Do all salespeople lie

[Littlenikki]

I was in "Worst" Buy the other day. I was as the counter waiting to ask where something was. Their was a middle aged couple their being "helped", and I couldn't help but overhear the saleman telling them that they needed too buy a battery backup because it had a built in surge protector. He said they should buy this because the normal surge protectors only lasted a year or so and if they had too buy 5 of them they might as well buy this, it would cost the same in the long run. I was fumed. I coulbn't my self. I laughed and told the couple he was full of it and that I had never heard of such a thing. I've since looked around online and reread the box with my protecter and its got nothing mentioning a life span. So let your occational user peeps know to double check anything these retail outlets tell them, and not too buy anything without some research.

 

[Zoltar]

Do all salespeople lie

Yes.

 

[BadMuleS]

welcome to tha real world.. enjoy...

 

[kranky]

No doubt they lie sometimes, but in this case he was only exaggerating. The cheap surge protectors sold in places like that do wear out over time. That's because the metal-oxide varistors that are absorbing the surges lose effectiveness every time they take a surge. If the surge protector doesn't have an indicating light that tells you it's still effective, you don't know when the MOVs have ceased to function.

 

[Littlenikki]

Thx kranky I did not know that.

 

[DefRef]

Whenever I hear some weasel pushing something in a dishonest manner, I usually mosey up and break in mentioning other CHEAPER alternatives at other places. They hate me for that, but a lot of people look relieved.

 

[TonyG]

I have told several different people that the salespeople were wrong in about things in the past.

 

[fir3wir3]

I used to work at beast buy... you're basically told what to sell w/ computers...battery backups are one of the things...I never bothered...

hated that place heh

 

[StageLeft]

The greatest number of lies in a concentrated area in the world are those thrown out by the moron salespeople at futureshop (kinda like frys I guess down in the states). You go to the computer section and the last thing you should ask them is what sort of computer to buy because they make stuff up on the fly and people with no knowledge by into it.

 

[BigSmooth]

They used to have Future Shop in the US but it went out of business.
Their cell phone salesmen were complete lying morons. They ONLY pushed the phones/plans that got them the most commission - it didn't matter what the customer needed.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Not all sales people lie. Many that deal in high volume sales rely on honesty and look after the customer's intrest because high volume customers tend to be repeat high volume customers.

Most of the smaller ones are guys who don't really care about the customer because they will probably never see the guy again.

 

[Windogg]

Yes, nuff said.

 

[apoppin]

No, certainly not.

However, let's rephrase the topic to: "Do all people lie?"

Again, "No" but I'd be willing to bet most do (in many circumstances).

When a person's income is involved, many are willing to stretch the truth or exaggerate just to make that sale. Of course, the salesperson may not really know the correct answer and may just repeat something he heard.

It's always up to the buyer to beware - to realize the tendency for the salesperson to warp the truth is always there and to do research. Of course, bold, outright lies are not appreciated (usually) by the salesperson's employer (and may get him fired).

 

[Webbed]

I don't think they lie on purpose but they lie to hide their ignorance of the subject.

 

[Wingznut]

If they work on commission, then they lie. But lots of times, the stores just don't train their salespeople well, and the salesmen are just naive or misinformed.

 

[Shudder]

I was in Worst Buy sometime ago and one of the drones was trying to pump up Windows ME. I told him I already used Windows 2000 and I wouldn't want to regress. He started to say how it was better and I simply said "You are wrong." He was shocked, because he's a best buy employee, he must be right. After a few more moronic comments I just said again "Look, you are wrong. I have been running 2k for months and there's no way a 9x based OS will even come close to as good."

God, there's plenty more times I shoot them down, but I don't know if I do it in front of other customers or not. I should.

 

[Aceman]

Do all sales people lie? No. Most will, though. They are the poor ones, the untrained, the jackasses, that even I as a parttime salesman for Best Buy love to mess with. They'll tell you anything they are told by their supervisors or management because they think it will help their future with the company. It won't 9 out of 10 times. I love laughing at my own Dept Supv who doesn't even own a computer. The lines are comical. I am disliked by him because I don't BS a customer to buy something just to get my numbers up. I could if I wanted to. It's easier to just tell them the truth, let them think I'm on a commission, and sell them the barebones crap that they came in for only to see them next year when they tell me the computer they bought was crap.

 

[bigd480]

i once heard a circuit city guy tell a couple that they needed to buy a virus scanner because virii were everywhere and he even got one off his AOL CD.... lol

 

[bigbootydaddy]

used to work at sears....lets just say everyone in our neighborhood had new water heaters and garage openers all the time.

management seem real nice when customer is in store, but behind doors, they say whatever it takes. frankly if you need to ask and dont do your homework before you turn over money for goods, then you deserve to be ripped off because youre not caring where you place your hard earned cash. i guess im ranting bc people dont care about how much they half ass things.

 

[samarth]

Do all salespeople lie?
If they are on comission, then yes.
Otherwise, they dont care if you buy stuff or not.

 

[MrAnderson]

Here is the scoop on Best Buy:

They expect their salespeople to sell like they are on commission but they don't pay them to sell that way. You have a 50/50 chance when you walk into any Best Buy of getting a knowledgeable salesperson that will tell you what you need straight up, no BS. But these are the people that are going to school to further their computer career or they just work there to do something. The other half are just robots that follow what the management tells them SELL ACCESSORIES...SELL SERVICE PLANS. They may be lying but these are the things management is telling them to say so they can sell more product.

I used to be in management at Best Buy overlooking the computer department and the people I hired were not the ones that followed what others told them but they actually knew themselves about the good, bad and ugly products through their experience. Needless to say my boss didn't like the way I handled things (even though I had some of the highest customer approval ratings in all the Best Buy's nation-wide) they gave me the pitches of "I wasn't selling enough of this, and why are your workers telling people that".

Any new computer (or other products) buyers should be very wary if they walk into Best Buy to find a deal, you most likely will come out with more than you bargained for!

Caveat Emptor!

 

[qacwac]

I work at Sears (atleast for one more week, I put in my notice last week) and I and a couple of others were honest with the customers. Much of the dishonesty that I and others unintentionally participated in was due to either lies told us or lack of information from the top. That's part of the reason I'm leaving. They want me to push what I don't think is in the customer's best interest.

So to answer the question, Yes, just about every salesperson lies but there are some, (such as myself and friend) who only lied when we didn't know we were. There are still a few like that.

 

[DefRef]

I love when clerks try to talk chit about stuff that I know TONS about, like video cards. I was in a EB a couple of years back and this mook tried to tell me something about TNT2U cards that was WRONG! He was casually tossing off "info" like he knew what he was talking about and I'm sure that less-informed peeps would've fallen for it.