Has "politically correct" killed the used audio market?

@audio2design,

"In my yearly or every other year call with my cell phone company where I "negotiate" my rate, I tell them at the start of the call, this is my offer based on competition and their public offerings."


I tried to haggle last Feb with my car insurance renewal. Unfortunately, the guy on the other end wouldn’t budge and I hadn’t done the research to check whether the other quotes were like for like eg excess, courtesy car, breakdown cover etc.

It’s definitely a skill worth having, but you’ve got to also put the preliminary work in and tone down any sentiment.

One of my colleagues is particularly good at the business of haggling. She claims she saves hundreds of pounds with all of her various renewals.

Although she’s reasonably polite and friendly on the surface, if pushed she can also get pretty ferocious.

Me, I would start to worry whether the person on the other end of the phone, usually some kid, is having a good day or not. It takes a lot to get me mad, but unfortunately when I do, it also can take a lot to get me calmed down again.

The life and times of a passive-aggressive control freak audio enthusiast?

Well, as they say, life is a lesson. And there’s always the music.

As we know (and politicians and sales people seem to know even better) words can be very slippery indeed.

It’s can also be a long and circuitous route from one person’s original thought and desire to communicate, all the way to another’s understanding.

And that’s when they’re presumably being honest.

Perhaps it’s even more important to determine the real meaning in these days of our ever increasing reliance upon just the written word.

There’s quite a difference between written and spoken reviews. And again when we can see the reviewer.

Yet still no easy way to measure honesty.

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Doublespeak, how to lie without lying.

https://youtu.be/qP07oyFTRXc

@cleeds 

+1

I've had a bit of personal experience with folks who are all in an uproar about "political correctness" and "liberal attitudes".

The ones who express how silly it is that so much care has to be applied to language and how it is used...

Well, as soon as they are spoken to around any given subject in the manner they feel they should be able to speak to someone, they get all bent out of shape. Granted, I am guilty of testing their beliefs around communication and the care that should be extended to another. All I do, however, is speak back to them the way they have spoken to me.

Hypocrisy reveals itself quite quickly and all of a sudden, the manner in which I speak, which mirrors their use of language, is a big problem and they are deeply offended.

Who cares what language is used to described something being sold.

If someone wants to wax poetic about a crappy old piece of audio gear they are trying to sell, good for them - even if it is poorly written and obviously an attempt to try to get rid of something they no longer want.

Caveat emptor...