Mummelmann said:
1: I bought mine from Komplett, the Scandinavian Amazon in many ways (only miles better on customer service and warranties, been buying all my PC gear there for 12-13 years now). Not only are they auhorized dealers of all the biggest brands, they even have their own warranties that go beyond the manufacturer's in many cases. I bought a Sony TV.
2: Yes, I went to a store and checked out the TV. The people who work there are clueless, they know nothing about tech besides what their manager taught them, they talk shit about owning every item they show to customers, they try to sell useless insurances that are borderline fraud (big deal here in Scandinavia, its been debated for years now) and whose "coverage" is already included in the purchasing and consumer laws of the country. What's scummy to me is charging a huge premium on the same product and pairing it with staff who have little to no knowledge of what they're peddling, and then trying to scam the simpler minded consumers into buying worthless insurance that goes right in the pocket of the business in question.
"People like me" will always be around, if the store can't manage to make decent offers for potential customers, they'll lose them, that's the same in all business. If I couldn't go to a mass market store like Media Markt any more, I'd just go to an enthusiast store, they have the knowledge and give proper demo's of the products and they give actual advice, they also sometimes offer incentives for owners of certain brands when they trade in etc.
Bonus point 3: The elecronics stores here are bastards; when they get a new product or product line, they have already negotiated with the manufacturer and gotten permission to change the model names, each store chain will assign a unique model name to the same product. For instance, if you get a TV, a Sony KDS658505, one chain might call it a KDSB658505S, another perhaps KDBS6585055, this is completely legal and it makes price comparisons more or less impossible, to trick the consumer into paying more than it's worth or keep them from going to a cheaper competitor. Washing machines, hairdryers, fridges and freezers and a bunch of other products are the same thing, it's a disgusting practice and a really, really good argument, paired with the worthless insurances, to not give these stores credit.
Besides, the bottom lines these stores are showing aren't exactly looking grim, so "people like me" probably won't kill them any time soon (and, no, don't compare it to gaming piracy, which I don't do, in that case I would never actually buy the product, it'll be like saying piracy harms Gamestop instead of developers, for instance, and I do actually buy a product in this case). You have principles as an AV manager, that's fine, but I have principles as a consumer and I value them just as highly. Maybe your store is fantastic, has great staff with actual interest and knowledge on the products they sell and you don't sell fraud insurances and cheat with model names, if so; kudos and good luck.
Bonus question? Do you sometimes buy certain gorcieres in other stores because they're cheaper? I hope not, you're ruining the stores if that's the case.
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