Well, unfortunately I work at BB. It's a part time student job and pay's my expenses for now. Anyways, I work in the home theater department and for a while I have been noticing some of my colleagues spreading around the utter most bias in favor of Blu Ray. Personally I own HD DVD (HD A20) so I can perhaps show some bias in favor of HD DVD. Anyways, one of my colleagues was telling a customer the advantage Blu Ray's has over HD DVD, and one that struck out to me that he said was "most HD DVD discs are encoded in 1080i". Clearly knowing he was wrong, I kept silent not wanting to start a conflict (He supports Blu Ray). Anyways, he kept on ranting about how much Blu Ray is better, that only Toshiba & Microsoft supported HD DVD etc. Anyways later on I told the client the straight out facts, near identical IQ, Blu Ray has more lossless tracks, studio exclusivities on both sides etc. He coulden't make up his mind so I made him choose his 10 favorite movies and 8 of them where HD DVD. So he left happily with an A30 (good price on it).

Just to give more examples, some of my collegues still state that Paramount/Dreamworks is on Blu Ray. When HD DVD demo material is shown, they say it's Blu Ray. What should I do in a situation like this, personally I think I work with ignorant fanboys, should this be denounced? As a sales person, I would think the right stance would be format neutrality and letting the customers choose based on which films they prefer instead of just shoving a format down peoples throats. I would just like some opinions and thoughts on how to deal with people like these, considering most of them are higher placed than me yet far more ignorant about anything HT related.

Nearly all of the Paramount titles they released are still widely available on blu-ray online, or elsewhere.

I'm sure this thread will be around for about 2 more minutes before it's pulled.

It's a part time student job....Anyways...Anyways...Anyways... Anyways...

My tax dollars hard at work.... :p

two in the morning! English second language

Well, unfortunately I work at BB. It's a part time student job and pay's my expenses for now. Anyways, I work in the home theater department and for a while I have been noticing some of my colleagues spreading around the utter most bias in favor of Blu Ray. Personally I own HD DVD (HD A20) so I can perhaps show some bias in favor of HD DVD. Anyways, one of my colleagues was telling a customer the advantage Blu Ray's has over HD DVD, and one that struck out to me that he said was "most HD DVD discs are encoded in 1080i". Clearly knowing he was wrong, I kept silent not wanting to start a conflict (He supports Blu Ray). Anyways, he kept on ranting about how much Blu Ray is better, that only Toshiba & Microsoft supported HD DVD etc. Anyways later on I told the client the straight out facts, near identical IQ, Blu Ray has more lossless tracks, studio exclusivities on both sides etc. He coulden't make up his mind so I made him choose his 10 favorite movies and 8 of them where HD DVD. So he left happily with an A30 (good price on it).

Just to give more examples, some of my collegues still state that Paramount/Dreamworks is on Blu Ray. When HD DVD demo material is shown, they say it's Blu Ray. What should I do in a situation like this, personally I think I work with ignorant fanboys, should this be denounced? As a sales person, I would think the right stance would be format neutrality and letting the customers choose based on which films they prefer instead of just shoving a format down peoples throats. I would just like some opinions and thoughts on how to deal with people like these, considering most of them are higher placed than me yet far more ignorant about anything HT related.

I think you don't make anything like enough money to get into fights with your coworkers.

Give people the correct information, let a supervisor know that bad info is being passed out, punch in, punch out.

It depends how well you know the guys.

I mean if you see em' in the break room and talk to em' every now and then, why the heck not bust their chops?????

If you don't know them and never talk to em', and are intimidated by em', well, then you should probably just keep your mouth shut.

I know it's hard working in an environment like that. I've been there. Feel free to point out their mistakes, but don't do it in front of a customer, you will make some serious enemies doing that. Walk on eggshells if they are buddies with the managers or supervisors. Best Buy isn't about who is the best employee, it's about who brownnoses and sucks up the most, and who has the best buddies in key places.

As a customer now, when I hear them spouting off nonsense like that, I simply tell the employee in front of the customer: 'You shouldn't lie to your customers to sell him the more expensive player, HD DVD is just as good as Blu Ray.'

That usually either gets them riled up, shuts them up, and in most cases, really gets the customer's attention.

Same would apply to employees lying about HD DVD and trashing Blu Ray. Funny thing is, I haven't seen that at all yet...

I don't go to B&M stores often, but I'd love it if someone came at me with a lot of missinformation...it's great when you know more than the sales people think, and that's in any buying situation:)

Are you sure they're biased?

I find sales people in general don't know anything technical about the product they're selling.

I'm not surprised they're recommending Bluray anyway, it's more likely to around for longer, and has more choice of brands of players. Not to mention the fact if they're working off commission, there might be more in it for the salesperson. Toshiba doesn't give many sales bonuses that I've seen.

DearDeath,

I can understand your point. I tried to get a summer job at several big box electronics stores, but apparently they felt threatened by my college degree. Go figure. Well, as my small measure of revenge, I will go to these stores and walk casually around the TVs, Home Theatre and High Def areas looking for confused customers. The associates are too busy chatting it up about the hot girl at digital cameras to notice!

I will then become the educator (what I do in real life), and help them make the best purchase for them. From TVs to AVRs to crappy surround systems (I've sent many people to specialty retailers on line for the good stuff!) to high def. DVDs (Blu Ray or HD DVD). Maybe I'm just weird, or maybe I want to be the High Def Avenger. Stopping stupid sales at Big Boxes to ensure that at least a few more people enjoy HD as it should be.

Oh, and I'm also prepared for those who think I'm sticking my nose in someone else's business or that I need to get a life. Color me obsessed with HDM. This place is partially at fault for that. =)

Are you sure they're biased?

I find sales people in general don't know anything technical about the product they're selling.


I bought my plasma at Best Buy, and I'm sorry I did. It was the single worst buying experience of my life. I had my list narrowed down to 4 tv's, knew pretty much everything I needed to know about them, and I went on in. I asked one salesman for a remote so I could fiddle with the settings. He did try to find the remote, but couldn't. On to the next TV, and next salesman. Guess what, couldn't find the remote. He did apologize, but asked me what I needed the remote for, I told him I wanted to check out the settings and the TV's menu, he told me, and I quote "Settings don't matter anyway." My friend who was with me at the time grimaced, thinking I was going to lay into him. At this point I just gave up asking them anything. I ended up buying the TV I was leaning toward, and left. I am not surprised to hear about biased employees, and I think from now on I will buy from the internet. I won't have my purchase that day, but I won't be exasperated when I purchase it either.

Thank you