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Christmas Surprises!

The hardest part about AV systems at Christmas is gift wrapping the whole room.

When I worked in retail I sold lots of AV gear that was surprise Christmas presents.

That’s why I stopped writing thank you cards in mid-October, and did them all in a big rush in January.

When I moved into the AV design and installation, the number of surprise presents people bought were fewer, but they still happened.

There was one high-net worth client of ours that comes to mind. We had done a fair amount of work for her, and one day in early December when she was in my office she was complaining that she hadn’t finished her Christmas shopping.

Jokingly, I suggested “Well, you could always buy everybody a plasma TV.”

“That’s a good idea.” She replied, dead serious.

She then paid me for six 50-inch plasma TVs, at four and a half grand each, although she had to go home and grab her pickup truck in order to take them away.

The most memorable Christmas experience was a new client who wandered into our showroom one day. Super nice guy, he just happened to be a walking, talking larger-than-life cowboy stereotype, right down to the boots.

Long story short, he decided he liked what he saw, and contracted us to do a media room install in his house.

That’s where the story got even more strange.

He paid us in full, in advance.

In cash.

On installation day we drove out to his giant house on the edge of town, where he deactivated the home security system remotely from work. He was, apparently, some kind of industrial magnate (obviously).

And we got to work.

Also, did I mention that the fully-installed Media Room was surprise Christmas present for his wife and kids?

And it was a surprise.

At least until his wife got home early from out of town.

Fortunately, the sight of two white vans fully livered with AV company logos parked in her garage wasn’t enough to make her call the police.

Instead she wandered in and said “Hello?”

I explained who we were, and why we were there.

She just rolled her eyes, and wasn’t surprised at all. I guess impulsive surprises are in character with her husband.

Skeptical as she was, she did admit that once the system was completed and fired up that it looked and sounded great.

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