Do you try to help people in computer stores?

[-ism]

Today my friend CJ and I went to Frys to buy a USB3 cable for an external hard drive, and well, there was this couple building a PC. They were being rather dumb, like buying a fan for EVERY slot in their case. Anyways, I asked the man if he was building a PC and he said yeah, but with a rude tone and essentially gave me the cold shoulder. This may be due to the fact that I am only 17, but who knows. 

 

Anyways, do you guys ever go out of your way to help the people making silly purchasing decisions at electronics stores? I feel so bad everytime I see some poor sap wasting their money...

[AlwaysFSX]

I tried once, but the person wanted to buy a prebuilt and get a "better" gpu and opted for the prebuilt and a GTX 210. I gave up at that point.

[TheMonsterMan8]

I try, but when most people see that I'm 13 (it's hard to tell from the back, I'm fairly tall.) they tell me to go away and stop interfering in something I don't know anything about.

[Vader]

I try. I really do. Some people ask my opinion on things, and proceed to do what i said wouldnt be a good idea, like spend $60 on an optical drive to only install windows. Or get a non K series processor paired with a h100i. 

[SAV1OUR]

i dont like talking to "people" their strange things.....

[-ism]

Today at Frys they had an 1800$ built-by-them PC and it only had a 660 ti yet it had 4th gen i7. The cable management was pretty nice though.

 

They also a had a "Gaming PC" for 1200$ with a GTX 640. 

 

I feel so sorry for all the poor people who even THINK about buying these horrid systems.

[IDprofile]

I hate going to computer stores because they never know what they are talking about and are extremely rude.

[DeViLzzz]

I got banned from Future Shop for doing that.  I just got unbanned and can go back into the store but can't speak to any customers including people I am with.  No joke.

[Joshua Ondangan]

I do too whenever I see someone most of the time. but hey 90% of the people reject my opinion.

[IDprofile]

I once went to my local shop and the guy working there told me that microsft has never made a 3 pack version of windows and would not believe me.

Later I went to a different shop asking if they had a certain psu cable extension and they argued with me saying that I didn't need it.

 

Bottom line, I won't go into another PC shop unless it's just for kicks or to apply for a part time job.

 

-Edit: Also the first shop I was talking about, said that they don't get a discount from their retailer for being a frequent buyer as a computer shop. I call bull.

 

But anyways on subject. No I don't try to help people at shops. It's their own problem.

[joelthezombie15]

I have made best buy loose some much money. whenever people go to look at the 80"+ TV's i tell them that they will get a better picture due to smaller tv's having a higher pixel density and always talk them into getting 40" tv's and the such. I also tell people to not get the rocketfish cables and things like that. 

[old reece frost]

The only computer store I go to is Scan, so people know their shit there :3

[Hoppa]

If people are asking for help and can't get help from staff I'd help out. But usually I like people to learn the hard way

[Kamina]

I don't bother because it's not my job to do so. And if it's a place like Bestbuy, they don't help their customers to save money, they sell them products as a part of their incentives to profit.

[Darth Vader]

If I am near by I might tell them something like, "you might want to consider [option X] instead of [option Y] since it's probably better for you." That's as far I go since many people might find it to be rude being bothered by other shoppers. If they want to hear more of my opinion and ask for help, then if I got time I would help them out.

[beebskadoo]

I work at best buy.

It's my job

[Joshua Ondangan]

It's good to help people specially those un tech savy ones. they give you a big laugh to their mistakes. .

 

like this one for example.

 

some dude asking about a video card, seller ask how big 1gb 2gb 3gb. buyer knows jack shit says 2gb should be fine. seller then offers those gt630 something like that and say it has 2gb and it's cheaper than most gb and you can play on it. I asked the buyer what is his budget and he told me around 220$ (us converted) then I asked does it have to be nvidia? or he doesn't mind looking at amd alternatives. he said amd should be good too. told him the R270 it is better both in specs and architechture higher in price too. then the seller just told him to grab 2 of those gt630 which gives better performance (I don't have gt630 but I believe it's junk) so the dude did buy 2 of them. next day later he comes back wanted to exchange to what I told him (I hang out in the store a lot). too bad they don't let people exchange. since most shop here has this thing where you can buy whatever you want and you have to make sure it's compatible with your system. there is no exchange for the buyers remorse.

 

so it's like go buy x2 gtx titan then later found out your board is a socket for athlon x64 and you don't have enouch space. go return and shop decline return since it's not their mistake you buy crap you can't fit.

[Goldilock]

why bother? seriously you need to stop giving help unless you are asked.  

[FloRolf]

there are no real computer stores here in germany, so no, i dont do that. But i do it here on the forums and for friends

[Darth Vader]

I have made best buy loose some much money. whenever people go to look at the 80"+ TV's i tell them that they will get a better picture due to smaller tv's having a higher pixel density and always talk them into getting 40" tv's and the such. I also tell people to not get the rocketfish cables and things like that. 

 

Rocketfish cables themselves are actually pretty good. I got one 2 years ago from FutureShop http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/rocketfish-rocketfish-3-7m-12-ft-hdmi-cable-rf-g1169-rf-g1169/10170584.aspx?path=809fa1c70cf94a80a0496e2445825350en02 and I use it to this day when I need to hock up my laptop to my TV.

 

The cable itself is great as I said, but the price is of course bullshit. Same goes with pretty any sort of cable you buy from any sort of retailer. Now up there it's listed for $60; it was $75 back then, but a friend of mine works there and got me the cable for $15 because employees over there got the products at a price near it's actual value... 15 goddamn dollars

 

Now that's a testament to how much retailers rip people off on the sort of things. Later on I found out about http://www.monoprice.com/ and that's where I get my cables nowadays, but the RocketFish cable is still working great.

[mikeangeles 75]

I saw a boy with an adult buying a 3570K and a Z87 board, good thing the salesman knows his stuff before I could jump in and stop a disaster.

[beebskadoo]

I have made best buy loose some much money. whenever people go to look at the 80"+ TV's i tell them that they will get a better picture due to smaller tv's having a higher pixel density and always talk them into getting 40" tv's and the such. I also tell people to not get the rocketfish cables and things like that. 

You have to understand that a lot of people actually want a larger TV for legitimate reasons. Old people and people with large living rooms.

Nothing wrong with rocketfish products either, yeah they are overpriced but it's on par with what you pay for at any other big box store.

[WereCat]

I got banned from Future Shop for doing that.  I just got unbanned and can go back into the store but can't speak to any customers including people I am with.  No joke.

You should go there over VPN or with big blue shield that carry words Hotspot just to mock them.

 

On topic, I buy almost every single PC component over internet just because it is a lot more expensive in stores. Also my city is really small and got only 4 PC stores and 2 of them are like empty cave with stuff from midle ages.

[nukem]

I used to work at a computer store, and i gotta say most people.. id say 80% would take my advice/recommendations.. another 10% would be knowledgeable and know exactly what they want... the other 10% were just full retard.

 

theese days i gotta say im pretty tempted to butt in and try and help people who are unsure, or are being persuaded by a dumb sales person, but i tend to keep to myself, because most of the time they are going to listen to the person who actually works at the store...

[Blecter]

I've given my opinion twice to people. Once concerning headsets (the guy was looking at a cheaper one, then I recommended the SteelSeries Siberia V2 due to my experience with it over the last 2 years), and the other time was concerning a CPU heatsink.

 

Other than that though I keep to myself. The local store is pretty knowledgeable and I try to buy from them (Memory Express here in Canada) - prices are good (and there's discounts to be had!), or I go online to NCIX.
 

Usually when I'm in a computer store I'm helping a buddy anyways, so I guess that counts too!