BB employee (me) vs. Toshiba rep

[d_rob1031]

Last night at work as SLAMMED. I work in the home theater department and we often get representatives from different companies in touting their TV's or whatnot. Last night about 8pm I see the Toshiba rep here. I though to myself... sweet, time to have fun.

I was walking back from loading a TV up and she was talking to some customers next to a stack of HD DVD players that never seems to get any smaller (literally). She was explaining all the benefits of it and stopped me. She asked me a question she should have known but I saw this as an opportunity and stuck around anyway. The customer then asked me if I preferred Blu-ray or HD DVD. The Toshiba rep looked me square in the eyes, I looked square back and gloriously showed my blu blood and said the blu-ray format was the best format. I though she was going to cry. After loading up their TV and Sony Blu-ray (in front of the reps face) I went back to talk to her. The conversation went about like this:

Her: Why do you like Blu-ray over HD DVD?!

Me: I like a player that works out of the box, has more support and I'm not limited to buying a Toshiba. Oh, and the PQ is a lot better too.

Her: What do you mean has more support?

Me: Do you really work for Toshiba? My 6 year old cousin knows the answer to that.

Her: (Shocked look on her face) No really, what do you mean?

Me: More movies are coming out on Blu-ray. The movies I like, save Bourne and a couple of others, come out on Blu-ray.

Her: That shouldn't be a main selling point for Blu-ray.

Me: So people are supposed to buy boxes they can't use because the movies they want don't come out on that format?

Her: We have a ton of movies that will be release in coming months, you should mention this to people.

Me: So people should buy the box they can't use now over the box they can get a ton of good movies for already? I call that flushing money down a toilet, much like what people did with betamax.

Her: But betamax was a superior technology.

Me: And that has to do with....what?

By this time I had her so flustered I think she went and got an application to work for Sony. She had NO clue what she was talking about. I'm sure I'll have plenty of more fun stories to tell you later. Hope this is a good laugh for some folks out there.

[glenn22]

And she was there to represent Toshiba? People in the position should be very charismatic people... sounds like she needs new job.

[lateralus85]

Good story. Good stuff.

[d_rob1031]

She put on a good show for J6P but when she talked to anyone that had any knowledge of the subject she just shut down...

[kaliraver]

Great job d_rob, I saw a Toshiba rep at my Best Buy but wasn't able to talk to them because I work at GS but if I would've been able to talk to him it would've been fun Even the Toshiba reps don't know what to say to combat BD facts.

[JAGUAR1977]

Originally Posted by d_rob1031

She put on a good show for J6P but when she talked to anyone that had any knowledge of the subject she just shut down...

This is the point with HD-DVD, unchallenged, you can put together a decent argument to buy into the format. Once challenged and shown the alternative, it starts to look a little less enticing.

This is the tactic Graffeo and co use, they regurgitate a heap of pro HD-DVD bile to the press, which is then reported, i.e. the Video Business article, yet they are increasingly shy of putting themselves up in front of the public to face hard hitting questions.

[blu-rayfan101]

I wish I knew what she did after! She got shut down! Deep down she probaly agreed with you but since she worked for Tosh she has to like hd dvd.

[d_rob1031]

Originally Posted by blu-rayfan101

I wish I knew what she did after! She got shut down! Deep down she probaly agreed with you but since she worked for Tosh she has to like hd dvd.

She went and bought a Panny Blu-ray after this... lol kidding

[Beta-guy]

I wish I had been there, I would have debated with her like I do the fanboys she probably got a job for that sole purpose and read a few brochures (produced by the HD-DVD promotion group) and sent her out to fight a war... good job, you might have got her thinking.

[cking2729]

I kinda feel sorry for the lady. Just a pawn thrown out there to sway people into buying something inferior. What a horrible, horrible job.

She probably has no idea about the format war, just the "HD-DVD is superior b/c ________" rhetoric from her training manual. It's kinda like the sales reps at the AT&T store that have a training manual full of lines to feed customers about the iPhone. Like, "The iPhone is a revolutionary mobile phone and music player....," yet they know nothing technical about the device.

[glenn22]

Originally Posted by cking2729

I kinda feel sorry for the lady. Just a pawn thrown out there to sway people into buying something inferior. What a horrible, horrible job.

She probably has no idea about the format war, just the "HD-DVD is superior b/c ________" rhetoric from her training manual. It's kinda like the sales reps at the AT&T store that have a training manual full of lines to feed customers about the iPhone. Like, "The iPhone is a revolutionary mobile phone and music player....," yet they know nothing technical about the device.

Not really the same, the iPhone is cool, toshiba and HD-DVD, not so much.

[BTBuck1]

heh, i had a similar discussion but with a blu-ray rep in our store.

I came up to him and said, "you have a couple of guys back here you need to sway, they are HDDVD supporters"

And he said, "oh really?"

we started casually talking about the two formats, and then he said the stupidest thing evAr, which i hear alot....

"Well it's going to come down to the adult video industry, whoever has the porn will win"

So I said to him, you're a guy....every guy (who's not gh3y) watches pr0n...how do you view adult material now? do you go to the video store? he replied, "no....it's all over the net, for FREE!"
I replied, MOST PEOPLE GET IT THAT WAY! and thats not going to change!

I then told him the only reason pr0n decided the vhs/beta war was because before that the only way to get it was, having a film projector in your house or going to a theater to watch it. Now there are billions of websites to get it from, and I explained that most of it isn't shot in HD (the good stuff isn't anyways )

I went on to school him on the real reasons BD will win (we all know them)

-Storage capacity
-Bandwidth
-Interactive features
-studio support
-CE industry support
-Lossless audio

I just walked away feeling like, this guy is here to push blu-ray, and he's using HDDVD talking points to do it....when there is like a gazillion better more effective talking points that actually make sense.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by d_rob1031

Me: More movies are coming out on Blu-ray. The movies I like, save Bourne and a couple of others, come out on Blu-ray.

Her: That shouldn't be a main selling point for Blu-ray.

So someone who buys a movie player shouldn't care about the quantity and quality of movies released for it?

Sounds like she's working for the right company.

[DiverDRA]

Nicely done d_rob1031. I just returned from BB - I didn't buy anything (I have 14 BD movies arriving in the mail today from Amazon.com) but I helped a couple of ladies shopping for their husbands buy two Sony BDP-S300 (1 each), 10+ BD Movies, HDMI cables and Harmony 880 Uni remotes. They were originally speaking to a BB employee who knew a little but when we started talking about PQ, studio support, compatibility with their HDTVs, cables, etc. she just sat back and smiled. Afterwards she asked me if I worked at BB. I guess this is my version of spreading the blu Christmas spirit. Hope y'all have a very blu holiday!

[statikcat]

Lol. She didn't use PIP her only real defense. Oh wait.. we have that next month

[d_rob1031]

Originally Posted by statikcat

Lol. She didn't use PIP her only real defense. Oh wait.. we have that next month

For some reason I doubt she even knew about the PiP feature that they boxes can do.

I felt bad for her... if I'm a salesmen or representative or whatever I want to be as fully educated as possible and have answers to these kind of questions. I seriously hope that Toshiba has better people working for them than her... oh wait, no I don't

[TheDude]

Originally Posted by BTBuck1

heh, i had a similar discussion but with a blu-ray rep in our store.

I came up to him and said, "you have a couple of guys back here you need to sway, they are HDDVD supporters"

And he said, "oh really?"

we started casually talking about the two formats, and then he said the stupidest thing evAr, which i hear alot....

"Well it's going to come down to the adult video industry, whoever has the porn will win"

So I said to him, you're a guy....every guy (who's not gh3y) watches pr0n...how do you view adult material now? do you go to the video store? he replied, "no....it's all over the net, for FREE!"
I replied, MOST PEOPLE GET IT THAT WAY! and thats not going to change!

I then told him the only reason pr0n decided the vhs/beta war was because before that the only way to get it was, having a film projector in your house or going to a theater to watch it. Now there are billions of websites to get it from, and I explained that most of it isn't shot in HD (the good stuff isn't anyways )

I went on to school him on the real reasons BD will win (we all know them)

-Storage capacity
-Bandwidth
-Interactive features
-studio support
-CE industry support
-Lossless audio

I just walked away feeling like, this guy is here to push blu-ray, and he's using HDDVD talking points to do it....when there is like a gazillion better more effective talking points that actually make sense.

I just said the same thing in another post. Man I hope that Bluray clown didnt work for Sony. The porn industry will NOT determine a winner of the format war. Who gives a flying crap about Hidef porn if you want it it's online for FREE.

[d_rob1031]

The technical aspects and PQ of Blu-ray will win the war, not the porno industry.

Yesterday at work we opened with about 40 sony 300's and ended the day with 8. I just talked to a guy at work and he said they sold those last 8 in the first 3 hours they were open... while we have stacks of HD DVD players left (literally, theyre in the aisles). Our Blu-ray movie section is HEAVILY picked over even though we get movies in everyday. The HD DVD section stays well stocked. The only titles I've seen go out in any number for HD is bourne and the matrix box.

[Blu4ever]

Ah running into an HD-dvd supporter... my favorite pastime.

[doctorsteve]

I like your Moxy, but you really didn't give her anything that sounded like fact.

Things like comparing storage (which brings out WHY there is better PQ/SQ and room for extras), citing 'specific' support (just saying we've got more support doesn't really describe what you mean) comparing the number of supporting movie houses, the support for Blu drives from the CE sector, testimonials from Directors (as opposed to little ol' Michael Imperioli)... things like that.

It was an opportunity to educate and instead you slapped her in the face with your opinion. It's too late now, but I'd like to suggest you alter your tactics next time if you get the chance... Just MY opinion, of course...

And to be honest, if you had answered MY 'stupid' question with "My 6 yo cousin knows the answer to that" ... I probably wouldn't give rat butt about anything else you would have had to say to me... that was pretty rough.