I used to sell audio equipment, I worked for two different stores while I was in college. The first sold Bose. That's partially why I quit and went to work at a better place that didn't sell Bose.
Aside from all of the stories about how bad they sound, we've heard enough, I'll tell you why I don't like them from a salesman point of view. First, they fix their prices. That's why you never see sales anywhere, unless Bose lifts the restrictions on a certain model (usually because they want to clear stock because they're about to come out with something new), then everyone has sales. IMHO, price fixing is immoral and should be illegal. I don't know why retailers stand for it. Second, Bose wants to control their prices so tightly, they won't even allow the store to sell customer returns or demo units at discounts (unless again, it's a discontinued model). If a customer returned a set of Bose because...(they didn't like them, wife said no, didn't need them, second thoughts about spending all of that money, etc...), we couldn't turn around and sell it to a customer at a discount. Third, Bose required to be set up seperate from other brands of speakers, so you couldn't do AB comparisons and really get customers the right speakers for their listening habits. Fourth, people come in brainwashed from all of the advertising. Some sales people like this, as it provides for quick, easy, commission-boosting sales. However, I couldn't handle selling people crap without at least attempting to show something different (I would try to step customers down in price to something better, and sometimes they wouldn't have it!!!). Fifth, they're poorly built, many customer returns and hassles over blown speakers, etc. Sixth, I'd always have to handle tons of phone calls after selling a set of Bose ("why doesn't my system sound as good as in the store?" "Can you help me verify I have everything situated/hooked up correctly?") An after sales nightmare. After awhile, I basically refused to sell Bose speakers. Maybe I was being unreasonable for a salesman, but I'd had it with their crappy products and all of the headaches that occured after the sales. I flat out refused to ring one customer up on a set of acoustimass speakers. They complained to my manager, he wrote me up, I went out and applied to a real store, and the rest is history.
One other note...people keep citing "WAF" and "ease of setup" and "convenient all in one system" as reasons for buying Bose. Sorry, but in my humble opinion, that's a bunch of BS to justify having already thrown your money away on garbage. Bose was the first company to take the satellite/sub concept and run mainstream with it, so they get that recognition (again, great marketing on their part, but that's about it). Over the last 7 years or so, several companies have made just as small, convenient, good looking systems for comparable prices to the lifestyle systems that sound MUCH better. People buy Bose for one of two reasons: 1, for the same reason they buy clothes with designer names printed all freaking over them, like Tommy Jeans or what not. It's all about having that big brand name in the house that says "I'm not cheap, I paid for the best." Nothing more. Either that, or they are so brainwashed and closed minded that they absolutely refuse to even consider anything else. After all, if Mr. (sellout) Paul Harvey says they are the best, then it must be. No two bit college student wearing a cheap polo shirt is going to tell me otherwise.
Sorry if I insulted anyone, but that's my honest opinion. If you buy Bose, it's because you fall into one of those two categories.
