I perfectly agree with you that only 1% of the customers knows what they want. Why because they have heard by someone that this is a good product when they have no clue what it is doing but it sounded cool. While I'm sitting behind my desk, I'm usually not just cashing the money and shipping products. I always have a first phase where I'm asking what they are trying to do and question them. It usually takes several email iterations and frequently ending on the phone. I can't make the interview live but I have a very good idea of what their house or their room look like. I usually even have the drawings of the house for a whole house system.
Now, I would not call myself a custom installer because, yes I'm not on site doing the work or directing the team that do it. But you can believe me I know definitely more than you think about assembling and programming systems and make complex systems work together. I understand the technology perfectly! I'm in it 18 hours a day. So if I'm not a custom installer, I'm definitly at the level of a lot of consultants in A/V. People that don't understand the difference between a device based system versus an activity based system. I've spent the last CEDIA attending classes from opening to closing and talking to the manufacturers about their products, their plans, their pilosophy and target. Guess what? most of my believes are completly in sync with the manufacturers. So I guess my take on the business is not that bad after all. I've seen some installations in $1M~$1.5M house that was shameful for the profession and for the custom installers. I've seen front speakers in media rooms places at 90 degrees angle from each other and from the main listening area. I've seen custom installer creating a 'home theater' with plain drywall and paint with high back chair and no relay of IR. They had a projector, a screen, a grafik eye to play with the light and 10 different remotes. That's it! I can multiply the examples ad nauseum.
My point is that there is a lot of drop shipper in the online retail but they are not all like that. And while the ratio bad vs good is probably higher in the retail than the custom install it is far from zero in your area! It is your right to not like the online retailers and I DO respect that but this person was asking a question that needed a more comprehensive answer than saying "Online retail = WHORE". Online means taking a huge risk during shipping and on the warranty. For a plasma screen and (almost any TV) it is a huge risk (I would even say unacceptable) that he should NOT take unless he has really double checked everything. It is also the risk that the seller will disappear with the money (let's add crooks to whores!). That I think was the answer this guy was looking for. So you see I can listen behind my desk!
So, next time someone is telling you he is retailing products online, have at least the decency to listen to him and see if he is just a drop shipper. Feel free to hate him as much as you want after that. I do feel the same way about them anyway! And I hate this people in stores that don't know shit about the products they are selling and try to impress me with a buzz word. They are usually crawling back in their hole after the first question anyway. The last one had a tee shirt with the word EXPERT written on it. I have about 4000 products available. I'm not claiming to know each of them perfectly but I know the one I'm retailling perfectly and know how to combine all of them to have a winning system. Behind my desk and my keyboard, I've actually made more education than sold products so far and avoided several huge costly mistake. My customer satisfaction is prime and goes before selling any products.
