After reading thru these 3 pages I must say there are some real BLOODY MORON's posting on here if you think that you are only going to get a negative experience from a chain store. You will find just as many if not more at any given indepentant in the country. If you think this is not the case then you are stupid.....................just as stupid as all the salesmen in the chainstores and indepentants...................

The world if full of stupid people.............I know...............I deal with it every day............

Not defending FS here, just saying wake up to reality............

 

I have met a few good FS employees, even a couple who were inexperienced, but willing to learn (it was a slow time, no one else in the department, and I had time to kill, basically explainting why D class amps are generally only used for subs) a good salesman isn't afraid to say "I don't know" and then find out, a bad salesman will feed you a load of BS, hoping that you don't know that it's BS. sometimes it's just un to listen to a bad salesman ramble on and on. but in general, FS employees are getting better from what I've seen. most shops I go into, I'd rather deal with a nerdy looking 40 year old with callouses (yes, I check) because I'm pretty sure he'll have a good knowledge base, and a fair bit of experience.

that said, if the 17 year old at FS knows his stuff, then cool! I'll always let a sales person try to sell me something, if I can't get service, I'll walk out, and If I get bad advice, or just plain wrong information, I'll leave too. BUT I'll be polite about it, and if I'm looking for prices, and doing research, I'll look around, and NOT bug the sales people, because there are people willing to pay and I'm not spending money, so it's not worth their time to spend time with me, now, if I'm the only one in the store, I'll look around and maybe chat up the sales people, but the paying customers come first.

 

Thank you Sassmaster!

 

I was one of those MORON's Tim. Actually, I expected you to chime in.

BTW if you re-read what I said - I didn't say it's always absolute, "You tend to get consistently better level of service & knowledge & ability from an indipendent." Notice the word TEND.

Consistency is important to me. Consistency of personel, knowledge, pricing. If I walk into FS or A&B today, and again a second time later today the likelyhood is great that the person who was there in the morning is not there in the evening. The pimple faced 17 yr old who has just started yesterday eagerly leaps in my direction. Maybe the staff with seniority starts early & leaves at 5, I don't know...

Tim, everytime I TRY to peek in the car audio department of the local FS there are two or three guys you have to swat away just to be able to think about what you'd like to have a look at.
I go in every once in a while and the staff has changed again.

I'm sure FS has many fine people such as yourself but they are not always easy to find and really as a customer with limited time available for the act of even going into the store I don't want to weed through people to find the few possessing the golden nugget of a higher level of knowledge.

I'd like to be able to start recognizing a few faces too, and maybe if they stick around long enough they would actually know what type of system I already have so they don't try and tell me about all the crap I'm not interested in.

At an indipendent, you're right, there is no guarantee on how they will treat you, and there are indipendents I would personally not set a foot into, ever again.

But, I have found after fifteen years of being involved with this stuff that a reputable indipendent is my best friend in the business and hobby of car audio. I walk in, they know my name. I know theirs as well, not hard when the staff is the same year after year. They know what my system consists of and where I want to go with it, what my budget is and will treat the referrals I send there with care...it's nice to be able to say "Go see Bob he's there 9-6:30 Monday to Saturday" and get a thank you the next time I go in. They don't need my sale right now, today, on the spot, b/c when I buy something it'll be through them so there is no pressure. They return the favor by giving a fair price, coupled with their "value added" expertise. I don't mind paying a fair price as this insures they will be there year after year.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Underdog:
Why don't you go to a restaurant and barter down your meal? Or maybe a "Buck or two" demading 1/2 price?
or the dentist? Guess Dateline should do a hidden camera expose' on "Fair Doctor prices" Seems to work real well for Used Car sales..

Sorry to say but Hagglers are a pain in the ***.
How would any of you enjoy someone coming into your place of work and asking you to make less money per hour? Or to work and not get paid for a chunk of your day? [img]graemlins/dunno.gif[/img]
On most commision structures you would have just cost the salesman $10. Sure not a big deal to you right.. Add that to the $3 you leave him and when the rest of the "brainwashed" public comes in after you.. Sweet paycheck [img]tongue.gif[/img]

....I could not have said it better, it's funny how many guys go to a store, pick the guy's brain and then go buy at "the other guys" to save a couple bucks... Maybe "the other guys" are cheaper because they know SFA and they don't have to pay professionals. No offence, but if some one gives you good service you pay them -- it's like resaurants: if you go out for a nice meal and they serve you well, you leave a tip -- if you don't care about a good meal go to the drive thru and save the tip.