Some time ago I went to a large electronics store that sells computers, cell phones, video and audio equipment as well as household appliances, but whose employees apparently lack some basic knowledge.
I walked at the computer desk and asked the saleswoman:
- Hi, I’m looking for a USB memory pendrive.
- Over there, at the mobile phone desk.
Huh?
I went then to the mobile phone desk and inquired the salesman.
- Hi, I’m looking for a USB pendrive. Your colleague sent me here but I don’t think you have here this kind of stuff.
- Yeah, she probably mixed up USB and SIM.
Oh well. Anyway I was thinking about purchasing a new cell phone with advanced capabilities, and I was wondering whether to choose a Symbian, Windows Mobile, or Linux smartphone. So I picked up a phone that looked interesting.
- Could you please tell me which operating system it runs?
- What do you mean?
Argh.
It was a Symbian. The salesman let me slide my own SIM card in the phone so I could turn it on and play with it. While I was twiddling the various options, the cell phone rang as someone was calling me. I answered the call, and immediately the salesman almost grabbed the phone from my hands:
- Hey! No! Stop! STOP! You aren’t allowed to answer the phone! We cannot sell a customer a cell phone with some conversation time used. That wouldn’t be fair!
This guy seemed to believe that you can tunnel only a limited number of words through a phone — once this “talking credit” has expired, you probably have to dispose of the phone. Or maybe you could refill it in some mysterious way.

D0R:

This guy seemed to believe that you can tunnel only a limited number of words through a phone — once this “talking credit” has expired, you probably have to dispose of the phone. Or maybe you could refill it in some mysterious way.

Or maybe he'd figure that someone just a touch more anal than you would look at the machine statistics, and notice that, hey, the call timer isn't 0, you assholes are trying to sell me a used phone and pawn it off as new! What the hell kind of operation do you run here?!

In summary, you're not going to get expert advice at Best Buy

Reminds me of someone I once knew who thought that you had a similar "typing credit" for your computer.

 Ex: you could only type a certain number of words before you had to buy more.

TheDude:

you could only type a certain number of words before you had to buy more.

 Everyone starts off as a complete moron, I think. I was eight years old when I got my first computer, and I was convinced that the 3.5" floppy drive contained "formatting fluid" that had to be replaced after you formatted enough disks. I was also afraid to use Paintbrush for fear of wasting all the paint.

That's funny, because when I bought all of my phones, they had to dial an activation number to prompt a firmware update, which meant that by the time I got it, it already had 10 minutes of call time logged. I kind of didn't quite give a damn. 

Volmarias:

Or maybe he'd figure that someone just a touch more anal than you would look at the machine statistics, and notice that, hey, the call timer isn't 0, you assholes are trying to sell me a used phone and pawn it off as new!

Menu->Advanced->Clear Machine Statistics (or whatever your phone says) 

 If you can't find this option, its not like they can't format the phone and set it up as new. 

pitchingchris:

 If you can't find this option, its not like they can't format the phone and set it up as new

Or even better, they could just ask customers to not make or receive calls on a phone they haven't paid for.

TheDude:

Reminds me of someone I once knew who thought that you had a similar "typing credit" for your computer. Ex: you could only type a certain number of words before you had to buy more.

MasterPlanSoftware:

Or even better, they could just ask customers to not make or receive calls on a phone they haven't paid for.

snoofle:

if someone happens to call you, it's received whether you answer it or not.

The matter at hand was the call time counter. The counter is not going to start until you answer the call. 

D0R:

Some time ago I went to a large electronics store that sells computers, cell phones, video and audio equipment as well as household appliances, but whose employees apparently lack some basic knowledge.

Volmarias:

Or maybe he'd figure that someone just a touch more anal than you would look at the machine statistics, and notice that, hey, the call timer isn't 0, you assholes are trying to sell me a used phone and pawn it off as new!

The salesman let me play with the options of the mobile phone for twenty minutes (that's "using" the phone, right?), but wouldn't let me 30 secs to answer a call (which could have been important). And it was quite impolite in doing so. That's the WTF IMHO. Mind you, I never thought of trying to use the phone to call; it just happened that someone called me. 

durendal.mk3:

Everyone starts off as a complete moron, I think. I was eight years old when I got my first computer, and I was convinced that the 3.5" floppy drive contained "formatting fluid" that had to be replaced after you formatted enough disks. I was also afraid to use Paintbrush for fear of wasting all the paint.

Then I realized those were just shortcuts. Oops.

 If you don't use it, how are you supposed to test the call quality? It is, after all, the main reason for actually buying a phone.

MasterPlanSoftware:

Or even better, they could just ask customers to not make or receive calls on a phone they haven't paid for.

 I remember when I was younger, I thought that drivers were actually pieces of hardware that the computer used.. Also, I remember the time when I reactivated a virus on a friend's computer to see if a certain file that I was 99.9% sure was a virus was in fact the virus, but that's a story for a different thread..

Sgeo:

I remember when I was younger

D0R:

- Hey! No! Stop! STOP! You aren’t allowed to answer the phone! We cannot sell a customer a cell phone with some conversation time used. That wouldn’t be fair!

What, didn't you know that phones are like cars?  When the odometer/call-log reaches 100,000, they cancel your warranty!

~Sticky

valerion:

 If you don't use it, how are you supposed to test the call quality? It is, after all, the main reason for actually buying a phone.

I'm severely hearing impaired and I can attest to this. I wouldn't buy the phone if I couldn't try it first and I could hear it clear enough. It can have all the bells and whistles in the world, but if I really wanted to send email, I'd use my laptop. I mainly want it to actually hear who is on the other side.

I know why the salesman was worried. No its not because there is a limited number of minutes, but because you can check the "lifetime minutes" of a phone which cannot be reset w/o "hacking" it. Clients would actually complain if they got a phone with minutes used claiming "you sold me a used phone as a new one". Its not common, but it happens.

Ah who am I kidding, if customers complain like that we usually told em to piss off :)

belgariontheking:

Sgeo:

I remember when I was younger

I remember when I was older, I wasn't such a jackass.

Really?  I've always been a jackass.

valerion:

 If you don't use it, how are you supposed to test the call quality? It is, after all, the main reason for actually buying a phone.

"Call quality"? I thought modern cellphones just let you do text messaging and send people photos of your cat and web access and stuff. You mean they do phone calls too? 

Wow, technology marches on!

DangerMouse9:

belgariontheking:

Sgeo:

I remember when I was younger

I remember when I was older, I wasn't such a jackass.

 

 

Really?  I've always been a jackass.

Yes, but the key is, WILL you always be one

I remember browsing around CompUSA a long time ago when Mac OSX first came out.  I was pretty young back then too, in my teens.  I was checking out bash and issuing Linux commands, and the sales rep walked up to me and said "don't play with the command prompt, you could screw something up".  I remember saying that the demo unit was logged on in user mode, not administrator mode, so i wouldn't be able to do any damage even if i wanted to.  Nope, that didn't convince him, so i left.

Yah, most people who work in retail are:

Retarded
EnthralledByShinyObjects
TrippingOnAcid
Abnoxious
Iliterate
Loud

 But then you were only eight years old ... I am pretty sure that the sales person of the original post is an adult .... Sigh.