I fucking HATE P.C. Richards.
For those people not in the U.S. (or hell, not in the NY area… are they even nationwide?), P.C. Richards is an electronic store. They sell computers, laptops, big screen TV’s, you name it.
But EVERY damn time I go in there I want to punch someone in the nads. Their salesmen are hands down the rudest, slimiest a-holes I have ever met.
I understand that if you work on commission, you really need to land the high-ticket sales, but don’t fucking IGNORE ME if I’m looking for help in picking a $5.00 SD card! After being routinely ignored every time I walked in and wasn’t looking to spend thousands of dollars, I have learned my lesson.
NOW, when I walk in, I run straight to the big-screen televisions, and start looking at price tags. Within a MINUTE, some asshat in a cheap suit comes running over, asking me if I need any help. When I then ask him where the batteries are, I take extra special joy in watching the friendly smile turn into a lowly sneer on the jackoff’s face as he walks me over to help me with my $10 sale.
If the place wasn’t so damn convenient (literally down the road from my house), I would never set foot in the place.
But THIS time, they went too far.
My mom’s TV blew up this week, so she’s in the market to get another one. Now mind you, they have this big honkin’ entertainment center, so they can’t fit more than a 40 inch TV in there. My point being, NO television they are going to buy should end up being TOO expensive a set.
Also, keep in mind that my mother has the technological knowledge of someone from 1965. Seriously, she still can’t even figure out how to work her VCR.
So, to the slimeballs at P.C. Richards, having HER walk into the store, asking for advice on what television to buy, was like throwing chum in the water.
She called me up last night after coming home from the store, telling me that she worked out what she needed with the P.C. Richards salesman, and was going back to buy her $4,000 in items!!!!!!!!!!
I fucking blew my lid. When I asked her to tell me what the Hell she was planning on buying, this is what she told me:
- 40 inch Sony for $900. I didn’t see the set, but at least I can say that is a reasonable price. They also had her on the hook for a 5 year service contract for about $400 more, which is total bullshit. Generally, I don’t believe in contracts…. If the fucking thing breaks, then just go get a new one.
- $200 Blu-Ray player – this is where I started to lose it. She didn’t even know what Blu-Ray was. The guy told her that it would make her movies look better. He NEGLECTED to tell her that you needed to get Blu-Rays to watch them. She was led to believe that the player just made her TV look better, and this slimeball did nothing to contradict that. The player was 3-D ready, which was why it was so expensive. The fact that he had the gall to tell her to buy a 3D player when he was already selling her a non-3D TV makes my skin crawl. He also had her on the hook for an $80 insurance contract on it, too.
- Bose Speaker system – This is where I went postal. He told her that to REALLY get the proper sound, she needed this system installed with the tv. The fact that it cost $1,500 probably had nothing to do with his decision, I’m sure. Seriously, a Bose system? For my mother? A person who half the time watches TV with closed captioning on because the noise gives her a headache? Are you shitting me?
- He also had her on the hook for over $200 in cables and other crap.
After tax, the total came to around $4,000.
Thank goodness she had the sense to call me before she bought all this shit. For HER needs, she should be spending $1,000 tops. If she HAD bought that stuff, I swear I would have driven down there and personally returned every damn one of those appliances to that salesman. Rectally.
Again, I know times are tough, and working on commission is dog-eat-dog, but how the fuck do you sleep at night when you make it part of your job to take advantage of unsuspecting senior citizens?
See? Just telling this story got my hot Sicilian blood all riled up again. I may need to go out and tip over one of those fucking Best Buy Geek Squad cars in retaliation……