Your comments are surprising living in California. You must have had a bad experience. I'm black and live in Atlanta. I never had a issue with the salespeople black or white. They're so eager to sell me a phone that most of them are pretty nice.
The only thing I don't like is them opening the box but I want to buy it in the store so I can use a credit on my account.
The person selling me the phone itself wasn't a bad person, but the people around him were. When the dude asked me if I wanted insurance and I said "nah" casually, he went about his business, but some chick behind him scoffs and goes "what an idiot".
Generally when I walked into the store they never smiled at me or anything, would always seem condescending and make me feel like I was wasting their time when all I asked was "I was wondering if I could see X phone".
That being said, there are new people in the shop now so hopefully the experience is ameliorated.
I agree with the bold point. Most salesmen/women should just be excited to make the sale, regardless of age/race/gender. Salesmen/women who act condescending probably won't last long in the sales world.
I hope you have a better experience next time, OP. Not all salesmen/women are bad, but it does seem to be the bad ones we all remember most.
Yeah the salespeople are definitely nice if you find the right one. Sometimes I get the occasional 'I'm busy, stop asking me questions' kind of a-hole, but most of the time it's nice people. As I said above, the people that are rude are the other people working there. People manning the front/entrance, people working behind the counters.
I might pick up my phone now in the shop, just because I want my hands on it right away, but I would also like to set that stuff up myself.
I'm not sure.
I guess what I'll do is check online what the final price is and how long shipping will take and then figure out if it's better to purchase online or in the shop.
Unboxing is definitely an exciting part of getting a new gadget, so I don't want that taken away from me.