Mom and Pop service, by parents who can care less.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Written by: Jed

If you’ve ever needed an example of a niche market, you don’t have to look further than PC enthusiasts. Despite the mainstream move away from the desktop, this group of geeks (me included) feel the continued need to keep up with the latest and greatest in PC hardware technology. This, like a lot of things, includes shopping (and a lot of it). While the local big box retailers like Best Buy and Futureshop have made an effort in stocking a video card or power supply here and there – their stock is far from current, not to mention outrageously overpriced. Which explains the existence of the local mom and pop computer shops thriving in Toronto’s Chinatown. It also explains the success of online enthusiast retailers like the Newegg and NCIX. These specialty shops serve the niche, and for the most part do it well. Great prices, the newest and greatest parts in stock – it all makes for great shopping. But that’s just two thirds of the trifecta; even online retailers require (at least) adequate customer service. And as surprising as it may be, it’s the brick and mortar shops that are lagging behind the online space in this department. Poor customer service is pretty much expected at your nearest big box retail chain, but it’s surprising to find it at a local mom and pops. Given the prominence of sites like Newegg, you’d think that they’d have some incentive to persuade customers into their store (other than in cases where a part is needed that same day). Unfortunately they either just don’t get it, or they just don’t care (or both). My shopping experience at these local shops have been tolerable at best.

I understand that the type of customer service at a generic electronics retailer like a Best Buy, is different from that of a specialized computer store. I would expect people who walk into the latter, knowing at least what they’re looking for. Given the DIY focus of these places, they wouldn’t be the type of customer to seek Geek Squad assistance. At best all a sales person would have to do is check/deliver stock, and cash the transaction. There’s very little (if any) customer hand-holding going on; it all should be a straight-forward process. And in theory, even actual knowledge of product isn’t necessary – as long you can read box labels you’re set. Yet, for some reason even expecting this type of basic service leads to disappointment.

Enter my search for a keyboard, last week. It wasn’t an emergency situation (I mean I’m still typing this on something). I just needed a better and newer keyboard, so initially I went the online route and placed an order on NCIX. But a keyboard is one of the few personal/subjective parts of a computer. And I’m fickle when it comes to my input devices. With that in mind, I cancelled the order and decided that trying one firsthand would be wiser. I checked out the websites of a number of local shops, and found one that had a good amount of stock of the keyboard I was looking for – fittingly at a store named Fortune Computers. Feeling confident about my chances of finding one, I headed to Fortune, and if you’ve been following the tone of this post so far; I wasn’t so lucky.

I went in, and after aimlessly strolling for a minute or two, ended up in front of an enclosed display of keyboards and was approached and asked if I needed help. I told him exactly what I was looking for, and was met with a blank stare. It was obvious that he didn’t know what I was talking about. What was also obvious, was the fact that he wasn’t going to admit it. Instead of openly admitting his cluelessness, he attempted to play off the fact that said keyboard was out of stock. He did it quite hilariously: I came in and said “I’m looking for a Kensington slim type keyboard,” enter puzzled face, followed by, “Oh, that Kensington keyboard, the slim type right? Yeah… we don’t have it.” This all happened without him even looking through the pile of keyboards behind him, or even walking to a computer to do a simple stock check. I brought up the fact that their website was showing stock at their Toronto location. And going by his reaction alone, he was surprised not only by the alleged stock, but even more by the fact that the store had a website. I walked out puzzled myself. I was practically waving my money at the sales person, the purchase was all but done in my head (assuming there was indeed stock). Sure the online stock check could have been wrong, but the sales rep made zero attempts in even acting like he was helping me. No fake rummaging through boxes; no fake computer stock check; but he definitely didn’t hold back on the smug attitude. That’s the last time I even think about walking into Fortune Computers again.

I didn’t have that much better luck at other stores. I guess I was looking for the Mewtwo of keyboards. However they were genereally a little more helpful, but not really to the point where I would return to shop there primarily because of it. And I don’t understand why the quality of service isn’t stressed higher? Anyone interested in building a computer and saving some bucks in doing so is (or should be) going through online venues. Stores like NCIX offer fast shipping, express RMA, easy price matching, and as a nice added bonus those ordering outside of British Columbia only have to pay a 5% tax. As a Torontonian, that 8% of taxes evaded does add up; particularly when building a computer from scratch. You’d think that local shops would encourage people to want to buy from them, rather than just need to (in the rare time where a $10 cable of some sort goes awry).

But just in case anyone in Toronto needs to make an emergency stop at a computer store, Infonec and Canada Computers seem to be the lesser of the evils.

If Amazon Canada’s recent foray into electronics, results in an online selection similar to its US counterpart – then I’m calling salami and cheese on the viability of brick and mortar stores of all sizes (yeah I’m looking at you Best Buy and Fortune Computers). Until that happens, Newegg and NCIX are great places to start (and shop) for your geek computing needs.

(Leave it Amazon.com to have the keyboard I was looking for.)