"don't ask your barber if you need a haircut" ( implying that any salesperson is motivated by their self interest in the immediate sale rather than developing trust with a long time customer ) " How do you know a salesperson is lying . His lips are moving"
Just to set the record straight here, In every profession,( even yours ) there will be people who are dishonest for self centered reasons. However, the majority of bby employees are honest with customers about certain brands if they have repeat repair issues. why ? because we are visible in the store everyday, and if we keep knowingly recommending crap to customers, those customers will come back to complain to us. We are not on commission and we don't get spiffs, so if we don't sell product A to a customer, we can sell product B. Building trust is more important than the immediate sale. Yes, being honest will bring you back more often than if we lie just to get the sale. If we get enough complaints about a certain model, then that model will be gone from our inventory. I have fought for my customers , over repair issues ,. We have something called " escalation". we can email the corp team directly to look at a customers complaint and , they are very prompt getting back to customers . Our company wants to know about brand models with bad repair records. That's why they seek the feedback from sales people on the floor. that's why they have a section called customer reviews in every product description. when Im researching something before I buy, I go everywhere, my local store, consumer reports , customer reviews.
And by the way, if you have a good ,respectful ,relationship with your barber, he will be honest with you and tell you if you don't need a haircut .
