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Local Circuit City converted to Toshiba (HD-A2) HD-DVD supporters!

post #1 of 60
12/26/06 at 7:34pm
Thread Starter 
Ok-so I was browsing at the local Circuit City looking for new/recent HD DVD releases and to see if they had
gotten the HD-A2's in yet and on display. So I wander into the TV section and as usual they have the big Samsung display with the BD player, complete with comfy couch. The conversation goes something like:
Me: "Do you have the HD-DVD player on display?"
Red Shirt#1: "You mean the Blue Ray?"
Me: "No, HD-DVD"
Red Shirt#1: "Hey 'Manager", do we have any HD-DVD players?"
Manager: "No, we had an RCA but ......"
Me: "No, Toshiba has a new HD-DVD player out"
Manager: "No, we do not have that"

I wander through the DVD section and then to the computer area looking for a replacement for my circa 1998 laptop.
I used their display models to lookup the HD-A2 on the CC website and it says the store has 3 in stock. So now I'm kind pissed. I go back to the TV area and the manager and sales guy I talked to were busy. Another sales guy asks me if he can help me.

Red Shirt#2: "Can I help you?"
Me: "I was just here a few minutes ago asking about a HD-DVD player and the manager and other sales guy told me you did not have it"
Me: "I just checked the CC website in the computer area and it says you have 3 of the Toshiba HD-A2's in stock in this store."
Me: "Dont you guys know what you carry?"
Red Shirt#2: "Oh-I think I saw that in the back 2 days ago. I think I'm the only one who knows we have it."
Me: "I want to see how it performs"
Red Shirt#2: "We do not have one out"
Me: "Dont you think you should have it out on the floor? How do you expect to sell hardware if people dont know you have it hidden in the back?"
Red Shirt#2: "I cant put it out on display"
Me(Getting frustrated-but calm): "I will not spend that kind of money without being able to test drive it. Kinda like you would not buy a car without kickin the tires"
Red Shirt#2: "What do you want me to do?"
Me: "Hookup a display model, right next to the Blue Ray player."
Red Shirt#2: "OK-I ask the manager. Its not up to me what/where we put on display"
Me: "Thanks"
Red Shirt#2: "OK we'll hook it up here" (Beside the Samsung BD player on a 42"ish display which also had a XBox360 already hooked up & the cumfy couch!)
Red Shirt#2 & Manager come out a minute later with the Tosh. box and proceed to hook it up.

Manager goes and gets Batman Begins and says it should be good for demonstration purposes with good action sequences.
I was really surprised as they genuinely wanted to see it in action and put on a good show. Hooked up with HDMI and the movie starts.

They turn the volume way up so that everyone in the store must have known it was playing.

I quote from the Circuit City guys watching BB HD-DVD "OUTSTANDING"

They really liked how the menu system worked and that you could pull up the menu and navigate while watching the movie.

I said I like what I see and I can buy 2 of the Toshiba HD-DVD players for the price of one BD player.
I left that store feeling like I educated and turned the entire Circuit City team into HD-DVD supporters.
It was a good day, very good day indeed.
Now consumers can see with their own eyes that the Sony marketing machine is full of FUD and
that BD is OVERPRICED and OVERHYPED. Happy holidays to all!

The CC guys were nice and helpfull, but needed a little education to balance the Sony sh*t, in order to give consumers a balanced set of options in the High Definition optical disc market. Now they can play with both formats and I bet next week the whole store will be pushing the advantages of the HD DVD format?
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post #2 of 60
12/26/06 at 7:48pm
Nice story.
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post #3 of 60
12/26/06 at 7:52pm
Thread Starter 
Made me feel really good.
Made my day, so to speak.
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post #4 of 60
12/26/06 at 8:02pm
You made them do all that work...I certainly hope you bought one.
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post #5 of 60
12/26/06 at 8:15pm
to bad when you return it won't be on display and they'll go pimping blu-ray on everyone.
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post #6 of 60
12/26/06 at 8:18pm
I had a similar story today. Picking up another A2 this one from CC.

Me: Do you have any HD DVD players
RS: Oh yes we have a Blue Ray system setup over here
Me: No the new Toshiba HD-A2
RS: We don't carry Toshiba products
Me: Well your store got 5 in over the weekend and shows you still have some in stock
RS: Oh for the "Toshiba" you need to order it online
Me: No your store has them in stock for OTC sales
RS: Let me check... Oh the system says we have 2 would you like one
Me: Yes but I want to price match
RS: ok, let me see, he then fobs me off to the front clerk
Me: I go to the front clerk and they have an issue with my price match
FC: Let me talk with my manager and see what I can do, 20 minutes later
Me: yes I'm still here waiting for a A2
FC: We will let you do this just this time because of some &^$%##)(*))& reason
Me: Great thank you

I don't think they could have done more to discourage me from buying a A2 from them.
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post #7 of 60
12/26/06 at 9:26pm
Thread Starter 
No sir, Mr. Apollo 13, there will be no returns to this store and NO MORE pimping of Blew-Ray, at least at this particular store. Thank you.

Maybe you did not read the first post. Did I say I bought the unit?
No I did not buy the unit, they were going to put one out on display anyways.
I just accelerated their display deployment out onto the showroom floor.
No returns here. I may go back and buy one for my third HDTV.
Would any of you guys bother hooking up a HD-DVD player to a 720 set? Not sure I wanna spend the $$ for this last HDTV until it is upgraded to "Full HD". Ha-Ha.
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post #8 of 60
12/26/06 at 9:40pm
Thread Starter 
derekjsmith - I hear ya Loud & Clear. It was a bit of a struggle to get them to even get it out on display. Now both formats are there side by side. The Toshiba next to the BD player. The fallacies of BD will become evident to EVERY consumer. The BD campaign has been crumbling for some time due only to Sony's action/in-actions/bumbling of the format.

One of the first things people will notice is a STUNNING picture from the player who's MSRP is 1/2 the others. Buy 2 for the price of 1 of the other. How do you think consumers will vote? Sony should be very, very afraid of the HD-DVD hardware being out next to the BD players. Especially the very nice HD-A2.

Wait, has the BD launch even started yet? I might have to go into the BD forums to find out. I would love to hear the latest and greatest: wait, wait, wait .....................wait until....
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post #9 of 60
12/27/06 at 7:05am
I am waiting for when someone use their cell phone or one of the other small recording devices to record a conversation with one of these BB employee regarding HD DVD and their store policy and put it in the forum for all to hear.
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post #10 of 60
12/27/06 at 8:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by qz3fwd View Post

No sir, Mr. Apollo 13, there will be no returns to this store and NO MORE pimping of Blew-Ray, at least at this particular store. Thank you.

Maybe you did not read the first post. Did I say I bought the unit?
No I did not buy the unit, they were going to put one out on display anyways.
I just accelerated their display deployment out onto the showroom floor.
No returns here. I may go back and buy one for my third HDTV.
Would any of you guys bother hooking up a HD-DVD player to a 720 set? Not sure I wanna spend the $$ for this last HDTV until it is upgraded to "Full HD". Ha-Ha.

I could be wrong but I don't think apollo 13 said you would return the dvd player. He said when you return, it won't be out on display.
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post #11 of 60
12/27/06 at 9:59am
Thread Starter 
Mr speeeedy-Yes you are correct. I did not read Apollo's posting correctly. I WILL be going back to that store tomorrow to make sure it is still there and if not give them a thrashing.
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post #12 of 60
12/27/06 at 10:01am
Thread Starter 
My appologies Mr Apollo 13.
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post #13 of 60
12/27/06 at 10:04am
Didn't I read somewhere about Electronics retailers getting in trouble with the studios for playing full length movies in store and Blu-Ray and HD-DVD needed to provide demo material to play instead?
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post #14 of 60
12/27/06 at 10:05am
you fanbois are funny.

for the record i own both formats
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post #15 of 60
12/27/06 at 10:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by qz3fwd View Post

No sir, Mr. Apollo 13, there will be no returns to this store and NO MORE pimping of Blew-Ray, at least at this particular store. Thank you.

Maybe you did not read the first post. Did I say I bought the unit?
No I did not buy the unit, they were going to put one out on display anyways.
I just accelerated their display deployment out onto the showroom floor.
No returns here. I may go back and buy one for my third HDTV.
Would any of you guys bother hooking up a HD-DVD player to a 720 set? Not sure I wanna spend the $$ for this last HDTV until it is upgraded to "Full HD". Ha-Ha.

I can tell you from experience, that once you left these guys didn't say

"oh man, what were we thinking? glad that guy showed us!"

the conversation probably went more like:

"Cheap MOTHERF*&%$@ made us do all that and then walked out with nothing! Last time I do that!!!"

In retail stores there is a merchandising team that is responsible for putting product in pre-selected planaograms, this was not the job of the sales associate. He went above and beyond the call of duty for you. You could actually get written up for "cowboying merchandise" in some stores as they are very strict about when and where product is placed, and opening a movie to display is actually illegal as the store doesn't have rights to the film for demonstration/promotional use. Best Buy was actually sued for this and is why they tend to stick to demo disks that they pay the studio's to use certain clips.
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post #16 of 60
12/27/06 at 11:00am
Thread Starter 
He cleared it with the manager before both of them put it up on display.
The playback of movies may be true but I see it ALL THE TIME at best buy with regular DVD's and both BD & now HD-DVD. Now that you mention this, one of the guys at a local BB told me nothing was playing on the HD-A2 they had on the main aisle since they had not gotten the demo disc yet after the first one was lifter. Kinda makes sense.

They may call me a cheap ***, but I got them to do their job and surely they will move more product with the player on display next to the overhyped, overpriced other format.
Therefore the district manager should be thanking me. After all, there is no excuse to have any merchandise in the back at this time of the year. A Blue Shirt told me at BB that they are not allowed to have any stock in back at Christmas when asking if they had any new releases in the back. BB policy apparently.

I am going to another CC today to make sure they have the product on display and get them to hook one up if not! Wish me luck.
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post #17 of 60
12/27/06 at 11:04am
Thread Starter 
Brian@BBY - Sounds like maybe you are a BB manager.
Does your BB store have a HD-A2 out on display? On the shelf or hooked up to a HDTV?
Or are they selling all they get in stock. Which store do you work at?
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post #18 of 60
12/27/06 at 11:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by qz3fwd View Post

Brian@BBY - Sounds like maybe you are a BB manager.
Does your BB store have a HD-A2 out on display? On the shelf or hooked up to a HDTV?
Or are they selling all they get in stock. Which store do you work at?

I'm not a Manager, but a supervisor. Yes our store has the HD-A2 on an endcap on the tube TV Aisle with a 1080p Regza toshiba 40" LCD. I work in a store in San Diego County.
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post #19 of 60
12/27/06 at 11:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian@BBY View Post

opening a movie to display is actually illegal as the store doesn't have rights to the film for demonstration/promotional use. Best Buy was actually sued for this and is why they tend to stick to demo disks that they pay the studio's to use certain clips.

Some stores are not following policy because at least one store near me was playing Superman Returns on an XBox 360 HD Add-on.

Does Magnolia follow BB policy because I see them showing movies and concert DVDs all the time.
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post #20 of 60
12/27/06 at 11:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ihyln View Post

you fanbois are funny.

for the record i own both formats

I would and have said the same thing. I own both formats. Does that make me a dual threat fanboy? Or a double fan boy? Or what? I mean it's more about wanting to see BOTH formats treated FAIRLY. We aren't asking for BR treatment, so we aren't asking for enough to qualify your remark.
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post #21 of 60
12/27/06 at 11:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kid Red View Post

I would and have said the same thing. I own both formats. Does that make me a dual threat fanboy? Or a double fan boy? Or what? I mean it's more about wanting to see BOTH formats treated FAIRLY. We aren't asking for BR treatment, so we aren't asking for enough to qualify your remark.

No, actually what you and others like you are doing by supporting both formats is prolonging the war.
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post #22 of 60
12/27/06 at 11:40am
And that's bad for us, how? I know how it's bad for format partisans (of either stripe), but we get to enjoy all HD content now without having to settle for SD from certain studios...
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post #23 of 60
12/27/06 at 11:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian@BBY View Post

I can tell you from experience, that once you left these guys didn't say

"oh man, what were we thinking? glad that guy showed us!"

the conversation probably went more like:

"Cheap MOTHERF*&%$@ made us do all that and then walked out with nothing! Last time I do that!!!"

In retail stores there is a merchandising team that is responsible for putting product in pre-selected planaograms, this was not the job of the sales associate. He went above and beyond the call of duty for you. You could actually get written up for "cowboying merchandise" in some stores as they are very strict about when and where product is placed, and opening a movie to display is actually illegal as the store doesn't have rights to the film for demonstration/promotional use. Best Buy was actually sued for this and is why they tend to stick to demo disks that they pay the studio's to use certain clips.

I don't think Circuit has "Merch" team like BBY has but I haven't known anyone who has worked for Circuit in years. The sales team handles the planos from what I hear (This is how BBY use to do it as well years ago before Merch was created). Since Circuit really isn't a "Grab and Go" type of store with most stock still residing in the back I am guessing things haven't changed. In any case at least 2 circuits have been playing XXX in their Samsungs BR players not the demo. Usually the stores in Phoenix only have one HT demo area and they throw whatever in there to Demo on the 2 TV's (last I checked it was the Samsung on one TV and the 360 on the other, the 360 had the FIFA 07 game playing).
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post #24 of 60
12/27/06 at 12:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by qz3fwd View Post

Ok-so I was browsing at the local Circuit City looking for new/recent HD DVD releases and to see if they had
gotten the HD-A2's in yet and on display. So I wander into the TV section and as usual they have the big Samsung display with the BD player, complete with comfy couch. The conversation goes something like:
Me: "Do you have the HD-DVD player on display?"
Red Shirt#1: "You mean the Blue Ray?"
Me: "No, HD-DVD"
Red Shirt#1: "Hey 'Manager", do we have any HD-DVD players?"
Manager: "No, we had an RCA but ......"
Me: "No, Toshiba has a new HD-DVD player out"
Manager: "No, we do not have that"

I wander through the DVD section and then to the computer area looking for a replacement for my circa 1998 laptop.
I used their display models to lookup the HD-A2 on the CC website and it says the store has 3 in stock. So now I'm kind pissed. I go back to the TV area and the manager and sales guy I talked to were busy. Another sales guy asks me if he can help me.

Red Shirt#2: "Can I help you?"
Me: "I was just here a few minutes ago asking about a HD-DVD player and the manager and other sales guy told me you did not have it"
Me: "I just checked the CC website in the computer area and it says you have 3 of the Toshiba HD-A2's in stock in this store."
Me: "Dont you guys know what you carry?"
Red Shirt#2: "Oh-I think I saw that in the back 2 days ago. I think I'm the only one who knows we have it."
Me: "I want to see how it performs"
Red Shirt#2: "We do not have one out"
Me: "Dont you think you should have it out on the floor? How do you expect to sell hardware if people dont know you have it hidden in the back?"
Red Shirt#2: "I cant put it out on display"
Me(Getting frustrated-but calm): "I will not spend that kind of money without being able to test drive it. Kinda like you would not buy a car without kickin the tires"
Red Shirt#2: "What do you want me to do?"
Me: "Hookup a display model, right next to the Blue Ray player."
Red Shirt#2: "OK-I ask the manager. Its not up to me what/where we put on display"
Me: "Thanks"
Red Shirt#2: "OK we'll hook it up here" (Beside the Samsung BD player on a 42"ish display which also had a XBox360 already hooked up & the cumfy couch!)
Red Shirt#2 & Manager come out a minute later with the Tosh. box and proceed to hook it up.

Manager goes and gets Batman Begins and says it should be good for demonstration purposes with good action sequences.
I was really surprised as they genuinely wanted to see it in action and put on a good show. Hooked up with HDMI and the movie starts.

They turn the volume way up so that everyone in the store must have known it was playing.

I quote from the Circuit City guys watching BB HD-DVD "OUTSTANDING"

They really liked how the menu system worked and that you could pull up the menu and navigate while watching the movie.

I said I like what I see and I can buy 2 of the Toshiba HD-DVD players for the price of one BD player.
I left that store feeling like I educated and turned the entire Circuit City team into HD-DVD supporters.
It was a good day, very good day indeed.
Now consumers can see with their own eyes that the Sony marketing machine is full of FUD and
that BD is OVERPRICED and OVERHYPED. Happy holidays to all!

The CC guys were nice and helpfull, but needed a little education to balance the Sony sh*t, in order to give consumers a balanced set of options in the High Definition optical disc market. Now they can play with both formats and I bet next week the whole store will be pushing the advantages of the HD DVD format?


shoudlve told them to use king kong or hulk, much better looking movies and action sequences.
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post #25 of 60
12/27/06 at 12:44pm
BBY is correct iin his assessment about sales. In retail the customers that take up an associates time and walk out with nothing are usually the customers sales people do not look forward to helping. Retail is about numbers and money, on a busy day a sales clerk can spend 2 hours with a customer thinking that there will be a large purchase as a result, however if the customer walks out with nothing, then the sales asscociate lost other potential sales that couldve result from people that actually do intend on spending money. In the end it has to do with numbers. Sales associates goal should essentially be how to accumulate the most amount of sales in the shortest amount of time, because time is money in retail.

so as a customer that has no intention of purchasing anything and demanding attention and large amounts of time are usually loathed by anyone in sales those are the folks that cause the company to lose money regardless of what retail chain or company.

the guys in CC probably didnt care if they were enlightened or not, as BBY mentioned, they probably thought you wasted their time to walk out with nothing.

BBY, the worst ones are probably the ones that ask you 1000000000 questions about a particular unit take up 2 hours of your time and then go home to buy it online

of course avoiding confrontation and customer service is also important, so if you are persistant enough they cant really tell you no, as a customer you can really make them do anything and theyd still have to give you smile
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post #26 of 60
12/27/06 at 1:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian@BBY View Post

I can tell you from experience, that once you left these guys didn't say

"oh man, what were we thinking? glad that guy showed us!"

the conversation probably went more like:

"Cheap MOTHERF*&%$@ made us do all that and then walked out with nothing! Last time I do that!!!"

In retail stores there is a merchandising team that is responsible for putting product in pre-selected planaograms, this was not the job of the sales associate. He went above and beyond the call of duty for you. You could actually get written up for "cowboying merchandise" in some stores as they are very strict about when and where product is placed, and opening a movie to display is actually illegal as the store doesn't have rights to the film for demonstration/promotional use. Best Buy was actually sued for this and is why they tend to stick to demo disks that they pay the studio's to use certain clips.

while i agree that it was cheap of him not to buy it- Best buy has these big signs up "HD done right." Is their comittment to the customer, or to whoever pays the most for endcap space? i want to do what i am supposed to be able to do at a retail electronics store - compare! that means that it has to at least be hooked up on a decent tv. Shame on retailers for caring more about advertising dollars that truly showing what is in the customer's best interest. You are supposed to be selling electronics, not pushing formats. you are not selling many blu-ray players due to cost, you are not selling hd-dvd because you generally don't have them hooked up. no wonder next gen hd sales are lackluster. this war might be over by now if you truly sold both side by side. How can i trust your advice on the best product for my needs when you won't even show me the product?
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post #27 of 60
12/27/06 at 1:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sean111 View Post

while i agree that it was cheap of him not to buy it- Best buy has these big signs up "HD done right." Is their comittment to the customer, or to whoever pays the most for endcap space? i want to do what i am supposed to be able to do at a retail electronics store - compare! that means that it has to at least be hooked up on a decent tv. Shame on retailers for caring more about advertising dollars that truly showing what is in the customer's best interest. You are supposed to be selling electronics, not pushing formats. you are not selling many blu-ray players due to cost, you are not selling hd-dvd because you generally don't have them hooked up. no wonder next gen hd sales are lackluster. this war might be over by now if you truly sold both side by side. How can i trust your advice on the best product for my needs when you won't even show me the product?


if you really want to enlighten a retailer, give them a reason to chenge a set up, by speaking their language , let them know how the change would increase sales and profit

my guess why there is such a low interest from CC, would most likely be why set up a demo of a unit they dont have in stock? if they have 2 units, open 1, they have 1 unit left for sale. when they couldve just as easily sold two without opening one.

if toshiba can get more units out to stores so that they have a large supply of them. then I wouldnt doubt increased awareness and demo stations would increase without anything extra

a retailer chain will not advertise units they dont have in stock, and in short HD dvd players are shipped far and few between to retailers all over, so of course you wont be seeing them heavily advertised.

I guarantee you if there was a bounty of hd dvd players just sitting around in the back gathering dust the retail store would haul ass trying to move them out of the store.
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post #28 of 60
12/27/06 at 1:56pm
When did CC start carrying Toshiba products?
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post #29 of 60
12/27/06 at 2:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by herdfan View Post

When did CC start carrying Toshiba products?

Since HD DVD players are selling like hot cakes at BB to the point that BB staffs are hiding the players from customers because they want the players for themselves . Just ask BrianBaby
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post #30 of 60
12/27/06 at 3:32pm
I doubt the CC guys were upset he didn't buy one. The CC guys at my local store were all gathered round like kids on Christmas morning yesterday to open the new A2 and compare it with the Samsung BR.

"Same picture, half the price!" said one.
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