Jaguar and SM make good points. No one wants to look like an idiot and a measured response is generally the best way to go. On the other hand:
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Originally Posted by Troubleshooter
Fuck their pride.
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To get out of these situations I generally just lie and say what they want to hear: "We no longer carry that brand but this also might work...". It can be a big challenge to try reasoning with, for example, elderly people who think your just a young punk disrespecting them. No one seems to read tone these days.
In a non-retail setting there are truly people who are very set in their ways and will not even entertain alternate ideas. If someone presents me with an idea contrary to my own I always make the effort to understand where their coming from and see how well the idea stands on its own.
In a perfect world we would all weigh each others ideas and opinions equally but this world is anything but. To use myself as an example: I would say I know quite a bit about building computers to suit peoples needs. There are so many ways to go about building a computer that quite a few of the methods balance out in terms of stability and bang for the buck. When I find myself in a debate with other computer builders that use different methods than I do I often refuse to admit fault. Both methods have their good and bad points but this goes out the window when computer savy people debate. I consider myself enlightened but
far from fully.
By far the worst people to debate with are the elderly. These people are so set in their ways that it makes debate with them pointless. You can have a near-flawless arguement only to have an elderly person completely ignore it and accuse you of lacking wisdom or just repeat their arguement over and over. I've met a few older people who embrace new ideas and are willing to debate but not many.
I guess my point is that people are so resistant to ideas contrary to their own that it brings out the most stupidity in them. What we really need is mandatory relationship training in schools. But then again, how effective would this be going up against people's basic nature and their homelife?
Personally I think the world would benefit if we were all intellectuals, but thats just my opinion.