Went into Richer sounds today to have a look at their various mini hi-fi’s and asked about the one i wanted but the salesman seemed to want to steer me to another, almost as though it was the last in the country and he wanted it. I was even beginning to believe him until i walked out.
Very odd. Did some research and it seems the one he wanted to sell me is a bit of a melon according to various reviews.
Why do they do that?

Because they will have incentives to move certain items.

Because they need to shift the stock to people who have not done much research.

Some of the brands if memory serves me right are owned by Richer Sounds. When i got my TDL floorstanders from there, I auditioned them and some Morduant Short MS25’s. I think MS had been bought out by Richer Sounds at that point.
I didn’t like them as much as the TDL’s, but the bloke was almost refusing to sell me them, trying to persuade me that the Mordaunt Shorts were better…..

Guess they get a bigger commission on them or something.

Commission. Used to work alongside their MD, they own a lot of the brands they sell and get most commission on those brands, e.g. cambridge audio.

I auditioned them

You did what with some speakers?

You did what with some speakers?

Technical term, you wouldn’t understand… 😉

A mate of mine works for richer Sounds.

At first he was a bit upset at other sales staff steering customers away from products they came in to buy to other products that my mate knew carried more commission, especially if the product they sold wasn’t as good as the one the customer originally wanted,

He said he’d never do that. Well he stuck to his guns until he saw the amount of commission he got compared to the other staff later that week.

Their wages aren’t high in richer sounds and heir wage is made up by commission. They will try to sell you stuff that they earn more commission on if they think they can.

I avoid the place as I’m not even sure my mate wouldn’t try that one on me.

To be fair, there is a possibility that he’s taken the time to listen to the systems, and decided it’s the best one. There is a also a lot of vested interests in the hifi mags.

This only reinforces the fact that if you want to make the best choice, there is no substitute for taking the time to listen yourself, and not rely on magazines or the internet for opinions.

I kind of avoid richer sounds now , bought our TV from them salesman was adamant that I need to spend 10% of price of a new TV on an HDMI lead or it wouldn’t be worth watched ng blu rays on it….

Richer Sounds put RRP price on Cambridge Audio stuff and then sell at 50% off.

They own and sell cambridge audio exclusively.

You did what with some speakers?

Technical term, you wouldn’t understand…

Pretty sure people shopping in Richer Sounds just listen to speakers…

Trouble is all sorts of salesmen do this, as consumers we need to be aware – maybe we are more likely to expect it from used car salesmen?

Hmmm I know people do trust the salesmen’s advice though, e.g. my Dad bought my Mum a £200 camera based solely on what the salesmen said was best which is inexcusable as we have access to so much user feedback on the interweb.

I’ve only had good experiences from Richer Sounds. Competitive pricing and never tried to persuade me to buy a different model from the one I went in for. I’ve actually had a salesman tell me not to buy something because I didn’t need it. Buying a TV with a sound bar and he said “I have that TV in another size, the speakers are as good as the sound bar so try it without and then come back if you aren’t happy”

Thanks all. Just to clarify I had done some research and knew what I wanted but was simply annoyed by the adverse selling technique.

Ha ha, I did wonder if throwing the term audition in would cause a bit of a hoo ha!

fourbanger – Member

Pretty sure people shopping in Richer Sounds just listen to speakers..

So if I’d have erm, auditioned listened to the same speakers in a poncy independent hi-fi shop with someone looking down there nose at me because I wasn’t spending £3k….would I have been auditioning them or just listening to them…?
Nothing like a bit of hi-fi snobbery…

You’d have still listened to them no matter where you were shopping.

You can dress it up in whatever lardy da words you want. Its still listening to music.

There is a also a lot of vested interests in the hifi mags.

They are uniformly crap. They have advertising space to sell. The only magazines whose reviews I ever trusted were Sound on Sound (though that’s mainly professional kit) and Gramophone (which sadly went downhill when they drafted in the “usual” hi-fi zealots to do the reviews).

Glad I’m out of it really, bought my 2nd hand Naim kit with Kef speakers years ago and happy to stick with that.

You can listen to some one singing speakers

But if you are choosing some one to sing for you speakers to buy then you listen to each of them sing play and choose the one you like. This is called an audition

FTFY.

DaveyBoyWonder – Member
You’d have still listened to them no matter where you were shopping.

You can dress it up in whatever lardy da words you want. Its still listening to music.

😀

To me, auditioning infers some kind of decision making process at the end of it…..

Certain products/industries seem to end up using certain words, however twee/laa di da or otherwise they end up being in your opinion.

……come to the bike DEMO day, sounds more appropriate than….come to the BIKE RIDING day, even though at the end of the day all you are doing is riding bikes…..(but potentially making a decision at the end of it, as to which of the demo’d bikes you prefer….)

Is ‘demoing speakers’ more acceptable? Or is that also a bit lardy da??

I love Richer Sounds but like in any product area I take what the salesman says with a pinch of salt. Would you also listen/take the advice of a car salesman? Or listen/investigate/decide yourself?

I’d hate to see what happens if you walk into a mobile phone shop….

Hot item/top product our customers ordered/deals of the week etc etc- always scream of WE ORDERED TOO MUCH AND ITS SAT IN THE WAREHOUSE.

My son broke my 6month old LCD TV. Richer Sounds owed me nothing but they offered to take £100 off another TV that I took from them. That sort of customer service keeps my business.

DaveyBoyWonder – Member
You’d have still listened to them no matter where you were shopping.
You can dress it up in whatever lardy da words you want. Its still listening to music.

Oh dear. When I tested out that bike the other week I was really just riding it!
Or that new pint they had on at the bush I asked to try…… What a poncey **** I sounded…. I was just going to drink it.

To me, auditioning infers some kind of decision making process at the end of it…..

The decision being, “shall I buy these or not?” n’est-ce pas?

^^^yeah. Exactly.

Would never have happened in John Lewis.

😀

My dad was talked out of buying the ultraburner I had already chosen and into the grifter xl I ended up with.
Why dad why? I cried. The sales man told him it was stronger more robust therefore harder for me to break.

Never trust a salesman , the clue is in the name.
Bastards, the lot of them .

I tend to support my local hi-fi/electronics guys.

They’re generally up for negotiation and don’t own their brands so they can’t monkey about with SRP’s to make it look like they’re offering amazing discounts like Richer Sounds can with Cambridge Audio (Or Halfords with Carrera/Apollo for that matter).

More importantly if there’s a problem I can unplug my item, drive down there and have a word, last time I had an issue with some posh Ear buds I bought from them they just pulled another set off the shelf and sorted me out on the spot, can’t do that with Amazon.

My dad was talked out of buying the ultraburner I had already chosen and into the grifter xl I ended up with.
Why dad why? I cried. The sales man told him it was stronger more robust therefore harder for me to break.

Never trust a salesman , the clue is in the name.
Bastards, the lot of them .

me too! I wanted a BMX, my mum knew I wanted a BMX, all my mates were getting BMXs

ended up with a Grifter – more comfortable saddle apparantly 😥

My dad was talked out of buying the ultraburner I had already chosen and into the grifter xl I ended up with.
Why dad why? I cried. The sales man told him it was stronger more robust therefore harder for me to break.

Never trust a salesman , the clue is in the name.
Bastards, the lot of them .

I’ve been in bikeshops a few times and heard some right shit sprouted by salesmen to buyers.

The best one I came across was when a Salesman was selling tyres to a kid for his Peugeot 205 1.9 GTI (Remember them? Absolute death-traps at the best of times).

He sold him remoulds with an N rating (Intended for Mexican donkey carts I thought).

Totally shameless

me too! I wanted a BMX, my mum knew I wanted a BMX, all my mates were getting BMXs

ended up with a Grifter – more comfortable saddle apparantly

Thank your lucky stars! I ended up with a Dawes Kingpin (ladies shopper).
Still went mountain biking on it tho 🙂

another grifter owner, for pretty much the same reason as above.

only ever used the Richer Sounds store in Amsterdam. There were 4 of us that pretty much went there with a pool car with diplomatic plates*, a shopping list, and said we want one of them, one of them, a pair of them, …

they complied, with the exception that I ended up with a Paradigm sub instead of whatever I’d ordered, and one interconnect was shyte (RCA is a shyte standard anyway, but this was one where the pin bit seemed to be 5% narrower than anything else in existence).

PC world is the one that annoys me. Friend got evicted from there for correcting a salesman that was giving out blatantly false information. Do PC world staff get commission on Windows licences?

(* handy for illegal parking right outside the door on a street that was a pita to park on)