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From: gary@fairlight.oz (Gary Evesson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Salesmen and Manufacturer's responsibility.
Message-ID: <306@fairlight.oz>
Date: Tue, 1-Dec-87 19:12:29 EST
Article-I.D.: fairligh.306
Posted: Tue Dec  1 19:12:29 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 7-Dec-87 00:09:07 EST
References: <902@csun.UUCP> <11540052@hpsmtc1.HP.COM>
Reply-To: gary@fairlight.oz (Gary Evesson)
Organization: Fairlight Instruments, Sydney, Australia
Lines: 31

In article <11540052@hpsmtc1.HP.COM> dlw@hpsmtc1.HP.COM (David Williams) writes:
>It is 
>high time that Apple got into the support business especially at the prices
>charged for their hardware! Just having the operator refer you to your local
>dealer is not my idea of support, especially when so many of them are no where
>near as technically competent as they should be. If Apple seriously intends to
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Never was a truer word spoken. I spent some time doing technical support for a
distributor here in Australia, and spent almost half my time sorting out
mis-information, mistakes and ignorance perpetrated by salesmen. There are of
course exceptions, but the training of computer salesmen leaves alot to be
desired.

I here someone at Apple saying it is not their responsibility to train salesmen.
This is true, but I think there should be some effort made to ensure that a
dealer is providing at least some technical expertise. We do exactly that here
at Fairlight - the requirements are extremely tough in our case. With all
high-tech products, a non-technical buyer will believe nearly everything a
salesman tells them, since the salesman is the purported expert. It reflects
on the PRODUCT when a salesman sells a system that does not perform in the way
promised.

Often, I found that mistakes made by salesmen were not intentional but were
simply due to a lack of knowledge. Perhaps it is time for manufacturers to
provide some form of training scheme oriented towards salesmen selling their
products.  This would make life easier for everyone - the buyer, the salesman
and the manufacturer.


						gary@fairlight.oz
						Gary Evesson.