Something Stinks

Blatant Deception, or Uninformed Salesperson?

The man told me that he was with his wife at the time, and once they had been given the total for the upgrade, she suggested that maybe they should just buy a new Gateway or something similar instead of spending so much on the upgrade. Now if this had been me that they were speaking to, I would have been inclined to agree with them, mainly because such a choice would have suited their needs.

From what I got out of this, it sounded very much to me as if this salesperson they spoke to, either had no idea what the heck he was talking about, or was concerned only with nailing the sale, ignoring what was best for the customer.

For this couple, a Gateway may have very well suited their needs, and it would have been in that customer's best interest if the salesperson had suggested they look into that before making a decision instead of forcing the sale right away.

Foreseeable Issues

As the story goes, I believe that the salesman went into what I call "Frenzy Pitch" Mode at this point. This is where the salesman starts to make believable, but untrue claims. At least, they can be believable to a layman user.

He was promised a new CD-ROM Drive, an (to me) unreasonable amount of in-house tech support, and wild claims that Gateway is near bankruptcy (totally untrue and unfounded), because their lousy tech support is driving away customers. The salesman also spouted vague claims that his "upgraded" computer would perform as well as a top of the line system for a fraction of the cost.

If I was in this customer's place, I would have thanked the salesman for his time and left. I still find it very hard to believe how folks allow themselves to be duped by unreasonable claims, because I would think that it's a very well known fact: " If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is". Then again, the average child is probably more computer literate than the average adult.

The simple reason that this particular gentleman bought the upgrade is because he was an uninformed buyer that had nothing but price information to base his decision on. All too often, people allow themselves to be blinded to the greater needs because of that "Great" price. Instead, of turning around and walking out until he had more facts, he decided to allow them to upgrade the computer.