Unless I absolutely need something immediately or the sale price is too good to pass up, I no longer step food inside any electronics or home entertainment store. Unless, of course, I get bored. Even then, I’m just there to browse for stuff that I’ll end up buying online later. I have a very good reason.
The Consumerist has taken a look inside the seedy world of salesmen at the electronics store. For the uninitiated, meaning those who don’t know someone who has worked at one of these stores, or who has never worked at one of these stores, it’s quite an eye-opening experience. While some of these things are just normal sleazy, some of these things, like saying you’ll give someone a discount and then not discounting the item, is just flat-out lying to the customer. I really hope they feel bad for what they do.
It makes me thankful I’m incredibly cynical and knew most of these things before I read the list, because if I hadn’t and had gotten ripped off on an extended service plan or Monster Cables, this blog post would not be family-friendly. The service plan is the only thing mentioned I’ve ever been pushed to get. Maybe setup is a relatively new price-gouge, or maybe it’s something that is only offered at the store in question.
If you’re buying a product that has a lifetime warranty from the manufacturer, that’s one thing. Feel free to spend whatever you can afford there. For example, a faucet at the house started leaking and we needed new gaskets. A quick and painless call to Delta Faucets later, and our parts were in the mail. But electronics will be upgraded long before you ever have to worry about something breaking. If it is going to break, chances are it will do it within the normal manufacturer’s warranty period.
As the famous film character Ash said in Army of Darkness, “Shop smart, shop S-Mart.”