The amp for my hi-fi has been a little problematic, so I have been looking at upgrading it to a new one. My amp is quite a fancy one that connects to the DVD player, uses Dolby Surround sound etc, so the replacement gear is not cheap.

So, I have been spending time in the Hi-Fi shops, looking at what is currently available, and getting an idea of what sort of price I will need to pay.

One of our better Hi-Fi shops is Tafelberg Furniture, in Diep River, Cape Town. They have got three home-theatre rooms permanency setup, so you can go there any try out the different combinations of equipment.

I went there on Friday, and all the sales assistant were busy. So, I just went into one of the demo rooms and started playing with the equipment. Because there was nobody to help, I started doing things myself, connecting the different gear to my heart’s content.

I found a couple of receivers that interested me, but I wanted to find out more, so I took the gear out of the shelves, looked at the connections on the back, compared with other equipment etc. So, I looked like a little child playing with his lego blocks, spread out around him on the floor.

Do you know that during the entire time that I was there, not a single sales assistance came to see what

a) I was doing taking apart their home-theatre demo room or

b) see if they could assist me?

Bear in mind that I was not looking at cheap gear, you could easily (assuming you have the budget), walk out of that room R200,000 poorer. These were big ticket items that I was looking at, and nobody offered to assist.

Tafelberg, if you want to make the sale, get your staff into gear! One onion to you.

Tags: orchids and onions, tafelberg furniture