[KrooLism]

I thought I would just share this nasty experience with all at head-fi and make public the name of this retailer who I felt treated me with racial discrimination.

The Story:
I have recently been looking for a high end source and I thought I would start locally. Not much to pick from as there are only 3 retailers that deal in high end audio in Adelaide. I went into a retailer called Jim Tate Stereo. It's a very small, "run out of home" business who deals in Linn, Arcam and Naim. I assume the person who served me, the only person there, was the owner himself. Anyway... he gave me absolutely no help with any of my questions. All his answers we're single worded and he would just look blankly at me. Quoted me MSRP for all products and when I asked him what's his best price and I told him that other audio stores negotiate a bit on that... he simply said:
"We don't sell below MSRP here."
$22000 for Unidisk and $8000 for LP-12? Yeah... right.
He then ushered me out of the store with a few brochures.

I didn't buy any of his products then and I chose the MF kW SACD from another retailer.

Being local, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Who knows, he could have just had a bad day?
I thought I would go in again to purchase some SACD's. He said that their Linn collection was currently "out of stock", and that "they weren't getting anymore in as SACD's we're slowly being phased out"... and that he couldn't help me.

What he didn't know was...

... I was the one who phoned earlier that day and verified that he had them in stock so I wouldn't waste a trip!!

Anyway - the retailer is Jim Tate Stereo in Adelaide. Don't ever buy anything from there.
If I was Linn, Naim or Arcam... I would also be concerned about my reputation by letting someone so unprofessional represent my company.

The moral of the story:
Young people, Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, people who wear T-Shirts on their day off work... we have money to spend too.

And a LOT of it...

Sucked in to Mr Jim Tate for missing out on a potential $10 000 sale now... and god knows how many more $$$ worth in future!

 

[Dzjudz]

You should call him again and ask if he has the SACDs in stock. If he says yes, confront him.

 

[pne]

yep, unfortunately thats how a lot of dealers are. hi-fi is one of the worst because a lot of people are snobs. I've encoutered the same attitude at most of the local shops. They take one look at me and either ignore me completely or respond in the one word screw off fashion. That is, until I mention I have $xxxx.xx to spend on a ____.

 

[KrooLism]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dzjudz /img/forum/go_quote.gif You should call him again and ask if he has the SACDs in stock. If he says yes, confront him.

I did think about that, but I thought about it and figured that the best consequence is:

Spend your money elsewhere.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pne /img/forum/go_quote.gif yep, unfortunately thats how a lot of dealers are. hi-fi is one of the worst because a lot of people are snobs. I've encoutered the same attitude at most of the local shops. They take one look at me and either ignore me completely or respond in the one word screw off fashion. That is, until I mention I have $xxxx.xx to spend on a ____.

Mmm... you can so tell the fully jaded ones to the ones who still have an interest in music.

However, this is the first time I have been blatantly refused service even with cash in my hand.

 

[GlorytheWiz825]

You really should have confronted him about the SACD's. Just to see what he says. I love catching people dead in their tracks with lies/cheats. I would also ask to speak to the owner of the store, assuming it's not the same person, and let him know about the discrimination. Don't let this guy get away with what he did. -_-;

 

[hYdrociTy]

I once worked in sales in high school and helped this stinky(almost hobo clothed) guy out with home theatre wiring for like two hours(no one even approached him, and I didn't really give a damn about how much I made back then) while on commission, sold him some tools and 6 dollar wire. About a month later he came up to me taller(he was pretending to hunch) in a suit, well groomed, full yuppie styl
e, and offered me a position in a new internet phone company that needed people. It would have paid off now that I look at it, but at the time I was fresh in college and didn't want to be derailed. Though I ended up derailed anyway lol.

Point is, I still cannot believe people act in such a way still today, especially well educated people (well I suppose hifi store owners are pretty well off so they must not be dumb). Sad to say the least..

I mean its a friggin hifi store. I hang around one so I know exactly what the owner does in there. Sit around and sleep till people walk in. I'd be glad to have a customer, no matter how mundane he or she looks because I'd have nothing else to do. There is no gain and everything to lose in being intolerant, but everything to gain and nothing to lose in being just....

But then maybe he chose to open this kind of business so that all he would encounter are what he stereotypes as superior people. This is actually racism, what is called aversive racism.

 

[jjcha]

Confront him? Why? People like this are d*cks and confronting them won't get you any better service or what you want - to be treated fairly as a customer.

Unfortunately your story is fairly common in high-end audio. I dunno what to say. If you want a good local retail experience, dress nicely and look older or rich? I guess that would help. But more often than not, when I walk into a high-end audio store in jeans and a T-shirt, I can expect to be treated pretty much as you have. Personally, I find it bothersome and such experiences only make me more inclined to go to audiogon.

Best,

-Jason

 

[Pm@c]

Should get a friend (white or whoever he isnt racist against) to come in and try to buy something that he told you was out of stock but VERY expensive. And then just stand at the counter, if the guy wants to make money he would sell the thing to your friend, then confront him and tell him hes a racist/prejudice or whatever scum he is. I'd like to see his reaction then... although he would probably just kick you out of the store.

 

[Davesrose]

I think that's the main reason why the giants Best Buy and Circuit City have switched to no commission policies. Before that, I was younger and was in the teenager to early 20s age bracket. The age bracket that salesmen gloss over (they'd much rather pay attention to old retirees who have money and can be sold on things they don't know about). So if I wanted to buy an electronic gadget, it would normally take me 30 minutes to try to find a salesperson to sell me the item I wanted. One classic example is when I wanted to get my first surround receiver. I've always been a fan of Harman Kardon, and saw that Circuit City carried them. Of course the HK was the most expensive they stocked. Still took me several minutes of trying to get the sales guy's attention: he was busy cracking jokes with his pals. He rolled his eyes when I said I was interested in a receiver, but perked up when I said I wanted the Harman Kardon.

Fast forward to last year when I was looking at TVs. I stopped into HHgreg to check out their plasma TVs. I happened to have a business suit on. I had every sales guy come over to me and ask if I needed assistance. Same is true for women....my mom says that if she wants service at an electronics store or car dealership, she has to be wearing expensive jewelry.

At least it's not racial discrimination.....it's flat out "class" discrimination! Ahwell, their loss since many casually dressed folks are high income people who can afford expensive items.

 

[Blackmore]

Why dont you start your own business and kill his

I know it is kind of dreaming, but if I were you I would write a letter to those manufactures and tell them about it.
Or even better, call you local paper or radio station and tell them about it

I never buy from such stores, the most of them s**t heads that thinks they know better.

 

[Pm@c]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Davesrose /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think that's the main reason why the giants Best Buy and Circuit City have switched to no commission policies. Before that, I was younger and was in the teenager to early 20s age bracket. The age bracket that salesmen gloss over (they'd much rather pay attention to old retirees who have money and can be sold on things they don't know about). So if I wanted to buy an electronic gadget, it would normally take me 30 minutes to try to find a salesperson to sell me the item I wanted. One classic example is when I wanted to get my first surround receiver. I've always been a fan of Harman Kardon, and saw that Circuit City carried them. Of course the HK was the most expensive they stocked. Still took me several minutes of trying to get the sales guy's attention: he was busy cracking jokes with his pals. He rolled his eyes when I said I was interested in a receiver, but perked up when I said I wanted the Harman Kardon. Fast forward to last year when I was looking at TVs. I stopped into HHgreg to check out their plasma TVs. I happened to have a business suit on. I had every sales guy come over to me and ask if I needed assistance. Same is true for women....my mom says that if she wants service at an electronics store or car dealership, she has to be wearing expensive jewelry. At least it's not racial discrimination.....it's flat out "class" discrimination! Ahwell, their loss since many casually dressed folks are high income people who can afford expensive items.

Amen to that, I dress like a man without a care (maybe because I am one) and on occasion have gone into stores and bought expensive items. I usually dont talk to the sales people though because I have made up my mind on what I want before I even walk in, and places like Futureshop have people work there that have no idea what they are talking about. I had a guy in FS sell me an optical cable for my X-Fi. Ever since then I usually research on the net first before going into a store.

 

[splaz]

^ Definitely. On a 4WD site I frequent, almost of the guys and the odd gal on the site are working class. Yet there was a recent thread, post up your home theatre setup.

All of them had massive big screen plasma and lcd tvs.

They still have money to spend, just have to be more selective where they spend it.

It does depend though, like some headphones I bought off Marcus (headphonic), just some MS-1s. Not making all that money off me, I was the only one in the store so nothing better to do though. He is great to his customers, he could've been a snob as I wasn't spending big dollars but he gave constructive opinions on what there is at that price point (not much better without spending more) let me listen to some slightly more expensive models. Great guy.

Have to admit though the only time I was asked "can I help you?" in an electronics good store was when I started playing around with the laptops. Going to control panel and seeing what I can mess around with and so on. I think in that case it was more of a "Stop playing with the laptops" kind of "can I help you?".

 

[Davesrose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pm@c /img/forum/go_quote.gif Amen to that, I dress like a man without a care (maybe because I am one) and on occasion have gone into stores and bought expensive items. I usually dont talk to the sales people though because I have made up my mind on what I want before I even walk in, and places like Futureshop have people work there that have no idea what they are talking about. I had a guy in FS sell me an optical cable for my X-Fi. Ever since then I usually research on the net first before going into a store.

That's another great thing about the internet. Even if it's something you want to buy locally, you can do all of your research on the internet. It's also info that's going to be more accurate then a salesguy who works on commission. Some are honest, but others flat out lie (I don't know if they're making up stuff they don't know or they lie). If it's a big retail store, you can even now buy the item online and pick it up at the store. For me, it was mainly the TV set that I wanted to buy locally. Most of the big retailers no longer have audio listening rooms

Reading reviews isn't as good as just going over and looking at the picture quality of all the sets. Though I had gotten a sense about which specific manufacturers were reliable.

 

[Dimitris]

I buy most of my expensive things online. For my speakers I had to go to Harvey electronics and I was treated very nicely. However at a Rega dealer in Greece, I have asked to audition the player with my SR-71 and my HD650 and the guy told me that it was out of question. He showed me the player and played speakers with it but told him that I couldnt tell only from the speakers. I ended up leaving the store with no audiotion. Needless to say that they missed a customer and very very close sale.

 

[plainsong]

Well, his racism is now posted for all to see on a popular audio forum. Sucks to be him.