Salesmen Can Be Funny...

The other day I was at a trade show and as I was approaching one of the booths, I overheard the salesman telling someone about a flashlight they carried. Of course this instantly caught my attention, so I stood there and listened to his pitch. He was telling the guy that light had the brightest, cutting edge LED available in a flashlight, as well as how indestructible the light is, blah, blah, blah. He was shining the light up toward the ceiling (maybe 50 feet), and saying "Just look at how this sucker lights up that high ceiling! You won't find another LED flashlight that will do that!"

After the guy he was talking to moved on, I stepped up and picked up the light in question...it was made of black plastic, had a tail clickie (reverse), and the body design vaguely reminded me of one of those double barrel 4AA Eveready lights, but like I said, it was plastic. It had a pretty good sized smooth plastic reflector, maybe 1 1/2" and down inside that reflector was the newest, most cutting edge high powered LED that is made at this point in time...yep, it was a Luxeon I or III! I can't for the life of me, remember the name or the brand of it though.

He told me to shine it up toward the ceiling, which I did and was pretty unimpressed as you can imagine. The salesman said "pretty amazing huh?! Bet you've never seen a light as bright as that one!"

I said, "Well, it is pretty bright, but take a look at this one..." Fortunately, I had my 6P with Malkoff M60 in my pocket. :devil: I fired that sucker up and you should have seen his jaw hit the floor! He said, "Where did you get that?! That's not an LED...is it?" I explained that it was a Cree LED and used an optic, blah, blah, blah.

One Surfire 6P...$39

One Malkoff M60...$55

Two AW RCR123s...$16.50 shipped

Shutting up a bragging salesman...Priceless! :devil:

Nice story :laughing: Your SF w/ Malkoff "fixed" the problem. Really can't stand bragging salesmen and their sometimes awful sales pitches.

Hahaha, good job.

Did you tell him about cpf, sounds like new member material.

Streamlight Pro-poly lux? If so, the throw of that light is nothing to sneeze at. It's was once one of the most recommended lights until the L2D took over the AA light market. Even still, it holds a place in many a CPF member's heart.

Haha, Nice!

It's their job to sell what ever the company tells them but it's still fun to disprove them.

Here's a Propoly4AA Luxeon review. Is that the light?

Most salesmen I have come across are never as well versed in what they are selling as they should or could be. In the end they are salesmen and their job is to sell what they are told to. I would love to have seen the look on that guy's face though.

Thats funny!!!!


Last year pretty much the same thing happened to me.
Being a flashoholic, I was checkin out the available lights at
the tool show.
The sales guy walks over & says what he needs to,
I then proceed with, "mines smaller and brighter"
The look he gave was great!

There is a tool show coming up in a few weeks.
I'll have fun doing it again this year!:devil:

Nope, wasn't Streamlight, I would have remembered that. Wish I could remember! And it wasn't a bad light per se, it was just the way the salesman kept saying it was the brightest cutting edge LED available that got to me...had he not said that over and over and over, the 6P would have remained in my pocket.

:thumbsup:

why didnt you whip out the malkoff and outshine him in front of everyone while he was lighting up the ceiling :twothumbs

I can remember, perhaps 20 years ago . . . .


Went to a Computer Store, and looked at the Mice.


Saw a model just like the one that i owned,
which was an optical mouse, by Mouse Systems.


This had two 5mm LED's in the base, pointing downward.
One is Red, and the other is InfraRed (therefore, invisible to our eyes)


The salesman approaches, and tries to tell me:

"This model actually has a Red Laser inside ! See ! ! !"


I move backwards, in (mock) fear, and reply:

"Gee, i don't wanna' buy one that's DANGEROUS ! ! !"


:devil:
_

Toohotruk said:

Nope, wasn't Streamlight, I would have remembered that. Wish I could remember! And it wasn't a bad light per se, it was just the way the salesman kept saying it was the brightest cutting edge LED available that got to me...had he not said that over and over and over, the 6P would have remained in my pocket.

Click to expand...

could it have been a pelican sabrelight?
thats the only thing closest to an SL PP 4AA Lux I can think of...thats also plastic

qip said:

why didnt you whip out the malkoff and outshine him in front of everyone while he was lighting up the ceiling :twothumbs

Click to expand...

There were plenty of witnesses to his humiliation standing around...I even heard a few chuckles at his expense.

I know it's his job to sell the products he's paid to sell, and a lot of salesmen really know very little about the products they sell, it's just the way he went WAY overboard about it being the greatest light ever made that bugged me.

Great story, Toohotruk. Must have been fun. I wonder if the guy was peddling one of the UK eLEDs.

Geoff

Illum_the_nation said:

could it have been a pelican sabrelight?
thats the only thing closest to an SL PP 4AA Lux I can think of...thats also plastic

Click to expand...

Nope, not a Pelican either, would have remembered that as well.

The "tubes" on each side were more defined, like the Double Barrel. And there were no other switches besides the tail clickie. It was a more obscure brand than is normally talked about around here...I keep wanting to say "Raven" or something similar.

Burgess said:

I can remember, perhaps 20 years ago . . . .


Went to a Computer Store, and looked at the Mice.


Saw a model just like the one that i owned,
which was an optical mouse, by Mouse Systems.


This had two 5mm LED's in the base, pointing downward.
One is Red, and the other is InfraRed (therefore, invisible to our eyes)


The salesman approaches, and tries to tell me:

"This model actually has a Red Laser inside ! See ! ! !"


I move backwards, in (mock) fear, and reply:

"Gee, i don't wanna' buy one that's DANGEROUS ! ! !"


:devil:
_

Click to expand...

Wait. 20 years ago? I never saw an optical mouse before 2000 or so.

deusexaethera said:

Wait. 20 years ago? I never saw an optical mouse before 2000 or so.

Click to expand...

Around 1986, my nephew had a PC with a optical mouse. I required a special reflective mousepad.

As for the salesmen, some of them don't always know what they are talking about. Or... is it "always don't"?

It's not like I am humiliating them or anything, but most of them haven't received profer information about what they're dealing, and managers usually pushing them for getting results.

That works quite well when customer is clueless regarding the product. When the customer is CPF member and has nice light, then... you know what could happen. LOL

well here is where I chip in with a story of mine played over many times.

There is a outdoor/hiking store I purchase stuff....good store with an even better owner.

I always check out the newest flashlights (this time around low-end Cree P4s and nexttorch flashlights and the best of them all: a Romisen G2 with a 0.5W chinese led!)

I have come THIS close to getting my EDC out to "check the Cree LED wires":devil:

But when my DD MC-E is finsinshed I will loan it to the salesman for a trip to the basement...(this way he will not run away with it):devil:

Was that the light he was selling, or was it his own light? Either way you suprised him.:laughing: