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How to spot unqualified sales staff:
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shoo
May 29, 2009, 3:30 PM
Views: 2621
Registered: Dec 22, 2006
Posts: 1501
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When buying gear from a shop, make sure the person who is giving you advice actually knows what they are talking about.
I work nights at a climbing gym with a small retail area. I'm pretty disgusted with the number of people I see with incredibly inappropriate gear sold to them by certain retail stores with three letter abbreviations. I've seen pretty much everything: shoes that didn't in any way shape or form fit, harnesses not designed for rock climbing, a dude who brought in a half rope to use as a single, and so on. And that's just at the gym. Seriously. It's ridiculous.
Below are my tips for responsibly buying climbing gear.
Know what you are doing before entering the store
This is by far the best way to protect yourself. Do your research. If it's your first time buying a harness find some information out about what features you would want or need in a harness. Look around at specific models. If you're looking for advice online, remember that this is the internet. What forums and sources are good and bad is another subject.
This makes you far less reliant on the sales staff. The broader your base of knowledge, the better. This also makes it far easier to spot the fakes.
Avoid general outdoors stores where possible, buy at climbing-specific shops
You are taking a risk when taking advice from those general outdoors stores. The staff at most of these places aren't usually experienced climbers. At most places, there might be one or two people who have reasonable experience. This may or may not be the person who is helping you (probably not).
Staff at climbing specific shops are more likely to know what they are talking about. However, you need to be very careful even here.
Get to know the sales person
Start up a friendly conversation. Get some background info. Ask the dude if he / she climbs. If so, what kind, for how long, and where. If you don't like the answers you are getting, kindly ask if there is anyone else in the shop who has more experience. Make sure you do the same with the new sales staff as well.
And now for the fun part. . .
Spot the fake
This is harder to do. A person can tell you he has all the experience in the world, and it can all be crap. Here are a few things you can try:
1) Ask the person whether or not they carry some obscure piece of climbing equipment, something only someone who has been climbing a while would have ever even heard of. A good one is a fifi hook (look it up). Tricams (look them up) work pretty well too, though less obscure. If you ask them to see a tricam, and they show you some active cam, you know have a fake.
2) Ask the person what the best shoe / harness / rope is. If they give you a specific model, they probably are a fake. The answer should be "it depends," followed by a lengthy explanation.
3) Ask the person about how to use different climbing techniques. If the person uses a lot of absolutes, such as "you must always do this" or "never do that," they probably don't have a healthy amount of experience. There are very few absolutes in climbing.
Anyone have any other tips?
(This post was edited by shoo on May 29, 2009, 4:01 PM)
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Edit Log:
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Post edited by shoo
() on May 29, 2009, 4:01 PM
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