Is there something wrong with me? (Not a sickness question)

Factual Questions
1

What line of work should I be in? Now, they don’t let me sell computers at BB cuz I’m too honest with the customers, and refuse to sell cheap ass piece of shit computers to people who are on a tight budget. I tell them truthfully, “You’d be better off to wait, save your money, and buy something you can be proud of.” I’m fucking honest with the customer. I don’t guide them to something that will ‘work’, I tell them what they honestly need, what they should get, and show them the model that would work best for them. They say they want something that’ll work for 4 years, I tell them it’s not gonna happen. I tell them to either get the nicest thing we have, and be happy if it still runs everything they need it to in 3 years, or I tell them get a slower machine and upgrade next year. If someone comes in and says “I want this and this and this and only want to pay this much”, and we can’t get them a quality machine that’s got what they want for that much, I tell them they’re gonna have to break down and pay more to get what they want. I’m dead fucking honest with these people when they come in, I don’t sell them what they don’t need, and don’t try to sell them what they don’t want. Is there something wrong with me, or them? Are people such stupid fucking cows they want to be lied to and sold a piece of shit?! I know shitloads more than most people in there, but my numbers are terrible. When I didn’t know about the machines as well, I did great. I’ve noticed the three people who sell the most know jack shit about computers. The three people that know the most sell jack shit. What’s the fucking deal!? Should I sell something I don’t know about? No, cuz how I am, I’d learn all about it, then my numbers would suffer. I’m a good salesman, and when I want to be, extrememly convincing. But FUCK! Seriously, though (as if the rest of this rambling bastard isn’t), what line of work should I be in? I know TONS about computers, peripherals, accessories, upgrades, car audio, car mechanics, car performance, home audio, home video, component systems, etc. What should I be doing? I’m killing myself right now… SOMEONE help me find a line of work where I can tell the customer the truth, answer all their questions truthfully, inform them as to what they truly do and don’t need, and still get paid…?

–Tim

We are the children of the Eighties. We are not the first “lost generation” nor today’s lost generation; in fact, we think we know just where we stand - or are discovering it as we speak.

2

Consultant?

Consumer Advocate?

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.”
–Mark Twain

3

Maybe you should work at the return desk. “I told you 3 months ago you shouldn’t buy this piece of crap.”

4

If you wanna stay in sales move to a higher end shop; one that doesn’t even have crap on the floor and the people walking through the door have the money and intellect to know what’s going on. Otherwise, put all that computer knowledge to good use as a “techie”.

5

My point of view, from reading some of your posts, is that you should avoid jobs where you have any contact with the public. If you don’t want to make any efforts to avoid offending people, you won’t be an asset in sales or representing a company.

La franchise ne consiste pas à dire tout ce que l’on pense, mais à penser tout ce que l’on dit.
H. de Livry

6

Sell Macs. They have a useful life of considerably longer than 4 years. You may not be able to run the very latest software without springing for an upgrade, but a 1995 middle-of-the-line Mac (PPC 7100/80) will certainly run Office 98, Communicator, Photoshop, FileMaker Pro, etc, in their current incarnations. For that matter, a 1987 Mac SE will let you surf the web with Mosaic or MacWeb, play audio CDs or install software from CD, run Word 5.1 and Excel 4.0, Photoshop 1.0 (although no chance of color), participate in a 10-base-T ethernet network (requires card or SCSI adapter), add an 8 GB external SCSI hard drive, run operating system as recent as 7.5, add an external (monochrome) full page monitor, a graphics tablet…not exactly cutting edge stuff, but not bad for a 12 year old box!

Designated Optional Signature at Bottom of Post

7

Honesty is refreshing in a person. But don’t mistake honesty for lack of tact or negativity. You can say, “There’s nothing here in your budget that will not be obsolete in two years, you cheap asswipe.”

OR you can say,

“This industry moves so fast that in 2 years ANYTHING you buy will need to be upgraded in order to do SOME things. For instance, if you are really into games like “Myst”, you will need to upgrade your ______(processor, video card) in 2 years. But for MOST functions, this computer will operate just fine. It will just be a lot slower than the new ones.”

8

How about english teacher?

9

How about an english teacher, perhaps?

Yeah, I do have a bad problem with getting my point across sometimes.

Arnold, the only reason you guys see the ‘bad’ side of me on here is because the only questions I ask are the ones that I cannot get answered in r/l. Trust me, in r/l I’m a very nice, understanding, cooperative, kind person. You guys just consider me tactless here because some of the questions I’m asking wouldn’t work as well if I tried to be tactful.

::sigh:: Ask one fuckin question, now everybody thinks I’m a jerk again. Whatever.

–Tim

We are the children of the Eighties. We are not the first “lost generation” nor today’s lost generation; in fact, we think we know just where we stand - or are discovering it as we speak.

10

No, not an English teacher - that job is too, too people intense. Postal worker?

What your are reading in this thread, Homer, is peer pressure in action, it’s just on the side of truth, justice, and “The American Way” this time.

Live and let live
Live and learn
Do unto others

They just sound trite.

11

You sound like you might do well at a PC support desk at a large corporation. You know, the guy who answers the phone when some ladies needs to ask, My computer won’t boot, what do I do?

12

So you’re looking for a job that doesn’t require you to lie.

Well you can forget about any kind of job in the fields of :

government spokesman (Our extensive maps and high resolution satellite images concluded that the 3 preschools, 4 hospitals, infirmary, day care center, and battered woman’s shelter we blew up were in fact sophisticated bomb factories with enough high powered explosives to annhililate 5 cities the size of New York. Really.)

sales,
politics,
news media,
commercial pitchman ,

PR (While we won’t concede to the fact that our products sometimes do, under normal working conditions, burst into fire totally at random, we do have engineers working 24 hours a day to fix any problems that, to the best of our knowledge, don’t exist.)

customer service (So you say the stitching in these pants dissolved under no apparent duress or under anything other than normal circumstances? Okay well did you wear them outside? Yes? Well, see sir, if you’d have asked our sales associate for the warranty agreement and read the attached 48 pages and signed the agreement in triplicate, you’d have seen that urban air contains certain pollutants that dissolve our cheap synthetic thread. Exposing your clothing to this air automatically voids your warranty. Thank you for shopping with Clothes Warehouse. Please come again.)

spokesman for the Partnership for a Drug Free America (too easy)

police officer (I wouldn’t have pulled you over, sir, but I’m afraid that, according to my color chart, you’re about two shades too black to be driving without suspicion in this neighborhood)

insurance company worker (I’m sorry sir, but we consider penicillin to be an experimental treatment, and it is therefore not covered under your policy)

clothing store worker (you look FABULOUS in that moo-moo, Mrs. Helgendorfer!)

clerk at a head shop (this is for tobacco use only!)
Hmm well as to jobs you COULD do without lying uhhh shit, got me. I guess you could be a farmer or something.

13

Oops, I was gonna write lies for

sales,
politics,
news media,
commercial pitchman ,

too, but I kinda forgot and left them in the middle there looking all funny and left-out. Sorry 'bout that.

14

If you know a lot about the products, and like to be brutally honest, don’t sell; buy. Look into becoming either a buyer for retail or purchasing agent for a business. I’m sure you’ll be able the salespeople.

15

…able to handle the salespeople, that is.

16

You say you know a lot about computers – have you thought about being a techie? Do you LIKE computers AND people? Might need more schooling, but techies are in demand. My son went to an electronics repair school; ended up teaching there and likes teaching - was a repairman for Circuit City for years; got to know something about 'puters there; is mostly self-taught, but took some classes and just got a good job in tech support with Bell Atlantic.

17

Investigate employment at Consumer Reports Magazine.

18

Homer,

I know what you mean. I could not work at Best Buy or CompUSA because of the computers they sell…the upgrade products (modems, keyboards etc.) I could, but not their systems.

You might try a local shop that caters to business. If I weren’t working for the company I am as a network admin, I would look to a medium size business that caters to the business client.

Just my thoughts.

19

Homer: You wrote “Are people such stupid fucking cows they want to be lied to and sold a piece of shit?!” If that kind of attitude towards the customer carries over into your work – even subconsiously – there might be a problem. Perhaps in addition to being honest you are blunt and curt rather than diplomatic.

In fact, people DO want to be “lied to”, after a fashion. If they want to buy something, they want the salesperson to make them feel good about what they bought. Shopping is, for most people, an emotional experience, not the mere obtaining of sustenance. People like to be told, “You’ll enjoy this computer” as much as they like to hear, “You’ll look sharp in that suit.”

It isn’t so much a “lie” as a pleasantry, though it could be argued that you can’t know if they person will enjoy the computer or look sharp in the eyes of his peers. Nonetheless, as a salesman, you are not being dishonest if you conspire with the consumer to make the purchase an “piece of the American dream” (if you know what I mean).

You can tell a person about a system’s shortcomings in such a way that they will see that you’re being straight with them. But you have to beware that you don’t inadvertently send the message, “You must be a cheapskate or poor if you’re looking at this level of product.”

You also don’t want to inadvertently convert the statement “This is our economy model” into “This is a piece of crap”. You may not use those words, but you may be conveying them in subtle ways.

Additionally, there’s more to your job than selling the product; you are also selling the company. I feel more comfortable when I buy something from Radio Shack than when I buy it from “Fred’s Electronic Bin”. If your company has a fair return policy and is willing to replace defective merchandise without a hassle, that’s a big feature, and it enhances the value of what you sell.

Afraid to fly? Hey, I’ve been there!

20

Also, to be fair, not every PC is obsolete after three years. My computer is a great many years aged (old Pentium 120) and I’m just now looking to buy a new one and only because the 1.2gig hard drive is full and any upgrade (new HD or zip drive) would run me more than the value of the computer itself. However, it still does what I want it to do.

That said, go sell something that doesn’t become obsolete. Sell furniture. Sell mattresses. Dinnerware. Hell, you can sell a CD player and feel fairly confident that in 5 years it’ll still play CDs. I sell people plants all the time and have no bad feelings about telling people “No, a french lilac will get way too big to put in front of your window. I’d say go for one of the dwarf varieties. We don’t have any in now, but we should next week. Even if you don’t want to wait and go somewhere else, I’ll tell you right now that you’d be making a mistake with a french lilac 'cause you’ll be pulling it out in two years.” It’s fair, it’s honest and it allows me to use what I know. And since plants (or tables or silverware or chainsaws or ping-pong tables) don’t become obsolete or whatever, I don’t have to sweat the person buying something good for only 1 year.

In other words, if you want to stay in sales, go sell something else.

“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”