That's the name of the Samsung store in Toronto's Eaton Centre. And what an experience it was.
The noise in the store was so terrible my Bose active noise cancelling headphones could not even remotely block it out. I am no marketing genius but I am alive and still breathing and therefore a buying customer. I ended up buying something I did not really want, because there seemed to be no other choice.
The largest microSD cards they had available were the 128 GB cards. One would think that a store providing 'The Samsung Experience' would have the entire range of memory cards in stock, except perhaps when sold out on a Sunday. Anything larger, I was told, has to be ordered online. In other words: they don't seem to be all that interested in my money.
I could certainly understand that large and bulky items that are sold only occasionally would not be in stock all the time, but memory cards take up less than the volume of typical postcards and cost a lot more, so it is rather strange that not stocking them is an actual company policy. One can't help but wonder: do these things have a 'best before' date Samsung doesn't talk about, or are they just vapourware?
I wanted to buy a card for my smaller - and older - tablet as well, but I didn't bother. All I could think of was to get away from there as fast as possible. It is not as if I am not used to noise. After living in the downtown core of Toronto for over 20 years, I am used to noise. But it was too terrible to bear.
The girl who served me had trouble understanding me, I had to yell. She had to yell as well, but that was partly to overcome my noise-cancelling headphones. I had tried taking them off, but couldn't stand the noise levels of what they call 'music'. I think starting plane engines - something I am quite familiar with after my years at the airport in Brussels - are more musical.
I went home dizzy and with ringing ears. Maybe The Samsung Experience store should change its name to what we used to say the defunct Belgian airline company name Sabena stood for: 'such a bad experience, never again'. I for one, shall want to receive a handsome payment before ever walking into that store again.
Let me spell it out once more: not selling the stuff you claim to make and causing deafness in your customers, is not a particularly smart marketing move.
The Samsung Experience, an experience not be forgotten and not to be repeated either. A true marketing blunder, in my opinion.
