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- Sep 26, 2010
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I was in the pro shop of my local gun range recently and there was a guy talking to one of the employees about different pistols. My attention was captured when they began talking about a Glock 19 (as I am a recent owner) and the potential customer noted the prices were about $125 cheaper at a local sporting goods store. The employee proceeded to tell the potential customer that was because the Glock sold at the local sporting goods store do not have the same internal parts as the ones sold in the pro shop and thus the reason for the price difference. He went on to say the “version” sold at local sporting goods store had “green” parts in it (whatever that is).
At this point, I was compelled to ask if the pro shop Glocks had custom parts in them. The response was no, they are the standard parts from Glock, but he mentioned they did have some which were customized. When I asked for a clarification of how the parts between the two (sporting goods version versus pro shop), were different and thus justified the $125 difference he could not give me a clear explanation. I then interjected that Glock was not making a “special cheaper” version of the pistol for the local store, they produce the same pistol for everyone unless there is a custom order. The Glocks in the local sporting goods store were not labeled “Made by Glock for ”, they all came off the same assembly line.
From my point of view, this is a typical salesperson tactic, much like a computer salesperson attempting to sell a customer a low speed or low quality computer stating they could learn on this one and upgrade later. Being in the IT world, I have tripped up many a BestBuy employee by telling the customer to purchase the fastest computer they can afford at the time because the faster model will do everything the slower one can—only faster.
While I did not tell the pro shop customer what to do or that the salesperson was wrong/lying, the customer drew his own conclusion from the conversation. What would you have done in this instance?
At this point, I was compelled to ask if the pro shop Glocks had custom parts in them. The response was no, they are the standard parts from Glock, but he mentioned they did have some which were customized. When I asked for a clarification of how the parts between the two (sporting goods version versus pro shop), were different and thus justified the $125 difference he could not give me a clear explanation. I then interjected that Glock was not making a “special cheaper” version of the pistol for the local store, they produce the same pistol for everyone unless there is a custom order. The Glocks in the local sporting goods store were not labeled “Made by Glock for ”, they all came off the same assembly line.
From my point of view, this is a typical salesperson tactic, much like a computer salesperson attempting to sell a customer a low speed or low quality computer stating they could learn on this one and upgrade later. Being in the IT world, I have tripped up many a BestBuy employee by telling the customer to purchase the fastest computer they can afford at the time because the faster model will do everything the slower one can—only faster.
While I did not tell the pro shop customer what to do or that the salesperson was wrong/lying, the customer drew his own conclusion from the conversation. What would you have done in this instance?
