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Beware: Buying While Retarded

Tiburon

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 29, 2005
Messages
84
I've recently had three friends just buy new computers. One dumped 4 grand into a sony Vaio and got a x300 video card. When he talked to the sales guy he was told it was the top of the line card out there.

Next guy went to Best Buy and bought an E-Machine and was told the graphics card (integrated I think or something) would run all the top of the line games.

My third friend went to a computer surplus spot and just bought bfg 6200 256 oc for 399 canadian.

I dropped some of my newly aquired [H]ard knowledge on em and all but the guy with the Sony Vaio had buyers remorse. Is this typical in the commercial market or were these guys just seen coming?
 
Usually, the saleperson selling these machines knows even less about computers.
 
people in retail trying to sell their product will say just about anything to get the "stupid" buyers to buy the machine....

that too^^^^

mostly because they think the top of the line games are solitare... or even better yet!! SPIDUH SOLITARUH!!!
 
I 100% agree with you, here in Canada, you can't buy a system off the shelf with an even semi-decent video card. All they have are X300s and of course the INTEL GRAPHICS MEDIA ACCELERATOR ohhhhhhhhh ye. Well, as someone mentioned above, all the turds at Best Buy really don't understand that better technology exists or what is required to play real games. Generally, when Billy Bob goes to a big box store to pick up a new rig for his trailer, he thinks the more it costs, the faster it is, and surely we can't forget the gigahertz myth. Sony computers are always at least $1000 over-priced, you're paying for their name and semi-1337 case. The only hope for a good computer for the price is Dell in Canada, or smaller shops. I still get all my "high-end" parts from mom n' pop shops. Ahh well, that was good to let out, keep it hard.
 
i would go back to ths store and kick the shit out of the guy who sold him the x300 - complain to his boss for clearly false advertising - ask for a full refund and go buy something else.
 
And for ultimate punishment explain to him in depth for 6 hours why he's wrong. Do not neglect to explain to him the finer points of all the different GPU cores and innovations made to them in the last five years.
 
Obi_Kwiet said:
And for ultimate punishment explain to him in depth for 6 hours why he's wrong. Do not neglect to explain to him the finer points of all the different GPU cores and innovations made to them in the last five years.


Exactly :) make him realize just how wrong they are.
 
Regarding VAIO computers, anyone remember their ads saying that they were "liquid cooled"? Us [H]'ers would naturally assume that by "liquid cooling", those computers must have some kind of water cooling setup with the reservoirs, blocks, and whatnot. But if I remember correctly the CPUs just had a heatsink with heatpipes that shared airflow with the PSU.
 
Wow the Sony was wayyy over priced... I was on AlienWare's sight and you can get a full blown system from them for only $3,400. With a 6800 GT/Ultra, a 64 3800+ and 1GB of PC4400 DDR.
 
Proxy said:
Wow the Sony was wayyy over priced... I was on AlienWare's sight and you can get a full blown system from them for only $3,400. With a 6800 GT/Ultra, a 64 3800+ and 1GB of PC4400 DDR.

^^^ lol, please tell me you are joking.

I went to a fry's and was taking a look at the fujitsu notebooks (the displays for those things are frickin' sweet). It had an x300 in it and, knowing it was very low end but never having one myself, i asked the guy what i can expect from it. He said it was equivalent to a 9800xt "thats what the 'x' stands for". I just sort of nodded :rolleyes:.
 
LOL Naka...


Yeah, the computer business is just waiting to prey on the ignorant.

My dad bought a Duron 750Mhz for $120 about 8 months ago. They said it was "the best money could buy." Salesmen can be real bastards sometimes...
 
Nakamori said:
^^^ lol, please tell me you are joking.

I went to a fry's and was taking a look at the fujitsu notebooks (the displays for those things are frickin' sweet). It had an x300 in it and, knowing it was very low end but never having one myself, i asked the guy what i can expect from it. He said it was equivalent to a 9800xt "thats what the 'x' stands for". I just sort of nodded :rolleyes:.
:D thats awesome
 
i was at circuit city helping a friend get a pc and stuff about 3 weeks ago
i asked a guy if he could help me pick a video card

at first he asked what games my friend wanted to play
i said battlefield 2
he points to a radeon 9550 and said that would play it fine....
i asked if there was anything better he shows me a nvidia fx5200 and a 6200
then i find a 6800 and i ask what about that one
he said its a little bit better than the 6200 cause it had 256 mb of ram
 
it happens every day...

its is funny when we the educated go in there like we are dumb and listen to their worthless recommendations
 
Having once worked for the almighty CompMex*... ahem... CompUSA, I can tell you that they hire morons... My favorite question to ask a CompUSA employee is "Did you get that extra chromosome from your mom or your dad?"

Anyhow... In all seriousness... I hated working at Comp cuz nobody knew a damned thing. One of my fellow Upgrade Department minions once sold a guy memory specifically designated by PNY as SDR DIMMs for a Mac G3 (I forget what made it specific, mainly because I try to block out horrible things such as Macs or I'll have nightmares) to a guy that needed SIMMs for an old Pentium. Mindblowingly SHTOOOOOPID!

What's REALLY sad is that most retailers will make their salespeople take certification tests on the manufacturer's websites (earning them a nifty pin or something) and yet they know NOTHING! I dunno where my Intel and AMD pins went... Hmmm...

And DNA... Where the heck did somebody actually find a Duron 750 to sell your dad???


* CompUSA is owned by a Mexican company called Groupos Sanborns that owns Sears Roebuck Mexico and MexTel, hence "CompMex."
 
GilmourD said:
Having once worked for the almighty CompMex*... ahem... CompUSA, I can tell you that they hire morons... My favorite question to ask a CompUSA employee is "Did you get that extra chromosome from your mom or your dad?"

Anyhow... In all seriousness... I hated working at Comp cuz nobody knew a damned thing. One of my fellow Upgrade Department minions once sold a guy memory specifically designated by PNY as SDR DIMMs for a Mac G3 (I forget what made it specific, mainly because I try to block out horrible things such as Macs or I'll have nightmares) to a guy that needed SIMMs for an old Pentium. Mindblowingly SHTOOOOOPID!

What's REALLY sad is that most retailers will make their salespeople take certification tests on the manufacturer's websites (earning them a nifty pin or something) and yet they know NOTHING! I dunno where my Intel and AMD pins went... Hmmm...

And DNA... Where the heck did somebody actually find a Duron 750 to sell your dad???


* CompUSA is owned by a Mexican company called Groupos Sanborns that owns Sears Roebuck Mexico and MexTel, hence "CompMex."

rofl..

what we really should do is go to frys or compusa pretending you are getting a computer. act like you dont know anything and then just post stories about your experience.
 
yea i currently work for cusa. let me put it this way im the only one that knows anything. i had someone sell DDR2 ram to someone when they needed ddr. it dumb when we have people selling the 9550 as a high end card. but its a 2way street. there are dumb customers out there. its funny when someone said he was a computer tech and he told me that the ati xpress200 intergrated graphics would power world of warcraft and that he wouldnt need an upgrade card. so it goes both ways.
 
skmanga said:
i was at circuit city helping a friend get a pc and stuff about 3 weeks ago
i asked a guy if he could help me pick a video card

at first he asked what games my friend wanted to play
i said battlefield 2
he points to a radeon 9550 and said that would play it fine....
i asked if there was anything better he shows me a nvidia fx5200 and a 6200
then i find a 6800 and i ask what about that one
he said its a little bit better than the 6200 cause it had 256 mb of ram
makes you just want to fucking SLAP them in the face, eh....

good god, do i ever hate those retarded "sales" "people" at like, future shop/best buy/*WALMART*SHUDDER*SHUDDER**OMG*BARF***/any other big store, or even a lot of the small ones
 
swatX said:
rofl..

what we really should do is go to frys or compusa pretending you are getting a computer. act like you dont know anything and then just post stories about your experience.
I've thought about it. Maybe get those geeky looking glasses with the camera hidden in them... Post video of their stupidity. I'd edit it of course to accentuate their nametags... ahem... I mean... Protect their identities. LOL

Even better... My best friend's ex-BF works for the Apple Store... I'd love to bust his chops, cuz he's a shmuck that made her buy an iBook... BLARG! I told her I'd build her an SFF, but he brainwashed her... And now she wants to set him on fire. LOL
 
Proxy said:
Wow the Sony was wayyy over priced... I was on AlienWare's sight and you can get a full blown system from them for only $3,400. With a 6800 GT/Ultra, a 64 3800+ and 1GB of PC4400 DDR.

yeah ok that full system costs like $1000 to make.
 
I challenged one of the people in the Geek squad at best buy. seems that even the geek squad people aren't even that smart. some of them probably passed their tests by chance because damn he tried to sell my sister a piece of shart HP and he said that the intergrated graphics were top of the line and he says it like this "these intergrated graphics are top of the line in graphics processing. it will be able to run all the latest games and software, and without any lag." I look on the back of the PC and BAM COLD X I tell him "well, this doesn't have integrated graphics buddy, and it only has 256Megs of RAM, and you're telling me she can run Doom 3 on this thing? I'm sorry but no, I think you're BSing my sister here." (even IF you turn down quality on everything, it will still freakin' lag.) I go check through device manager and everything, it had a 32MB video card. I think this guy was only trying to make a sale. so he BS'd my sister. she is lucky I came to the back of the store to meet with her.

I think stores are always trying to rip you off and the salesmen have no idea whats going on cause these days they'll hire rednecks even.

now there was another time I was at BestBuy with my friend and we were observing one of these geek squad guys messing with a customer's PC, and the customers were standing there impatiently waiting on him. He was trying to install a video card. I'm thinking this guy probably faked his A+. he stood there for a while rebooting the PC over and over keeps on switching the monitor cable, looking through device manager probably wondering why nothings working. what gets worse for this guy is that the store manager is standing there trying to help. the customers are looking a bit PO'd cause they have been there for a while. I went and paid for my stuff and on the wayt out I walk up to him and say:"hey, you need to disable onboard and switch to AGP." and what happens next is unbelieveable. OMFG he asks me "how? in device manager?" my friend and I were ROFLing at this guy. I can't believe they hired someone into the geek squad that can't even do this sort of thing. I say "no, you have to go into the BIOS and do it." I walk out and I bet that manager is prolly going to /ban his ass cause he did not seem to know what he was doing.
 
Kaiga said:
I think stores are always trying to rip you off and the salesmen have no idea whats going on cause these days they'll hire rednecks even.

I'm insulted. Kind of.

I'm a salesman for a lesser-known computer store. I know a thing or two about the workings of a computer, heh.
When I deal with customers, the first thing I do is qualify. I determine what they want to do with the system, and recommend the choices suited for it. Internet and word processing? The $350 Sempron or Celeron system. Gaming? The $999 AMD64 system. Light gaming? A 6600GT or 6200, after finding out what games they play. I totally understand where you're coming from, since yes, most "computer stores" tend to have less than knowledgable employees. But there are plenty of places where the salesmen are actually given incentive to know their shit and get the right product for the customer's need. At Best Buy, they make so much money on the side that they can afford to do thing half-assed on the computer side of things (and they do, for sure.)
 
Yes yes all of you are super genius techies and will have a bright future as salesmen at CUSA, BB and Circuit CIty.
 
5150Joker said:
Yes yes all of you are super genius techies and will have a bright future as salesmen at CUSA, BB and Circuit CIty.

For sure!

Tech salesmen is what is going to get me through college. No way will I make a career out of it. I enjoy it but, I don't enjoy it enough to do it for 40 years.
 
GilmourD said:
And DNA... Where the heck did somebody actually find a Duron 750 to sell your dad???

Pff..hell if I know.

"So what all did you get, dad?"
"Well, I got Duron processor - 750 Mega...something-er-other...." *dad's impressed-with-himself look*
"A Duron 750....you're sure.."
"Yeah! He said it was the best processor out there."
"Did you happen to buy it at a museum?"
 
Kaiga said:
I challenged one of the people in the Geek squad at best buy. seems that even the geek squad people aren't even that smart.

[Sniped to shorten the quote to a manageable size]

I walk out and I bet that manager is prolly going to /ban his ass cause he did not seem to know what he was doing.
Man, I’m so going to apply for a job on the geek squad, I might actually be able to help someone :p
 
Happaned to one of my friends. He was upgrading his Sony viao and asked the salesperson what would be the graphics card that could play games at the day(UT2003 was god back then). The salesperson walked around and did some things and then finally told him that the FX5200U was god of all and that it could play all games. There was also a 9700Pro right next to it...but apparently he likes the defective FX series.
 
DNA Doc said:
Pff..hell if I know.

"So what all did you get, dad?"
"Well, I got Duron processor - 750 Mega...something-er-other...." *dad's impressed-with-himself look*
"A Duron 750....you're sure.."
"Yeah! He said it was the best processor out there."
"Did you happen to buy it at a museum?"
LOL Nice. If that was brand new... God, the dust that must've been caked onto the PIB packaging...
 
Fuck. That is funny.

We have a computer store here in my city (more like a big town), and they don't know jack shit. I asked him for an 80gb SATA hard drive and he said, "Ok, lemme look." he comes back with an IDE hard drive and tried to sell me it. So I said "Nope, thats an IDE, SATA has the cool looking plug in on the back." and he says "Oooh, those ones, ok." so he got it right the second time.

That, and they tried to sell me a system for $3000 that had a 9600 in it. When in reality, back in that time, it was worth $1800. So I owned them. Found a better deal, took it, don't regret it one bit. Also got myself a 9800 XT cheaper then what they wanted to sell me a 9600 regular for.

Also, the Staples in our place doesn't post very good specs on their laptops. They don't say anything about the processor (speed, type), they don't mention anything about its video card. They should really work on their marketing skills.
 
robberbaron said:
I'm insulted. Kind of.

I'm a salesman for a lesser-known computer store. I know a thing or two about the workings of a computer, heh.
When I deal with customers, the first thing I do is qualify. I determine what they want to do with the system, and recommend the choices suited for it. Internet and word processing? The $350 Sempron or Celeron system. Gaming? The $999 AMD64 system. Light gaming? A 6600GT or 6200, after finding out what games they play. I totally understand where you're coming from, since yes, most "computer stores" tend to have less than knowledgable employees. But there are plenty of places where the salesmen are actually given incentive to know their shit and get the right product for the customer's need. At Best Buy, they make so much money on the side that they can afford to do thing half-assed on the computer side of things (and they do, for sure.)


I have to agree here. Don't lump all sales people into a stereo typical package.You are more than likely dealing with somenone who simply has no knowledge.

I have built a successfull sales career and business by determining what my customers' needs are and then offering choices to meet those needs. Offering a choice fullfills a fundamental need that everyone has and avoides resentment on the part of the customer.

Determining your customers needs(qualifying) is essential to providing a product that wont be returned a short time later (costs money) and assures that you have a customer who is not only satisfied but , if you have done you job correctly, had become one of you fans and will bring others to you.

A happy customer statistically will tell 7 people. One angry customer will tell 40 people.If you do the math, ripping people off while generating exstra short term profit will result in a long term failure of you as a sales person or the owner of you establishment.

You job is to create fans, even if it cost you money on occassion.

Oh and by the way, I am retarded and could probably buy and sell you 5 times over so easy on the labels

Ps: I have to be retarded to spend the kind of money I do just to make an over glorified calculator into a gaming machine
Just my .02
 
My third friend went to a computer surplus spot and just bought bfg 6200 256 oc for 399 canadian.

That made me cringe :|
 
Ya Circuit city has NO tech departmant and my friend bought a 6800GT card from them and put his Older Nvidia 4600 card in the box and returned it to a 17 year old girl at the returns departmant, now if a store has someone in the return department thats more concerned with her lip gloss then what a customer actually brings intop a store it serves the store right for getting screwed in my eyes. You get what you pay for and the average consumer will do research on what they plan on purchasing.
 
Marcdaddy said:
Ya Circuit city has NO tech departmant and my friend bought a 6800GT card from them and put his Older Nvidia 4600 card in the box and returned it to a 17 year old girl at the returns departmant, now if a store has someone in the return department thats more concerned with her lip gloss then what a customer actually brings intop a store it serves the store right for getting screwed in my eyes. You get what you pay for and the average consumer will do research on what they plan on purchasing.

Somoe one else's stupidity is no justification for theft. Your friend is a thief. You cannot rationalize it. Its that kind of thing that keeps prices up and wages low.
 
Hopefully I will have a Geek squad job soon at Best Buy (I need the money) and I can try to
convince customers that the GeForce MX 4000 and the FX 5500 OC are not "awesome" by
any means.
 
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