I went to the NEC show today and its vast in the motorhomoe, campervan and caravan sections but TT, Tents and FC were a bit thin on the ground.
I planned to go to the Penine stand at the end of the day when the crowds had thinned a bit and I thought I might get a bit more time to talk to the staff about their new baby.
I arrived at the stand more than half an hour before closing time. Now I know the poor dears have been there all day smiling through gritted teeth and just want to get back to the hotel and put their feet up but, if your stand is open then be professional and greet punters just as you would first thing in the morning. If you don't want to talk to anyone, shut up shop and GO AWAY leaving a closed sign.
I walked onto the stand and there was a salesman leaning on the closed down roof of their folding caravan talking on his phone to someone about the difficulties of charging his mobile phone and despite hovering round him and said folder he showed no signs whatsoever of stopping his call and talking to me. There was a young lady seated at one of the tables by the Quartz range so I strode keenly towards her, she looked up at me as I was 25 feet away, turned her back to me and got on with what she was doing. At this point I came to the conclusion that I would get no sense from either of them and was sorely tempted to tell them exactly what I thought of them but I suspect judging from their body language that they didn't really give a monkeys. If this is how Penine treat potential customers what can you expect from them once they have your money?
Maybe Penines sales figures are so good that they don't need to try any more?
Although it is no excuse for their manners or lack of them, there attitude indicates to me they had met their days targets for sales as is the case for most dealers.
I have to agree with OP. I felt that the atmosphere within the Pennine Conway Stand was cool and indifferent especially when compared with the surrounding stands such as Trigano (TT and Pop-Top), Gobur and Camplet. I visited twice during the day. Poor show Pennine.
------------- Mavericks don't get to lead the herd - not that they want to!
On the opposite to you.....the guys at the Pennine stand couldn't have been more helpful for us, letting us play with the demo models and answering all our questions with a smile. But then again, it was just after opening I was more taken with the Crusader Deluxe than Artemis.
Went round to see some other TT's...no one bothered to ask us if we needed any help or if we had any questions. Same with the pop tops and Gobur.....Over at the Hotlkampers....no one came over to us and seemed totally dissinterested.
Now over at the caravan stands....as soon as we looked interested in a van they came swooping in with info booklets at hand and calculators to work out finance on the spot pmsl!! We even managed to sweet talk a seller to offer us a new Lunar Delta FB for £500, he told us to meet him round the back after closing, only condition was we had to move it out the stand ourselves hahaha....funny guy. Loved the van though.
------------- Vid walkthrough of my Aztec Cantera 12 tent *Click Me*
Video of my folding caravan *Click Me*
Quote: Originally posted by Celeste74 on 13/10/2011
On the opposite to you.....the guys at the Pennine stand couldn't have been more helpful for us, letting us play with the demo models and answering all our questions with a smile. But then again, it was just after opening I was more taken with the Crusader Deluxe than Artemis.
Went round to see some other TT's...no one bothered to ask us if we needed any help or if we had any questions. Same with the pop tops and Gobur.....Over at the Hotlkampers....no one came over to us and seemed totally dissinterested.
Now over at the caravan stands....as soon as we looked interested in a van they came swooping in with info booklets at hand and calculators to work out finance on the spot pmsl!! We even managed to sweet talk a seller to offer us a new Lunar Delta FB for £500, he told us to meet him round the back after closing, only condition was we had to move it out the stand ourselves hahaha....funny guy. Loved the van though.
Well in fairness to Pennine, manning a stand at the NEC, is the short straw task, I should know, as an exhibitor I have been doing trade shows there since 1985!, trade shows are bad enough, but doing a show were joe public attend is a sales persons worst nightmare, thankfully I have only had to do the odd public show at the NEC, the worst of which, was the "Mother & Baby" show, you would not believe the amount rudeness and violence at that show, and that was just the babies lol!.
Whether or not it was the end of the day,
Whether or not they were short-strawed into being there,
Whether or not they were dealers,
They are the face of pennine for the duration and should be professional and courteous.
I would have emailed pennine about it.
I have done many craft shows at the NEC and yes it is totally knackering work but we were still polite and attentive at the end of each day, at least until they announced the show was closed at which time we vanished!!
We went tooday and had fantastic help from the Pennine stand. The stand was manned by the camping international company and we had a really good chat with Terry about the Quartz 6. We did visit them at noon ish, and will be looking into getting one of these beauties at the start of next year.
I enjoyed the show and never knew so many motorhomes existed. Need a lotto win for some of the display models we saw today.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Penine indifference of staff at show :o(
I was more taken with the Crusader Deluxe than Artemis.
