# "The sale of the Electric Motor"



## Scotlander (Dec 5, 2011)

Was in a well known camping and fishing store yesterday looking wistfully at the fish finder display and in walks a
woman who was a bit on the large side (heavy unit would be a better description) with a disinterested teen in tow tapping away on his phone, and she is talking to him and telling him in a louder than required voice how she nearly fell into the sea yesterday while standing up in her kayak taking a photograph, naturally this peaks my interest ;-) so I continued to hover in the general vicinity with my poker face on 8) staring at the small print on the vastly overpriced fish finder/combo GPS while continuing to listen in on the developing action.

The sales guy walks over whom I had previously met before and who had actually insisted that when we bought a Malibu Mini X for the wife that we should buy the PFD too and a paddle leash and a 2 dollar whistle, safety makes sense so no worries ( he is also an experienced sea kayaker who does trips around Kangaroo Island).

So this woman starts telling the sales guy how she was out in her kayak yesterday and had rounded the point and been caught by the wind and current and started to drift out to sea and only managed to get back after 2 hrs of paddling 
( Still using a loud voice).
I was out in the same area yesterday and it was flat calm no current slight breeze so naturally I think maybe her paddling skills and general fitness are not really up to the mark, by this time the bored disinterested teenager had sat on one of the displays nearby sniggering evilly into his phone.
The sales guy nods and ums and ahhs politely at the correct intervals while obviously wondering where this is all leading as am I :? 
The woman then announces loudly her intention to purchase a small electric motor :shock: ( the display + bored teenager is the one for the electric motors) which completely stuns the sales guy into complete silence for approximately four seconds and forces me into a trancelike state of disbelief and amazement while still maintaining a poker face. 8) 
So this sales guy then faces a barrage of questions on which motor blah blah ,how long do they run for? How to fit it, how is it powered :shock: so the guy gives her all the info she needs and makes the sale on a motor + battery + fit kit and then she asks what do I do when the battery runs out? and smooth as silk the sales guy says " ahh yes you will need the battery charger for that" and she says I swear before all that is good and holy " where do I plug the charger into" :lol: :lol: :lol: 
Anyways the sales guy makes the sale + battery charger !! and lugs it all out for her into her giant 4*4 along with bored disinterested teenager soon to be bored and disinterested teenager with one parent ;-)

A true story unfortunately, I do feel sorry for the sales guy as he is a genuine guy and as I checked out with my meagre purchase I had a joke with him about how uncomfortable he had looked when she announced her intentions and he did say he had to bite his tongue about recommending more paddle experience, better sea kayak, lose weight !! but what can he do he did mention something about Darwin Theory. I feel sometimes on AKFF we give the big chains a hard time for selling kayaks without safety gear or not recommending this or that kayak that's not their job they face a vast, differing and unpredictable clientele and generally they do try and advise on basic safety gear ( going by my experience anyway).

Anyways I'm away to work out electric motor range on an 18a/h battery at least we might know how far offshore she got. :shock: :shock: 
Mal


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## Scotlander (Dec 5, 2011)

Not sure what size it was but was a mid range snake motor I think hopefully she won't get it fitted and it will get stashed in the garage along with the kayak then on to ebay next year. Bit scary though hope she doesn't do anything mad  
Mal


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## Squidley (May 8, 2010)

I guess some people just want to have a tiny boat. Each to their own but jeez I hope they stay out of trouble.


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## Scotlander (Dec 5, 2011)

Squidley said:


> I guess some people just want to have a tiny boat.


Suppose when you think about it that's just maybe what some people should be looking at instead of a kayak, I've never used a motor on a kayak but at the same time I have a fair bit of sea kayak experience which translates over to the fishing side of things easily enough and I wouldn't feel confident about righting a big heavy kayak with a heavy battery broken loose inside the hull in a two meter swell with a motor sticking up in the air, maybe someone has been in this situation before and it's no drama but I wouldn't like to be the one doing it :shock: I think I will stick to my minimalist ways, now where's that mag with the specials on the GPS/fish finder combo oh yeah I,ll need a battery too :lol: :lol: and a charger :lol: :lol:

Mal


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## theGT58 (Nov 1, 2011)

Scotlander, I get where you're coming from about demanding customers and being stuck as salesman but Ii still sounds to me like the young bloke breached his duty of care to set her straight. There are many things he could have said to help keep her point her where she needs to go (she sounds like an accident waiting to happen) and many things wrong with selling a leccy to her which will only make things much much worse. Maybe better sales training, but I doubt the big guys are interested in the extra cost for this until they're forced into it. To me it's kinda like somebody walking into a toyota dealership, saying they plan to do an across the top end 4wd trip and demand to look at a RAV 4 and the salesman then going with it...

Hopefully on the first day she uses it being 18ah she's not going too far and hopefully not straight out to sea/in swell but more so here's hoping the her or the hubby/boyfriend is not technically adept enough to install it in the first place.

It is hard for salesman such as this, possibly a part time job (and they're all paid poorly at BCF anyway) he can't afford to lose by offending some loudmouth. Not good.


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## spork (Jan 21, 2012)

Do sales-persons actually have a "duty of care" to ensure consumers purchase the "right" equipment for their intended use, while taking into account the customer's personal fitness etc?
Not being a smart arse, been decades since I worked in sales, I just used to recommend the most expensive product as being the best one... Served 'em right I thought. Who asks a pimply kid in Kmart about what spray they should be using on their roses? :?


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## Jeffen (Jan 18, 2011)

spork said:


> Do sales-persons actually have a "duty of care" to ensure consumers purchase the "right" equipment for their intended use, while taking into account the customer's personal fitness etc?
> Not being a smart arse, been decades since I worked in sales, I just used to recommend the most expensive product as being the best one... Served 'em right I thought. Who asks a pimply kid in Kmart about what spray they should be using on their roses? :?


Very interesting question. 
I did a little bit of googling and found this - NSW reference.

""Dangerous products: no automatic duty of care owed by retail vendor to end user": McPherson's Limited -v- Eaton & Ors [2005] NSWCA 435
Author: Andrew Spearritt 
Judgment Date: 16 December 2005
Jurisdiction: New South Wales Court of Appeal

In Brief

This case involves an examination of the scope of the duty and standard of care required between a retail vendor and an end-user or consumer in circumstances where the product sold is potentially dangerous. 
The Court of Appeal held that the relationship between a vendor and an end-user *does not automatically give rise to a duty of care*, contrary to the findings of the trial judge at first instance.
The appeal was upheld and the matter was remitted to the Dust Diseases Tribunal of New South Wales for retrial"

The link to this is http://casenotes.curwoods.info/?p=201


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## theGT58 (Nov 1, 2011)

I think you're kind of missing my point.

Everyone has a duty of care to each other. You'd probably be surprised what you are legally required to do involving others safety.

Whether there is case law which affects this particular instance or not from what Scotlander says the salesman is experienced in sea kayaking and should know the in and outs. He has a moral duty of care to do the right thing IMO, as we all do in situations where we can.


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