Wednesday was an interesting day

[adamthemieleman]

So I started work Wednesday morning, expecting a normal day. That was until I saw a bloke standing at the Dyson's. He was using one of the 44's to clean the display which would be odd for a customer browsing, then I thought, holy crap, this is a rep!
And he was! My department manager introduced me to him, and said I was a die hard Miele fanatic. The rep asked me what I thought about Dyson. Wow, this could open up a whole can of worms. Being professional, I said overpriced and overrated. If you could imagine his face, I nearly laughed. Nevertheless he certainly met his match meeting me that morning..
He tried to overcome my objections about Dyson. My DC07 failed because the cyclones became clogged, apparently the newer ones don't, which I don't believe, you cannot argue with physics. Also I said Dyson's are dirty and unhygienic because of the dust cloud. Apparently if you hold the container lower in a bin, you don't get a dust cloud according to the rep. Codswallop, you cannot argue with physics, dust is light and will escape into the air regardless.
As I already suspected, Dyson's are overpriced, he said they have a lot of margin so retailers can discount them as they wish.

He said the Dyson's are well made, you can stand on them. You can with the Miele S7, but I know which one I would rather stand my 12 stone weight on.

We did however agree on one thing, how rubbish vax and hoover are, owned by PPI according to the rep. I know banks are sods but even they're not responsible for vax monstrosities! I corrected him, I said it's techtronic industries aka TTI, this I did several times.

He said Dyson's are really powerful and he would be happy to put a Dc44 against a Miele S7. Bring it on I said, your Dyson will be kneeling in the dust begging for forgiveness (so to speak!)

Because Dyson pay my company to sell them, we should push them. But I am not employed by Dyson, I am employed by dixons, so I won't, as I am responsible for my department of floorcare, I will sell what is best, I wouldn't recommend something I wouldn't have myself. And the incentive to sell Dyson is you can win one! Yeh right, hardly an incentive more of a scare!

Was it helpful? Slightly. It provided me more information to be confident selling them, as I struggle because of having aspergers. Does it change my mind about Dyson? Will I sell people a Dyson? Hell no.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

Wow! But.................

don't hold back. How do you REALLY feel? lololol

 

[sebo_fan]

I think you handled it well.

It is difficult to remain neutral when you have a love of a brand and have to work in the industry for selling not just that brand but rival brands too. I know it would annoy the hell out of me if I ever worked in an electrical show room and tried to remain impartial if I had a rep like that Dyson person.

Last year I visited John Lewis in Oxford Street, London when I went down to see family before Christmas and had a few vouchers to get a few things as well as a SEBO extension hose. John Lewis stores have always been the main stockist for SEBO and Miele since the early 1980s including consumables and the stores are known for stocking and selling the extension hose.

So I went along to the floorcare department and I must admit I was a bit disappointed to see how small their department is against the likes of Glasgow's store and waited to be served, since I couldn't find the extension hose. I waited for 20 minutes to be served and at that point a customer was looking at the Miele S5211 and the new Miele S8310 and wondering what the differences were since John Lewis had plopped the two black models next to one other. Each time a salesperson flew past me, they ignored both him and I each time we called them. It was just impossible to find a staff member. I eventually pointed out to said customer what the main difference was between the Miele models and he thanked me, going on his way.

40 minutes later I ended up sitting on the step leading to the electrical department. I had still not been served and yet I had recommended 3 customers to try out an Electrolux, to avoid one of the other bagless uprights that John Lewis were selling off cheap, to try out the Miele S6, to try out one of those Dyson balls against the SEBO Felix and to avoid the HEPA Miele filter since the black one was just as good but cheaper. A young man appeared before me and wondered what I was doing. By that point I was ready to strangle his neck, but I resisted and just told him I was waiting for a salesperson to fetch me a Sebo extension hose. I had already explained that I had been "to the shelf and there were no more boxes..." SO away he went and he came back "there's none on the shelf. "

"I told you that before," I say, further handing him the product code slip and SEBO's part number.

"Well, we won't have that part in, again for some time," he explains.

"Well, you have that part in stock according to your website. Can you go and check again please?" I ask. I wait another couple of minutes. I don't know where he goes but he comes back moments later, empty hand.

"We don't have that product in stock, but I can order it in for you.."

"Well you had it in stock this morning when I phoned! Can you go and check your store house please...?" Off he goes and comes back, this time going to the shelf and looking underneath on the shop floor where the shelf is located.

"If it isn't on the shelf, we don't have it."

Eventually my presence begins to raise suspicion because I'm now at the end of my tether and beginning to raise my voice. A lady comes over in a power suit with a senior looking John Lewis badge on and asks me if she can help me? She was Scottish, so it was lovely to meet another Scot in an English store. The guy is just about go get out of there, and I calmly tell her of "my experience to the Oxford Street store," and then say, "do you know that I have served at least 6 people in this floorcare range who, like, me wanted to know about info that no one in your staff could serve? Meanwhile this muppet keeps telling me you don't have a product in stock that is a massive seller for John Lewis and that you always have one in stock and I know you had about 15 of them in stock when I rang, first thing this morning..." Well of course the boy doesn't like to be called a muppet. Who would? She interrupts by apologising kindly and suggests that both she and him will go to the warehouse and check for the extension hose.

This takes another couple of minutes which turns into 15 or so many minutes. By then I have managed to convince a student that Panasonic make good budget microwaves that don't fall apart, one other lovely lady who is after an Oreck and just as I'm about to tell a guy about the Miele S8, power suit assistant manager turns up with 5 boxes in her hand, obviously to fill the shelves. She's about to go when she hands me a box.

"Oh, thank you," I say and the boy is looking at the floor by this point! I grab her arm and say "by the way this gentleman is ready to buy. He's got pets but he also has hard floors and he will probably be interested in buying the Cat and Dog model of the S8 though I've also made him aware that he can buy the hard floor tools off Miele's website. don't pap him off to our friend on the right here." Her face was dumbstruck. She turns to the young sales guy and dumps the rest of the SEBO extension hoses onto him to fill the shelves to help the guy.

And for all the fuss and nonsense I was put through, by the time I got to the till I find that I have been given a staff discount for another item I bought!

 

[adamthemieleman]

That's hilarious sebo fan. I'm surprised that's John Lewis, they're usually pretty good. I like to give good service, I suppose you can't tar a company just because of a few bad apples that work for them when everyone else is truly the opposite. I know my company has a bad reputation, but it's annoying when people think we're all the same.
If that was my department it would have been replenned!
I'm just waiting for the Miele rep, two peas comes to mind.

 

[adamthemieleman]

Silly me, I meant try it against a DC41! It seems Wednesday was the day of reps, we had an AEG rep too. Very friendly young chap, he is going to arrange a loan Ultracaptic and new Ultraone for me to try out, because I struggle with verbally engaging customers because of autism, I engage them with demonstrations.
I asked if the loan machines could be tried out at home in my own time, it's hard to do it in store.
He even bought us choccys, anyone who does that is a friend of mine for life!

If ever I get a free minute, I'll upload some photos of my department

 

[turbo500]

how rubbish vax and hoover are

That is debatable. I actually think that the Vax Mach cleaners are far better than the Dyson DC24 and DC50 and far better built. The cheaper Vax's are horrendous but the Mach and Air ranges are pretty good.

On the subject of sales staff, I was in Currys a few years back buying some Miele bags. One of the sales staff went to get some from the warehouse as their weren't any left on the shelf, which was fine. Whilst I was waiting, I overheard a Currys salesman trying to sell a Vax Power 2 as a "no loss of suction" cleaner. I had to interrupt and spent a good 5 minutes explaining to the customer what the difference between the low efficiency direct filter cyclone and proper dust separation dual and root cyclones is.

In the end, she went off happy with a Hoover Freedom upright that was on offer at £99.99 at the time with 5 years guarantee and a proper cyclone - far better than the cheaper, budget bagless cleaners. Happy customer, pissed off staff lol.

 

[sebo_fan]

I agree Chris, but then I'm also agreeing with Adam based on conversations I've had with salespersons.

This is simply down to an experience I had more recently when considering to purchase a new oven and went to my local Currys to see what they had in-store. Of course not all Hoover and Vax products are bad - to collectors and owner - but to the salespersons at Currys, JL and so forth, the reliability issues can always be held up to question dependent on the call backs, or rather the machines coming back to the store when they go wrong.

Whilst I was baulking at the list prices of dual fuel cookers, I had a chat with one of the assistant store managers regarding floorcare brands that have the most trouble or dependent on the type of reason a customer comes back with the machine. The worst brand is Vax. Second to that, Hoover and at odd times even Miele vacuums have been returned.

My own Vax Mach Air had to be returned, or rather it was returned to Vax UK after a fault with the floor head occurred when I bought mine at a John Lewis store. Both John Lewis and Vax suggested spraying WD40 or whatever to loosen the floor head from the mechanism that should allow it to fall, but there was no way I was going to invalidate my 6 year warranty by jiggling about with a machine - after all it does state that you can inherently make the 6 year warranty void by tampering etc. So I had to wash the built in filter and make the machine new again before it could be packaged off and sent back to Vax. When the replacement one arrived, no problems.

So I can sympathise with salespersons greatly who may jump to conclusions that a brand that has had so many call backs or returns, can be justified to say that a brand or certain models from that brand has lousy reliability or design/quality. The Hoover Purepower and Dustmanager models also seem to be quite high up on the list of returns - that old plastic design problem of the handle release pedal for example is a recurring problem and filters not fitting properly.

The Miele vacs that were previously being taken back to Currys and John Lewis were the old S380/S381 cylinder vacs, a couple I've had myself. The problem with those ones are the tool doors on them ping off and the customer who feels that they have spent that much won't touch the machine to repair it. The very fault happened on mine when I bought a burgundy S381. The whole tool lid just pinged off - but I knew how to fix it.

 

[madabouthoovers]

Currys - "sorry out of stock again as usual"

I have lost patience with the Currys group. They never seem to stock anything at stores these days. I wanted the new Hoover Purepower PU2115, but Currys as usual don't have it in stock at their stores, and I don't want to wait days for it to be "got into stock after I have paid for it". Much the same for the other models I have looked at online - Sebo Felix, AEG Ultraone etc - the same old same old - "out of stock - order now for collection when we can be bothered" - useless!


I got my Purepower from Argos instead - at least they keep stocks of most items in store - and those that they don't, I cant be bothered ordering and waiting days for delivery.


Sorry, but Currys has gone down the pan these days, and they have lost out to Argos so many times because they never seem to keep what I want in stock. Why not just close the stores and just become another mail order company, because that's all Currys is - a showroom, with not a lot in the back.

 

[vintagerepairer]

The rep has a job to do, and so do you. As long as merchandise is sold through your companies cash-register, all is well. As you pointed out, Dyson is paying your store a financial incentive for them to host one of their reps. This is very important, because with high-street stores competing against the internet, your store needs all the money it can get. Look at Comet.

Have your debates, but as long as merchandise is being sold, that is all which should matter.

Remember also that "Dyson" is more of a sect than a brand. Their demonstrator will probably be too young to know anything about the history of cleaning, therefore will believe what he was told in his training. He's probably been conditioned almost.

But the fact remains, his position is bringing money into the store, and him selling a cleaner through your tills means you personally are being paid to work there and yet are able to take a back-seat on the day when the rep comes in. Retail wages are not high, so take this one at face-value as the opportunity it is to be paid for doing less. Anything which keeps your shop open has to be all to the good. Unless of course you are going out to work for something other than the money it pays you. In that case I can see why you're not happy with a rep being there.

 

[sebo_fan]

To be honest I don't mind Currys. You can't buy all at Argos to what Currys carry - and I prefer a store where I can see the machines physically rather than rely on an "as seen photo."

Argos exist but they are not as reliable as they used to be- they seldom have low priced floorcare products that get a high rating from customers as they're either sold out or find that the products are difficult to attain. Oh of course they do in plentiful supply should you visit another store no where near my address and then have to pay for delivery if it is less than £100 etc.

I don't mind Currys - it was Comet I absolutely despised. I wrote a mammoth review about that company so many years ago and even when they were going bust the prices were far too high.

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/electronic-stores/comet/1049850/

 

[sensotronic]

I worked for Currys in York in the late 80's when it was located in Parliament Street before M&S extended their store. I tended to stick to selling washing machines, vacuum cleaners and small appliances. 9 times out of 10 I managed to sell the customer a Hoover product, even if they came in for a specific model from another brand. The Vax was popular then and people would often come in for one and left with a Hoover Aquamaster after I pointed out the benefits of the Hoover over the Vax.

Back then it was all about selling the extended warranties and you were put under pressure to sell them on everything you sold, but I personally don't agree with them and only managed to sell a few, mainly with washing machines. There was a lot of backstabbing among the staff, especially the older male members who thought nothing of pinching a sale off me after I had done all the selling. Despite that, I did enjoy working there in the golden days when a large percentage of appliances were still made in the UK. We used to do a trade in offer on vacuums and I was able to build up my vintage collection quite nicely while working for Currys.

York used to have many electrical stores, most with in store demonstrators from various companies. My favourite was Victoria House department store owned by the CoOp. I was a regular visitor and would often chat to the Hoover demonstrator and get leaflets and other promotional items. She once gave me a near mint Hooverette in its box with all the tools and instruction book and the manager of the electrical department gave me an illuminated Hoover sign. Those days are sadly gone and now Argos is the main place to get electrical items in York city centre. There is one small independent store left, Blackwell & Denton, but they have closed half their showroom and it's only a matter of time before the shop closes.

 

[adamthemieleman]

That's true, although I'm not sure I think it was a case of cash flow, I think it was more of a case that they had the large attic space for Miele so the second half downstairs was redundant. I think the half now sells watches if memory serves me right, unless it's further down. I used to work at the town centre store on Coney street, until a unfortunate incident, so I'm now at the Megastore at Clifton.
Sensotronic, you may know Julian from Parliament Street. Good old Jules, he's still with us believe it or not.