pmb1566@ultb.UUCP (P.M. Barella) (04/12/89)
In response to Mr. Applegates comments on the Tandy 1000 being
unstandard, although I'll admit that the machine is hardware wise
unstandard, the series is a quite inexpensive, software- compatible
machine. I have one myself, and have not had too many problems, except
the hard drive. I'll admit I paid a little extra because i ended up
having to get a Tandy hard drive, but the convenience of having RS
stores nationwide is nice when something breaks down. (Which it
hasn't, except the keyboard, but that's my fault.)
About Tandy's personnel, I do agree that a lot of their salespeople
don't know much about their products. I worked for Tandy for just under
two years. The store I worked in started out with a lot of good people
that knew the products, but they ended up being promoted to managers of
other stores. For example, The first computer manager we had was really
good. People from other stores around the district used to call with
questions. He was transfered to another store as manager. The person
who replaced him had worked for Tandy a few years before, but knew very
little about the newer products. He could sell anything though. Anyway,
when I went home for Christmas break (I'm in college) I stopped by to
say hello to everyone and to get some empty boxes if they had any. He
asked me to set the dip switches on one of the printers because he could
not get it to work with the color computer. This is the computer
manager of the store. He's been there for nearly a year, and he still
has trouble with simple things like dip switches. Tandy trains these
people in Sales, and they do send out video tapes with information on
certain products, but a lot of the salespeople don't watch them. In the
two years I worked there, I only saw 2 or 3. If I remember right, one
my manager wanted me to see, the others I watched only because I wanted
to.
That is, in my opinion, Tandy's main problem. They don't train their
salespeople as good as they should. Another problem is the commission-
based salary. The salespeople try to sell the most expensive thing to
the customer, not necessarily what would best suit the customer. (The
training tapes may instruct that the salespeople should sell the best to
suit the customer; I don't remember them much, but the salesmakers sell
what is going to get them the most money anyway.)
-Peter Barella
--
The opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect
the viewpoints of Tandy Corporation or Rochester Institute of
Technology.japplega@csm9a.UUCP (Joe Applegate) (04/13/89)
In article <665@ultb.UUCP>, pmb1566@ultb.UUCP (P.M. Barella) writes: > That is, in my opinion, Tandy's main problem. They don't train their > salespeople as good as they should. Another problem is the commission- > based salary. The salespeople try to sell the most expensive thing to > the customer, not necessarily what would best suit the customer. (The > training tapes may instruct that the salespeople should sell the best to > suit the customer; I don't remember them much, but the salesmakers sell > what is going to get them the most money anyway.) The funniest story I have on Tandy salespeople happened about 2 years ago at one of the local Computer Centers... while I was browsing I overheard a somewhat irate customer argue: "I don't care if it works in your system it doesn't work in mine"... the saleswoman, who I knew had worked for Tandy for over 4 years (an old timer by Tandy standards!), told him, "we tried the board in one of our machines and it worked fine, your machine must be defective"... "But my machine works fine and everyhthing else I've tried works... I still don't understand why I need another board to upgrade the memory, you told me the 1000 could handle 640K"... At this point I jumped in and asked what type of machine he had, seeing that she was holding a Memory Plus card... he had a 1000 HD, which already HAS a Memory Plus card!!!! The salesjerk said I didn't know what I was talking about, I told her to open one up and look and she said she didn't have to she worked for Tandy and knew all about computers... I went to the car got a screwdriver, opened up a 1000HD and showed the customer that it already had a card WITH A DMA and explained why you couldn't put another DMA chip in the computer, and that all he needed was memory chips! He demanded his money back for the card... the salesjerk demanded I leave the store... I asked to see the manager, who when I explained what happened told me I didn't know what I was talking about, you could put as many DMA chips in the computer as you wanted, all they would do is speed it up ???? The customer got his money back... and left swareing he'd never buy another Tandy computer for his business or recommend them to his freinds... he came to our user group and we told him where to buy chips (for less than 20% of Tandy's price) and installed them on his memory plus! I have lots of Dandy Tandy stories... like the salesjerk I heard tell a customer that the Coco III was an IBM compatible... he too worked in a computer center! - Joe Applegate - ======================STANDARD DISCLAIMER============================ All views and opinions are my own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Colorado School of Mines, whatever they might be. =====================================================================