A Rant on Sales Droids

Tis the season for clueless sales droids in your local retail stores.  You know, those people who wear the uniform but don't have even the slightest clue about their products or how to sell them.  (I have to credit my buddy Carl with the term "sales droid" by the way)

I had two run-ins with droids today.  First, at ***'s Sports, I was browing GPS units in the hunting section near the back of the store (apparently GPS units only appeal to hunters - not joggers, bikers, boaters, etc.)  A droid approached me and asked if I needed help (yes, getting away from YOU!).  I told him I wanted a GPS for my car, and then I asked if one particular unit could be upgraded with newer maps.  He thought for a moment and said, "if it's not, you can always use Google Earth".  Then he proceeded to talk up the virtues of Google Earth and how the 50 gallon oil drum in his backyard showed up as 3 pixels when he zoomed in all the way.  "But, I can't use that in my car" says I.  "Yeah, but it's much better than these units" says he.  Um, could he have missed he point any further?

Case 2 - I was looking at the Zune in my local Circuit City, when a droid approached.  I asked if the $40 off $200 coupon I had was usable on the Zune (the fine print said it wasn't usable on the iPod, but it didn't mention the Zune at all).  He took it to his manager and came back a few minutes later telling me it could not be used on a Zune because it's so new, but it could be used on an iPod.  I pointed out that a) a friend of mine used the coupon yesterday at another Circuit City on the Zune, and it in fact says it can't be used on the iPod.  His reply?  "Yeah, I realy don't know much about these things."  Then he tried to show me how an iPod FM adapter would add FM radio capabilities to a Zune (which already has an FM radio).

Ugh.

In the future, I hope retail managers realize they're actually hurting sales by hiring these idiots.  No wonder brick and mortar stores are losing more ground to online shopping each year.

Circuit City, by the way, has a 15% restocking fee on returned GPS units if they've been opened.  I'm not sure if other stores have this kind of fee, but I have to say I found it absurd.  The beauty of CC's 30 day money back no hassles return policy is that you can try something that's particularly expensive and see if you really like it.  If you don't, they don't hassle you and you probably end up buying another flavor of the same product at the same store.  Now, apparently they're in the business of micro-leasing GPSes for trial usage.  Whatevs...