[RexAeterna]

This is off topic, but I thought the title said "I feel pretty." Hahaha!

dammit! got me too. i actually felt glad for op if that what he meant to say, but anyways....i do, myself feel very pretty all the time. people just can't keep their bad self away from me.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Catsup, you're actually so far off base, and frankly you're being very derogatory with no real cause. First off, I have been in sales and customer service for over 20 years, and while I am not trying to sound like I think I am all that, I have consistently been noted for my excellent customer service skills. I work part time at Home Depot and I have managed to get into the top 10 in the country for sales in my department, so I think I understand fairly well how the customer/seller relationship works. You would have had a point if I was actually pushy or rude with the customer in person, but I wasn't, I was very gracious and did not at all push or insist on anything, I made a very polite suggestion perhaps twice and that was it.
 
You also have no idea what I think about my system, in fact I am well aware that it is just a nice enough system, but nothing special. Do you really think I believe a Valhalla and a $1200 dollar integrated amp are the cream of the crop? Sure my stuff is okay, but I'm not an idiot, I know what the system is. My point was that virtually any system would be a better platform to audition a headphone on than an iPhone. What is it about this that you don't get? You put words in my mouth and presumed to know how I think and feel. Frankly, some might say in the Freudian sense perhaps there was some projecting happening there. And no I didn't just sit around and wait for him to arrive, I was raised to host somebody so I spent at least an hour cleaning up my home. I had to make sure my young daughter was fed before he arrived and take care of her so that his audition went well. And that day there was a snow storm here and I had to shovel a huge amount of heavy snow to make sure he could get into my driveway, in fact I shoveled a path from the street to my driveway just so he didn't have to walk in deep snow. Not only that, I spent time communicating with him and giving him detailed directions to my home suggesting bus routes for him. So you really shouldn't assume you know about something that you couldn't possibly know.
 
Eric_C, thanks for being so polite and, yes I'm sure there was a bit of that going on, but not much. I had decided to sell them afterall, so I don't think I was that attached to them. I am the type that doesn't really get to motivated by image or hype, I'm middle aged now so that is hopefully well in my past. That said I'm sure my nose was a little out of joint, and it is fair of you to point that out. Just goes to show if your going to vent in public, you open yourself up to scrutiny. I don't mind when people are being fair, but in my view catsup got personal and quite unfair and to that type of character assasination attempt I will respond to defend myself because I do believe we all deserve to have self-respect.

 

[catsup]

Maybe I was harsh, but you are not listening. You want to hear opinions on whether you were justified in feeling petty or annoyed. This is my opinion. I think that you were being petty. You are taking any criticism very personally.
 
Let me demonstrate through a stretched example. If I was selling a fire extinguisher to a customer, and the customer wanted to see it function before testing it. So, I tell him, okay sure, I will let you come over, but only if you test it my way by lighting yourself on fire and letting me use the fire extinguisher on you. This is the only way to demonstrate clearly how great I think the fire extinguisher is. Otherwise, I would feel disrespected for not having you test it out properly. Do you think the buyer would come over?
 
If you believe that you were correct, you did not justify it at all in your response. All you said was you took time and effort to host him so he should respect you by listening more. It was still your choice to host him. No one put a gun to your head to let him into your house. If your hosting him was contingent on letting him experience the headphones optimum potential, then you two should have agreed on how to test it before hand. Otherwise, you need to get over it. He for wte reason just didn't want to listen more. People are different.
 
Look, I sympathize, but this is small potatoes for most people. There's no point in getting worked up over this. If you've been in customer service for so long, you must understand that customers are demanding and sometimes rude. Just stop dwelling on it. There are bigger fish to fry. That's all I'm saying.

 

[Sonic Defender]

RexAeterna, I try to feel pretty as well, but sometimes I just can't manage that feeling. Good on you for making it work!

 

[Joelby]

I think we all should keep in mind that we're the only people obsessing over headphones and if you're looking for validation from anybody outside of the head-fi community you're in for a harsh reality check

 

[Sonic Defender]

For sure you are entitled to your opinion catsup, and despite my response I know what you are getting at, and in principle I agree with you. However, things are never black and white and any social interaction carries with it a joint repsonsibility for how the interaction goes. It is certainly not an unfair expectation to humour your host, espescially when they are being very polite and not at all pushy. While this is a selling situation, the fact that it happend in a non-commercial place like a private residence actually does shift the dynamics somewhat. In a situation like that the customer/guest can reasonably expect the seller/host to want to show their goods in the best light they can, that is implied in the selling process which we all know and love. As it is reasonable, and actually good customer service to want to show the headphone in this manner, I think it is fair that the buyer also realise they need to put "reasonable effort" into being not only fair in their assessment, but also polite in the social situation.
 
I think it is very reasonable to "politely humour" somebody as long as I get to make my decision based on my criteria. In our e-mails prior to meeting we had discussed the possibility that he would audition the headphones on my system as he was buying them for use on a home system, not a portable system, although it was mentioned that portability was also a small factor. So given all of this I really don't think it is really that out there to actually have had the customer put some cursory effort into the audition.
 
There is a responsibility for the customer as well to educate themselves on a product they might buy. I sell flooring at Home Depot. If a customer is considering putting porcelain tiles on their floor I have to give them as much information as possible so that they can make the right decision. In this situation you need to have a thick enough, and stable sub-floor. If I am in a sales presentation and I want to get this information across to the customer, but they don't want to hear about it, that is fine, but it has risks. In our department we have had customers ignore the need to have their sub-floor prepared properly and when the tiles crack they will come to the store and try to convince the management that they were poorly informed (I'm sure that does happen sometimes, but not all of the time). My point is that sometimes the customer doesn't always know what is best and they need to use the knowledge of the professional serving them. In this situation when somebody tells me they are auditioning headphones for a home system, and they turn around and really don't take advantage of the proper auditioning platform, they aren't doing themselves any favour. While you rightfully pointed out it is their right to do so, I feel I am just as entitled to feel a little cheated by the situation, hence my venting here. The customer is always right is a very nuanced principle in my opinion.

 

[catsup]

I agree. The customer needs to be educated sometimes and may not always have all the information. You were being kind to give him the opportunity to test it out on a great system.
 
He was being rude. But the point was, most people would have just thought, okay this guy is an *******, I'm a little pissed, but it is his right to be dumb. There's no need to ask anyone in this forum whether you were justified in feeling petty or annoyed. Probably everyone would feel the same way if we were parting with something we really liked and the customer never even gave it a fair chance. Just forget it and move on.

 

[Sonic Defender]

catsup, I regret posting here about this, but really I was just venting a little, I don't think I was "fixated". I did move on, I sold the headphones and e-mailed the person a link to a vendor he requested. Have you never acted in a way that was miscontrued by others, and then you try hard to explain/justify yourself afterward? That is how I feel here. It wasn't that big a deal, yes I was a little annoyed, so I thought what to hell, I'll vent at head-fi. Hind-sight is 20/20 and I suppose I shouldn't have, although who knows, maybe somebody will read it and find it interesting. And for the record, the guy wasn't at all an idiot or anything negative like that, I liked him, I just wished he had spent a few more minutes listening on my system, nothing more nothing less. Anyway, sorry to all the members who got sucked into this rather banal thread, lesson learned. Cheers.

 

[Sonic Defender]

By the way catsup, thanks for not escalating this into a war of words when I responded and defended myself. I like the way you handled the situation, it reflects well on you.

 

[catsup]

Dude, it's fine. I didn't mean to be overly harsh, sorry. I just thought the situation was you were insistent on him trying out your stuff in your way and you were annoyed that he did not do so. That sounded wrong. You were justified in feeling the way you felt. No hard feelings.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Cool, cheers.

 

[Fringe]

I understand how he feels but i have come to realize some people just don't want to listen to the music the way it should sound. So many people are used to the Ipod ear buds and car stereos with the bass turned up to trunk rattling levels that they don't appreciate how it should sound. Some people get it and some don't.

 

[MrTwyst]

I'd look at it this way...
 
If the customer is auditioning headphones, and has a number of headphones in mind for the sake of comparison, minimizing the source components in the loop will allow him to differentiate the qualities he's looking for in the cans.
 
In other words, if he keeps the source limited to his iPhone (knowing that this will be one of his primary listening modes), he's able to make comparisons of the sound quality of each headphone he tries on an even playing field.
 
If he's already getting the impression that he's hearing things he doesn't necessarily like about the headphones, why should he go to more trouble to listen through your system and waste more of your time?
 
Allow a little latitude that he may be ignorant about impedance and such things, and is just trying to keep the process simple... evaluating any headphones he listens to using the same songs and the same source component. Higher impedance cans won't sound as good as low impedance cans, and if he doesn't allow for that, it's either based on his own ignorance, or his own desire to get cans which sound the best to his ear straight out of the iPhone.
 
Individual listening preferences are very complex and personal, ranging from a breadth of knowledge and experience to being satisfied with Apple's little white earbuds.

 

[Music95]

Sometimes, people will see how it sounds with what they have.
 
Dont be mad with how he felt with his Ipod player powering up the headphone.
He will work with what he has, and if it didn't sound good enough, he'll have to find something else.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Yes, all good points and all valid points. The bottom line is my headphones found a good head-fi home where they are appreciated and hopefully the person I was posting about will find something that suits his taste. We all go about things differently, and for me, I would audition headphones differently then this person elected to, but that is a personal decision. I can only hope that this thread may get read and perhaps help others however it can. Cheers.