Vent Why? Why? Why do salespeople give bad advice?

I get it if you are a salesperson and you just don't say anything at all, but why give bad advice? And then claim that you know better, but give that advice anyway?

I was at BBB and asked for the price on an r100 that was on the clearance shelf. First she reiterated to me a zillion times that it didn't have much padding and that it was "more of a booster." Then when she told me the price and I said I would pass, she said it was high because it had so many modes. I remarked that I wasn't looking to use it as a booster, since it would likely be outgrown by the time we were ready to use it in booster mode. First she said that I'd "be surprised" that some kids could fit in it in booster mode early on and that the weight/height requirements were "'more of a recommendation." I said that I was a CPST and that I didn't consider the numbers to be just a recommendation. She said, "oh I know, I wouldn't either, but you'd be surprised at what some parents do." (What?!?!? If you wouldn't do it why were you just telling me that it was ok for me to do????) She then said, "I know what you mean, though. I've taken that course too." (Huh? So you're a CPST and you still think it's okay to give bad advice to your customers??)

She went on to say that her own child was still harnessed at 5 years old in a radian and I said that we were hoping to RF for that long and so we were considering the E2F. She scrunched up her face and said that usually their legs get too cramped to RF and I said that, especially with the extension panel, I wasn't worried about her being cramped. She said, "oh I know! You'd be surprised at how comfortable they can be!"

What? Basically everything she said contradicted herself. I just wanted her to tell me the price of the seat and instead I got sucked into this downward spiral of her simultaneously arguing with me and also "agreeing" with me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I hope your face reflected your feelings toward her statements, lol. I think I've gotten to an age where I don't really care what feelings are expressed on my face anymore .

Why do they give bad advice? Because they can. Because they want to look informative to their costumers. And most of all, they want to make a sale.

In the past I have seen this happen, and I put in my two cents, some parents appreciated it, they were new and wanted the best for their kid.

Be nice if they were trained in some way.

HEVY said:

Why do they give bad advice? Because they can. Because they want to look informative to their costumers. And most of all, they want to make a sale.

Click to expand...

The thing is, if she had just listened to what I was saying, I would have told her everything she needed to know about me to sell me on an r100. She could have heard me say that I wanted a more open seat, with lower sides, for my older RF child ...and been totally capable of playing up those characteristics of the r100. Instead, she talked first, discouraging me from the best practices that I was already planning to follow, and then, when I expressed disagreement, pretended to be on the same side as me, which only made it more confusing to talk to her.

Ugh. I love that BBB has all the high-end gear, but I think I am going to stick with my BRU, where the manager of the gear dept knows me by name and refers to me as his "car seat guru."


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That would be really funny if not for the fact that she is probably influencing the way parents use car seats (and not in a good way)!

jjordan said:

That would be really funny if not for the fact that she is probably influencing the way parents use car seats (and not in a good way)!

Click to expand...

Maybe I am thinking far too much in nurse mode, but I wonder about liability. If she is telling people that height and weight requirements are more recommendations, and insinuating that much smaller, presumably younger, kids can sit in a booster. I think the average parent will think that a sales person in a store, specifically for baby furniture etc, will know a lot about what they are selling. A sales person so obviously telling the parent whatever it is they think the parent wants to hear to make the sale is scary.

HEVY said:

Be nice if they were trained in some way.

Click to expand...

I worked at BBB for awhile.
The thing is, they ARE trained.
For example, the staff at our store was given training - some influenced by, and some straight-up given by Britax.
Guess what my coworkers mostly sold? For some reason non-Britax seats didn't move.
This is the training that's given out. When you work there, you are given XYZ information about car seats and no, it's not the best information out there. But honestly, these people are making minimum wage. Like hell am I going to expect them to spend their free time out of work researching extra when they're provided with training they have no reason to doubt. Honestly, it's not on the (mostly childless) BBB workers to know better, it should be on the parents. That's not happening right now, of course, as we all know and that's why the misuse rate is sky high - but I wouldn't say it's the job of some childless young adult getting paid $8/hour to not be able to sit down for hours on end to fill in the holes the parents aren't pursuing themselves.

Sorry. I didn't really mean to/expect to go on a rant like that. Long story short, BBB trains it's staff, but the information from BBB is being filtered through whatever manufacturers can pour the most money into things like that, and through whatever sales make the corporation the most money. That's what it comes down to. It's not because the worker on the car seat/strollers floor is being paid commission or anything and thus is biased towards XYZ, but because the training is sub-par and emphasizes the sort of customer relations you experienced, Nedra.
When I worked there, *I* ended up providing training to my manager and a few coworkers (Legitimate training, my manager trailed me with a notepad and took notes about what I was telling her to base seat recommendations on and what the pros/cons of individual seats were).

Aurezalia, good point about it not being the job of the sales person to know in depth what car seat has what features, etc.. but! they shouldn't act as if they have the answers if they don't. And they should be trained enough to let patents know the weight/height limits are in fact limits and not "suggestions". They should be able to show the customer where the basic information is on the box or the card that comes along with the demo seat and maybe know the top selling points of their most popular 3-4 car seats. Anything else would be gravy and not expected, again, just as long as they can give the basic info if the seats and direct the parents where they can find more info (aka the manufacturer website) and maybe even know what a CPST is and how the parent can find one. I don't think that's too unreasonable to ask, even on $8 per hour.

Aurezalia said:

But honestly, these people are making minimum wage. Like hell am I going to expect them to spend their free time out of work researching extra when they're provided with training they have no reason to doubt. Honestly, it's not on the (mostly childless) BBB workers to know better, it should be on the parents. That's not happening right now, of course, as we all know and that's why the misuse rate is sky high - but I wouldn't say it's the job of some childless young adult getting paid $8/hour to not be able to sit down for hours on end to fill in the holes the parents aren't pursuing themselves.

Click to expand...

The thing is, while I think it would be awesome for them to have some legit training, I agree that it's not their job to be educating themselves on the side...nor is it their job to go out of their way to educate parents on best practice. But the thing is, I wasn't asking for any advice. It seems crazy to me that she would go out of *her* way to tell me that my child would be uncomfortable RF, or that manufacturers weight minimums didn't matter. I cannot imagine that whatever training she had -- no matter how biased in favor of a particular manufacturer -- specified that manufacturers limits were just recommendations. I guess maybe she just got confused between her training and what her friend/coworker/parent told her, but it feels like she was just saying random stuff to sound informed.

It's a weird all-or-nothing. I wish baby stores would either invest in their personnel enough for them to get properly trained (or at least have ONE person who is properly trained that everyone else can radio if there's a car seat question) or that they be trained to provide a handout with best practices and say that if you have any questions you should contact your local SafeKids chapter.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, I don't have a problem with minimum wage employees not knowing much about car seats, but it is not too much to ask that they refrain from giving advice that they are not qualified to give. And I absolutely don't blame parents for listening to and following advice that is confidently given by an employee in the car seat or baby section of a store. Not every parent has the inclination to research everything to death, and the trusting ones assume that employees of a baby store know what they're talking about. Totally agree with Nedra that even just training them to NOT go above their pay grade when giving advice, and instead have safety questions referred to real experts, would be a huge step up.

Aurezalia said:

I worked at BBB for awhile.
The thing is, they ARE trained.
For example, the staff at our store was given training - some influenced by, and some straight-up given by Britax.
Guess what my coworkers mostly sold? For some reason non-Britax seats didn't move.
This is the training that's given out. When you work there, you are given XYZ information about car seats and no, it's not the best information out there. But honestly, these people are making minimum wage. Like hell am I going to expect them to spend their free time out of work researching extra when they're provided with training they have no reason to doubt. Honestly, it's not on the (mostly childless) BBB workers to know better, it should be on the parents. That's not happening right now, of course, as we all know and that's why the misuse rate is sky high - but I wouldn't say it's the job of some childless young adult getting paid $8/hour to not be able to sit down for hours on end to fill in the holes the parents aren't pursuing themselves.

Sorry. I didn't really mean to/expect to go on a rant like that. Long story short, BBB trains it's staff, but the information from BBB is being filtered through whatever manufacturers can pour the most money into things like that, and through whatever sales make the corporation the most money. That's what it comes down to. It's not because the worker on the car seat/strollers floor is being paid commission or anything and thus is biased towards XYZ, but because the training is sub-par and emphasizes the sort of customer relations you experienced, Nedra.
When I worked there, *I* ended up providing training to my manager and a few coworkers (Legitimate training, my manager trailed me with a notepad and took notes about what I was telling her to base seat recommendations on and what the pros/cons of individual seats were).

Click to expand...

Now that I think about it, they *are* trained. Not only at BBB but also at BRU and other specialty baby stores. It took some jogging of my memory from Aurezalia's post, but I know at least Britax and Diono visit stores to do salesperson training of their seats. Now how much of that training sticks, I don't know. Plus, we know there's a high turnover of retail employees.

It would be awesome if they could have parents go through a car seat safety class.