranties were how they kept the lights on. Can't imagine it's any different now.
My deal as an employee was anything I wanted at cost. However, the items I actually wanted were sometimes being sold under cost!
Cables have to be the biggest scam. Those old clunky printer cables we used to sell (no usb back then) had a cost anywhere from $1.50-4.00 for 6-25' lengths. At the time we sold them for $6 and up. Now, I look at USB cables selling for $20 or firewire cables selling for $40 and I just shake my head in disgust.
Yesterday, I had to pay $10 for a power adapter for my new SATA drive. A 4" bundle of wire and a couple connectors.
I worked at CompUSA about 12 years ago. They didn't make any money on hardware or much on software. Accessories and extended warranties were how they kept the lights on. Can't imagine it's any different now.
My deal as an employee was anything I wanted at cost. However, the items I actually wanted were sometimes being sold under cost!
Cables have to be the biggest scam. Those old clunky printer cables we used to sell (no usb back then) had a cost anywhere from $1.50-4.00 for 6-25' lengths. At the time we sold them for $6 and up. Now, I look at USB cables selling for $20 or firewire cables selling for $40 and I just shake my head in disgust.
Yesterday, I had to pay $10 for a power adapter for my new SATA drive. A 4" bundle of wire and a couple connectors.
True Confessions- Audio Anonomus
My name is Mark, and I was a stereo salesperson....
(about 30 years ago)
We were paid on commision, based on the total profit of the deal.
The extended warrantee was considered pure profit- they didn't even subtract for any average costs of replacing items.
Of course manufacturers would also have "spiffs". They would give a salesperson a certain amount of money as a bonus for certain of their items sold. The product would vary by month, as would the manufacturer. Sometimes you could put a system together with various spiff items!!!
I'm pretty sure I remember JBL did it, also had little seminars telling us why their drivers were good....
The only ex warrantee I recently bought was for my son's portable CD player. The salesperson pointed out that it even covered dropping the thing- which was why we were buying a new one.
He dropped it a week ago and we got a new one- no problem except standing in line a Best buy for 45 min.
My name is Mark, and I was a stereo salesperson....
(about 30 years ago)
We were paid on commision, based on the total profit of the deal.
The extended warrantee was considered pure profit- they didn't even subtract for any average costs of replacing items.
Of course manufacturers would also have "spiffs". They would give a salesperson a certain amount of money as a bonus for certain of their items sold. The product would vary by month, as would the manufacturer. Sometimes you could put a system together with various spiff items!!!
I'm pretty sure I remember JBL did it, also had little seminars telling us why their drivers were good....
The only ex warrantee I recently bought was for my son's portable CD player. The salesperson pointed out that it even covered dropping the thing- which was why we were buying a new one.
He dropped it a week ago and we got a new one- no problem except standing in line a Best buy for 45 min.
I bought a pair of headphones, they came to $120.
They wanted $40 for an extended warranty.
I said "That's enough money for the insurance company to pay for a new set of heaphones every 3 years." "Why are they selling junk that fails that soon?" "Maybe I better not buy them?"
They shut up quickly and stopped pushing the service plan - at least to me. The math is wrong but they don't get that.
They wanted $40 for an extended warranty.
I said "That's enough money for the insurance company to pay for a new set of heaphones every 3 years." "Why are they selling junk that fails that soon?" "Maybe I better not buy them?"
They shut up quickly and stopped pushing the service plan - at least to me. The math is wrong but they don't get that.
Yep, me too. Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away I sold electronics for a semi-large company that has vanished from the universe. Spiffs on products ranged from 2-5%, sometimes 7% if it was an especially over-priced POS like a "rack" system. Spiffs on extended warranties paid 15%! Ditto with accessories. Lots of pressure from management to sell warranties. I finally had to quit because I felt like all I was doing was selling warranties and not helping people make informed purchases.
I worked at Best Buy for a bit...it got to the point where they had us trying to sell the customer on 5 or 6 different things from your plain, old extended warranty to credit cards to make the purchase with. They also try to really, REALLY push accessories with the purchase, because the profit margin on things like cables, furniture, chargers, etc. is huge compared to the original item. I got sick of trying to push all this junk on people and moved to doing inventory and then just ended up quitting...I try to do most of my shopping online now
I used to think that having non-commissioned employees was a good thing until I went into my first Best Buy.
What was immediately apparent to me is that when you take away a person's commission, you take away his motivation for being well informed about the product he's selling. As useless as Circuit City sales people were, they were much better than BB's sales people... at least until CC went commission free. They were also less concerned with pushing the warranty plans, because they knew that if they were too pushy, they'd lose the whole sale.
Now, no such problem exists. Their ONLY commission is from the service plan, not the product itself, so they're going to push the hell out of it even if they risk losing the sale. After all, a sale with no service plan is no different to them than no sale at all.
What was immediately apparent to me is that when you take away a person's commission, you take away his motivation for being well informed about the product he's selling. As useless as Circuit City sales people were, they were much better than BB's sales people... at least until CC went commission free. They were also less concerned with pushing the warranty plans, because they knew that if they were too pushy, they'd lose the whole sale.
Now, no such problem exists. Their ONLY commission is from the service plan, not the product itself, so they're going to push the hell out of it even if they risk losing the sale. After all, a sale with no service plan is no different to them than no sale at all.
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