I recently bought a washing machine from LG. The retailer was Reliance Digital. I went and sought out this very model because my parents have been using the same model for the last three months with excellent results. But the person who was tasked with selling me this obviously didn't have this background information.

Ideally, a brand like LG will want the retailers to do justice to their products by highlighting the features of the product that make it stand out when compared to others in the category. I would have liked the sales rep to talk about the features as well (this was just one product where I happened to have prior knowledge). But he  seemed to have no inclination to do so. He let me wander around the store reading the descriptions and the product specifications, and to make my decision about the product. While I don't like sales reps pushing certain products down my throat, I don't like them not making an effort either. After all, there's a reason why I chose to go the store instead of ordering on Flipkart.

Once I had decided on the model, though, the sales rep swooped in like a hawk to sell me extended warranty and insurance and what not. When I refused to entertain him, he did the opposite of what a sales rep ought to do and started listing out how previous purchasers of the model have needed insurance due to malfunctioning of the product under consideration. I just couldn't help thinking how LG must feel if they were to see how their product was being sold.

Once the product was delivered, the person who came for installation (again from the retail chain), had no technical knowledge about the product's working. He tried and failed miserably to get the product up and running. At this point, he tried talking me into buying warranty extensions for other LG products that he could see in the house. I politely showed him the door and lodged a complaint with his manager. The next day, an LG representative turned up and got the machine installed in all of 5 minutes, of which he cursed the representative from the retail chain at least 5 times claiming LG was getting a bad name due to lack of technical knowledge of the retail representatives.

The lesson for every brand here is to ensure the face that represents their brand in front of the customer has some alignment with the brand.