Currys Sandstrom cables rip-off

MarkBargain

MarkBargain wrote: »

Would it be legal if a salesman said of an £89.99 HDMI cable: "The gold plated connectors give less distortion, so you can enjoy the purest images"?

Thanks for the responses to this. The reason I asked the question is that these are the words used on the Currys website.

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-dvd-blu-ray/tv-accessories/cables-accessories/belkin-pro-hd4000-hdmi-cable-2m-14134698-pdt.html?sPageInfo=4_20&sSortInfo=price-asc

prowla

Azari wrote: »

"The gold plated connectors give less distortion, so you can enjoy the purest images"

Well, if we are going to be that pedantic - and pedantry is something of which I wholeheartedly approve - the salesman would need to change the word 'so' in the above to 'and', otherwise he is implying that enjoying the purest images is dependent on the gold connectors whereas, as you correctly point out, it isn't.

Going more pedantic on the wordology, you could interpret that to say that it doesn't detract from the performance (especially with the placement of the comma) and so you can indeed enjoy the purest...

And of course, if you don't define what they give less distortion than, that's open-ended, though logic would imply that the context suggests another HDMI specified cable.

Sometimes using an ambiguous statement will allow the buyer to hear what they want...

Me, I would be asking the assistant precisely what they meant by that.

FrillyTilly

£70! I paid £9.99 and I thought that was overpriced!

esuhl

Don't listen to the naysayers! Their eyes and ears obviously aren't refined enough to know quality when they see it! Of course you want the most expensive HDMI cable you can afford!

BUT! Did you know you might be feeding your devices on dirty electricity?! It's scandalous, but that fancy HDMI cable won't make any difference without the right power cable. I can do you a good deal on the Odin Supreme Reference Power Cord.

The cables use proprietary Nordost technologies, including its patented Dual Mono-Filament technology, used in both the Odin interconnect and loudspeaker cables, and its latest TSC (Total Signal Control technology) to significantly advance the audio performance AC wiring.

Six close tolerance 16AWG, 99.99999% oxygen free copper conductors, each covered by an 85 micron layer of extruded silver, are suspended in a dual micro mono-filament matrix and enclosed in the TSC shield.


This gives a new level of power transmission efficiency coupled to superb mechanical damping and rejection of external RFI/EM interference.

http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2011/nov/power-cable.cfm


Impressed? You won't believe this, but it's only a touch more than £20,000! Bargain! I bought one for my fridge, and the dreary hum of the motor became the gentle singing of a thousand angels! The tonal viscosity of my mayonnaise has increased tenfold, and the fidelity of my chilled meats is exquisite.


I'm so glad that the miles-upon-miles of cheap, dirty, unshielded National Grid cable don't affect performance. You just need a fancy cable for that last metre.

esuhl

I've also got some nice USB cables -- $9000 for a metre-length or just over $15,000 for 2m:
http://www.thecableco.com/Product/Crystal-USB-Absolute-Dream#

I mean... No one would pay that kind of money unless they actually worked. No one would be that daft. So you can be sure that they really will make a difference! I accept credit card...

tma1102

From the point of view of a Currys sales rep, most of us know that expensive cables give no tangible advantage but we have to sell them because we're targeted to sell Sandstrom cables with a certain percentage of our TVs and other AV products, just like we're targeted to sell TV stands/brackets, the Knowhow Care Plans, antivirus, cloud backup, setup services and mobile broadband. It doesn't matter two cents to the store which product you get, only what addons you get with it. We're not on commission by any stretch of the imagination, we just have to sell them or else we get put on Capability and eventually fired.

Of course it's not fun, but it's only a Saturday job for me. Don't blame the salesman next time he tries to hard sell you something to keep his job, blame the appalling way senior management has targeted everybody. Personally I reckon anybody going into a shop and talking to a salesman and expecting to be given impartial advice about products is slightly naive.

George_Michael

tma1102 wrote: »

. Personally I reckon anybody going into a shop and talking to a salesman and expecting to be given impartial advice about products is slightly naive.

And I reckon that any salesman such as yourself who knowingly admits lying to customers in order to keep their job should be ashamed of themselves.

dacouch

George_Michael wrote: »

And I reckon that any salesman such as yourself who knowingly admits lying to customers in order to keep their job should be ashamed of themselves.

Although I must say he has found his way to the ideal employer for him

tma1102

George_Michael wrote: »

And I reckon that any salesman such as yourself who knowingly admits lying to customers in order to keep their job should be ashamed of themselves.

Yes I'm certainly not proud of it - however I couldn't find another job and I need the money for my studies. I don't tell customers anything that we're not told on training (our official company training tells us that the Sandstrom cables provide a higher picture quality than cheaper ones, for example.)

tma1102

dacouch wrote: »

Although I must say he has found his way to the ideal employer for him

Quite the opposite. I hate the job and am constantly on the lookout for another. Can't wait to leave when I go to uni (if money allows).