Simeon Says

I got up at the crack of dawn today and headed to the airport. I am on my way to the Adobe MAX conference. This is going to be quite an event and I am very pleased to be a presenter here. But that is not why I am posting.

After I started traveling a bunch for training and speaking engagements, I realized that the noise on the airplane would eventually lead me to some kind of disastrous and jail-time inducing event and I needed to act fast. Before making the investment in a good pair of head phones I did some research. I borrowed some brookstone noise canceling headphones but they made my head hurt. I figured that they were just not nice enough and made my way to a pair of bose. But the end result was the same. The slow onset, head splitting, mother of all headaches. I realized active noise canceling, although all the rage, where not my thing.

So after a little more research I settled on a pair of E3C sure in ear buds. I love these headphones. My only regret with these headphones was not buying the E4C’s :) But I think its really important that I note I really researched. I hit up everybody on my IM list and half the people I have only met at confs to see what they used. I read specs and reviews and then bit the bullet. I tell you this because its an important character of me. It happens only very rarely that when I purchase something the sales rep at the store has anything to add to my knowledge of a product. In fact most of the time I end up doing an informal training session and bring them up to speed on the technologies. I can produce character witnesses if anyone doubts this.

I use the foam ear plug style adapters on my headphones. After a couple dozen trips these are starting to get a little gross. They are dirty and they dont like to expand to fill my ear any more. I found the replacement pack online but didnt have time to order before this trip. So this morning I got here to the airport early and decided to look around. I remembered that the inmotion booth down in terminal E was selling Shure headsets last time I was through there so I decided to head down that way. I think its really important to note that this event went down at 6:30 AM on a SUNDAY at an AIRPORT KIOSK. I found that they did have some replacement adapters, but they only had the foam ones for the e2c headsets. I decided against all odds to ask the attendant if they had any. This is where things went all “alice in wonderland”, but in a good way. The guy came over confirmed they did not have what I wanted out on display. And I figured this is where it would end. But know, he went and dug around in the cupboard to confirm they didnt have any around. And after about 5 minutes of searching proclaimed that it was nuts they didnt have any but he had a solution. He then went over behind the counter and produced 2 of the cute little yellow adapters. They do demos of the E3C’s and have fresh ones for each demo. He gave me a pair. The 3 pack replacement is $10, and he just gave these to me because they didnt have them for me to buy. I was so shocked I asked if I could buy something else to make it worth his while. We started chatting about the headphones and that was when I realized what a diamond in the rough this guy is. He actually knows his shit. Starts talking about the differences between the diodes and wiring between the headsets and how they make a difference. This guy is at an AIRPORT KIOSK. This guy needs to be recognized for the gem that he is. I bought coffee this morning and that process was a mess. But this guy makes my day with his exceptionally knowledge and wonderful customer service.

So I had to share this long drawn out post because I am bored and sitting at an airport. But if you are ever at Portland International Airport I totally recommend you take your business to the inmotion audio video booth in terminal E. You wont regret it for a minute.