After reading the title, you may be thinking "Is he going to write about the store? If not, how complicated purchasing something can be? You go to a store, retail or online, pay for the item and get it; simple as that. “Well, when we are talking about purchasing something as unique as Falcon, you should expect the purchasing experience to be a unique one as well.
I have been considering buying a Falcon for a long time. After Novint’s recently signed several deals with several big game publishers, I was more tempted to get one. Finally, seeing its price at $100 (+tax, of course) on Tigerdirect.com, I decided to take the plunge and get one. Since Tigerdirect has a retail store in my area, I thought I could just go there and pick one up. Before I went to the store, I wanted to call and ask to make sure that they would have one in stock. I asked the representative who answered the phone “Do you have a Novint Falcon in stock?”. This was done deliberately, to see whether they would know what I'm talking about, or not. No surprises here, she had no idea what I was talking about. After this, I provided her with the Item Number: N128-1000, and she confirmed that they had this item in stock in their retail store. Being afraid that there may be only one at the store which could be sold before I went there on the weekend, I decided to go there the same day during the week.
After arriving at the store, I asked one of the employees “Where can I find a Novint Falcon?”. She asked me what kind of an item that was, and after I told her that it was a game controller, she pointed towards the back of the store where they had the game controllers on display. Being unable to see a Falcon among many mice, joysticks, wheels and gamepads, I approached two employees talking at a register, and asked the same question “Where do you keep Novint Falcons?”. While one of them looked at me with a clearly confused expression on his face, the other one asked the same question “What is that?”. When I said that it was a game controller, he said, looking at the other one, “I think I know what he's talking about. It’s that weird controller.”, and pointed me towards a shelf loaded with several Falcons. Seeing several of them piled up on a shelf, the first thought that passed my mind was “I didn't need to be afraid that it could sell out!”. Just at that moment, the guy at the register said with a high volume, so that I could hear, “Looks like we are selling another one? This is going to be the second one we ever sold” which assured me that I could have easily come on the weekend and all of them would have been waiting for me on their shelf. At the same time, the same comment might have raised a red-flag to another, less knowlegable customer, making them think "So, no one is buying this? Maybe I also should not".
I picked one up, and it had a price sticker on it with $179.99 in small print and $159 in a large bold one. There was no indication anywhere around the self that it was supposed to cost $99.99. I took it to the same register with the same two guys. After scanning the barcode, he said “It’s even cheaper than the discounted price!”, without telling me how much it was. I replied “Yes I know, it's supposed to be $99.99, and that's why I came all the way here to pick one up.”.
As he was processing the payment, the other guy asked me “What is this?” with such an attitude as if he was saying “why are you buying this weird thing?”. After thinking for a second ‘how to make this as simple as possible’, I answered “you're supposed to use this instead of a mouse”. The next obvious question came from the other guy “why would I pay hundred dollars and get this instead of a mouse?” continuing with a deprecating tone. I said “because with this one, you can control in real 3-D. A regular mouse is a 2-D controller. With this one, you can go left and right, up and down like a regular mouse, but also forward and back in depth” while I was showing the dimensions with my hand. Continuing with his almost condescending tone, he said, and wait for it: “I do not even have a 3D monitor, why would I buy a 3D mouse?”. At this point, I had two choices: The first choice was to stay there, and explain to these guys what Falcon is all about, while (most likely) getting frustrated during the process due to their attitude and willingness to deny any and all, since they clearly thought they knew better. The alternative choice was to just walk out, save time and frustration, and enjoy my brand new Falcon sooner. It was a simple decision to make: I thanked him for processing the transaction, and as I was signing the receipt, he goes "There are no games for it, what are you going to play with this?". As I was heanding him the signed receipt, I said "Novint, the company making this controller, signed agreements with several big game publishers like Electronic Arts, and there are several triple-A titles that are going to be released soon with Falcon support", then picked my Falcon up, and walked out of the store with a smile on my face, feeling pity for those two guys while I had his voice in my mind saying “I do not have a 3D monitor”.
What was interesting was that these guys were supposed to sell me stuff even if I didn't want to buy them/it (that’s what real sales people were supposed to be trained for, right?)! If I didn't know any better, that day, after seeing the attitude and hearing the comments of those two guys, I could have walked out of that store without a Falcon, thinking that “First, noone is buying this, second, it has no games, and third and most importantly, I don’t have a 3D monitor, so looks like buying this weird thing is not a good idea after all”. Luckily, I have a 3D monitor! >:> (well, I indeed do, since I have an nVidia GPU with nVidia stereo drivers installed and both shutter glasses and anaglyph glasses, and I can see my games in real 3D if I want to, which, by the way, obviously has nothing to do with moving a cursor in 3D space. Anyway…).
Looks like, as with the introduction of any new technology, Novint has a long way to go until people, even sales people who are supposed to sell this to people on the streets and make them take one home, “get” what Falcon is.
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