Rant: Salespeople who don't know what they don't know
Posted: September 17 08, 9:20 am
this didn't really bother me to rant levels, but i needed a replacement 12V 1000mA adapter for my Linkysys wireless router. The flood flooded mine and it worked for a day afterwards but then leaked stinky water.
So, virtually any device you have that doesn't plug directly into the wall, but has a square black boxy thing that plugs into the wall, and then that thing plugs into your device... it is an AC to DC adapter. It takes the 120 V 60 Hz AC signal from a standard wall plug and changes it to a DC voltage appropriate for your device. Also, it needs to be rated for at least as much current as your device will be pulling. Batteries also supply DC voltage. This is why some devices can run off batteries if you don't have the adapter thing to plug into the wall.
Its okay if not everyone realizes this. AC? DC? isn't that a band? who cares?
its not essential knowledge to operate these devices, or even to sell them. I don't mind ignorance, you don't know? okay, not everyone knows everything! its over-confident mistakedness that ticks me off.
So i go into Staples (it was closer than Best Buy and Radio Shacks all seem to have closed)
I explain i need a 12V 1 Amp adapter. He needs more details. I explain i just want to see what they have, do they have any AC to DC converters?
Well... he shows me the DC to AC converter for a car, that you can plug into the lighter socket (DC from the battery) and it supplies a standard AC wall plug. expensive and exactly what i don't need. I explain thats a DC to AC converter, i don't need anything fancy, just a standard adapter for AC to DC.
So when he finally realizes what i want, he goes on at length, very condescendingly, explaining that yes, car batteries are DC but the kind of adapter i want has nothing to do with DC. The adapter type i'm talking about only changes the AC voltage. DC has nothing to do with it.
I just smiled and thanked him, and asked if they had any of these AC to AC converters. No, they didn't. Thanks, okay.
I went to Best Buy. Two different salespeople told me they didn't sell anything like that separate from the device it was used for.
I ignored them and kept looking in different parts of the store and found a nice $30 mult-voltage AC-DC adapter which came with a little switch to set the voltage 3-6-7.5-9-12 and a set of plugs for the end to match your specific device's little orifice.
Problem fixed.
PS to my credit, at Staples, I resisted the urge to say "Really? Huh! Dammit! I knew that Electrical Engineering degree was a waste of time!" ... instead I let the guy bask in his false knowledge.
So, virtually any device you have that doesn't plug directly into the wall, but has a square black boxy thing that plugs into the wall, and then that thing plugs into your device... it is an AC to DC adapter. It takes the 120 V 60 Hz AC signal from a standard wall plug and changes it to a DC voltage appropriate for your device. Also, it needs to be rated for at least as much current as your device will be pulling. Batteries also supply DC voltage. This is why some devices can run off batteries if you don't have the adapter thing to plug into the wall.
Its okay if not everyone realizes this. AC? DC? isn't that a band? who cares?
its not essential knowledge to operate these devices, or even to sell them. I don't mind ignorance, you don't know? okay, not everyone knows everything! its over-confident mistakedness that ticks me off.
So i go into Staples (it was closer than Best Buy and Radio Shacks all seem to have closed)
I explain i need a 12V 1 Amp adapter. He needs more details. I explain i just want to see what they have, do they have any AC to DC converters?
Well... he shows me the DC to AC converter for a car, that you can plug into the lighter socket (DC from the battery) and it supplies a standard AC wall plug. expensive and exactly what i don't need. I explain thats a DC to AC converter, i don't need anything fancy, just a standard adapter for AC to DC.
So when he finally realizes what i want, he goes on at length, very condescendingly, explaining that yes, car batteries are DC but the kind of adapter i want has nothing to do with DC. The adapter type i'm talking about only changes the AC voltage. DC has nothing to do with it.
I just smiled and thanked him, and asked if they had any of these AC to AC converters. No, they didn't. Thanks, okay.
I went to Best Buy. Two different salespeople told me they didn't sell anything like that separate from the device it was used for.
I ignored them and kept looking in different parts of the store and found a nice $30 mult-voltage AC-DC adapter which came with a little switch to set the voltage 3-6-7.5-9-12 and a set of plugs for the end to match your specific device's little orifice.
Problem fixed.
PS to my credit, at Staples, I resisted the urge to say "Really? Huh! Dammit! I knew that Electrical Engineering degree was a waste of time!" ... instead I let the guy bask in his false knowledge.
