Hi all! For all the video shoppers out there, do you have an issue with your battery pack getting hot while you are doing a long shop? My camera is new, but even with my old one, I have noticed after about 1 hour, the unit gets hot. Is this normal? Will it shut off if it overheats? If so, how do you know when it is approaching that point?
Thanks for any comments you have on this!!

Amie

The extended battery cradle that I use does heat up, as does the button cam. I have never had a problem with over heating with a PV-500. I had an old Archos unit that got so hot that I felt it was burning though my slacks pocket. The hard drive in that unit soon dies. The PV-500s do not have a hard drive.

I've never heard of a PV-500 shutting down from over heating. I place mine into a neoprene pouch tat I wear so that the unit is under my armpit. I do not feel the extra heat through the wall of that pocket. By touching the button cover on the button cam, I can verify by its warmth that the unit is still working. That can be a great comfort when one suddenly wonders, an hour into a shop, whehter or not you remembered to switch the bloody record button to the "on" position.

Mine gets hot whether I am filming or not, so that's not always a good indicator of recording.

Ask me how I know. Ugh....ONE TIME. Only happened ONE TIME. lol

LOL! I thought it was just me that suddenly forgets if the camera is on.

And hasn't Amie exhausted her allotment of video questions

I thought mine got hot once, but then I realized it was just me :-P

Amie, are you using an Archos or PV-500 camera? I've never heard of the extended battery for a PV unit getting hot. If so, thank you for the indicator.

Ha! Ha! LisaSTL!! You are right, I am approaching my limit on the number of questions I can ask regarding video shopping. Here is the reason for this most recent question. Last week, I essentially lost $275 on video shops (wrong scenario, not the camera's fault) so I cannot afford to risk anything else going wrong. Santa is coming, I have already had to unexpectedly buy a new rig, and with the amount I have to pay in gas and babysitters to do these distance shops, every shop has to count. The shops I am most concerned about are the new home shops. In particular, I am shopping a builder whose agents give RIDICULOUSLY long sales presentations to the point where I am sweating bullets trying to keep them within a 90 minute time limit. More often than not, I am close to 100 minutes, but with editing, the MSC can get it down a little. They obviously have a set presentation that they give to every prospect because I have seen it many times. The worst part is that it concludes with a smartboard presentation that summarizes AGAIN what they have already told you 100 times. This part of the shop alone can take 10-15 minutes. It is mostly with these shops that I can feel my hip nearly catching on fire from the DVR. It is a PV-500 lite camera. My old one did it, my new one does it. I am now starting to travel beyond my "comfort zone", i.e. paying A LOT in gas and sitter fees for my kids, because I have shopped the agents in my 50 mile radius to do these shops. I cannot afford to have a botched day due to a camera battery that bursts into flames. By the way, if I were genuinely interested in a new home, I would head for the hills when the agents clicked on that smartboard. It is like being in a boring high school geometry class. AWFUL!

I haven't noticed my PV500-Lite heating up, but the button camera definitely does. The first time it happened, hypochondriac Stacy wondered if she had hot-spot-on-chest disease. Now I take comfort from knowing that the button camera is at least getting power from the DVR. I'm glad I haven't had any new home shops with a smartboard presentation. How do you stay awake through that, given that you've seen it multiple times now?

Well now, I am totally perplexed. The button camera has never been hot or even warm. It is the concealed DVR unit that is a firelog! Weird. StacyP, so funny you ask about the smartboard presentation! Today, I was more than an hour into the shop, got back to the office, the agent acted like she was wrapping things up, and well, hallelujah, here we go to the stupid smartboard. I thought I was ready to hit the road and now realize I am stuck for the most BORING presentation in real estate history that will last no less than 10 minutes. I almost threw a tantrum like my 2 year old does at the most inappropriate times (restaurants, malls, church, etc.) but held myself back only because I briefly remembered that I was an adult and that would make the tantrum even more inappropriate.

Apparently they were not taught the concept of "talking yourself out of a sale." Ask for the sale, overcome the object, ask again and be done with it. Don't leave a customer preferring root canal to talking to you again.

I think that since the agents are so bored on a weekday, they lasso a prospect in as long as possible for pure entertainment. I cannot imagine they would do this on a busy weekend, but we cannot shop weekends so I am likely stuck with the stupid smart board. Good thing I love the company and scheduler I work for, otherwise, these shops would be deleted from my inbox faster than the IKEA shop requests.

Doesn't change the concept. I have no patience with a sales associate that wastes my time for any reason let alone to alleviate their own boredom and we're talking real life, not just MSing.

How do you move them along without risking having the shop disqualified because you "rushed" them.As soon as possible, I find a way to say that I only have a max of 1 and 1/2 hours and they STILL run me over. Any tips to knock this back are greatly appreciated. I feel bad for wasting their time, know that all this can be wrapped up in under an hour, but do not want to rush them all to find out the client disqualifies the shop for hurrying the agent. After I have dedicated an hour to the shop (not including drive time), I would rather wait through another 30 minutes than risk losing the whole thing. I am sure there is a happy medium to solve this problem. That is where you fine folks come in! I need some experienced, savvy shoppers to teach me how to do this a little better!

I wear mine on the side inside the bra so that it stays snug and the button camera cord won't disconnect. The battery part can get hot but it hasn't gotten where I can't stand it. I too had to deal with a 90 minute limit shop where the salesperson went over 2 hours. I kept thinking, "Has he done everything?...before I tell him where he can go since I won't be buying this house for real."


Not to change the subject but it may be a good idea to go online and see what they have available and then limit what you like to something along that line. If there is a 4 bedroom that is move in ready you can start by saying that you want to build and then they will ask are you ready to move if there is something available start saying what you like ie, master by the kitchen etc.

What she said. Being decisive is about the only way to exercise a limited amount of control. I didn't say I haven't had my share of talky, time wasting associates, just that I have no appreciate for them and when shopping for myself will most likely cut them off and be done. After saying "I need to sleep on it," or anything along those lines, it just becomes disrespectful of a prospect's time. While personally I can cut them off, as a MS there is often the question, "Did the associate respect your time?" Needless to say, that can be a favorite of mine, lol!

Trust me, with this particular builder, I look at their inventory homes and get my "blind" requests down to I am looking for a 2 story home, no larger than 3,000 square feet, prefer master on main...." Of course all that is based on the quick move-in inventory homes I saw on their website before even going out there. I have done more than 30 new home shops and feel pretty confident except with this one pesky builder. Their agents use all these forms and ask crazy detailed questions before they even walk you into the kitchen of the model home. I honestly don't know how they can ever sell a house. Top that off with the fact they don't open til noon, half of their properties are not staffed full time, you can't call for an appointment, and then one excellent cat and mouse game begins. I really would like to figure out the key to reigning these agents in. I am specific, essentially rule out all but 1 of their floorplans which "I did not know they offered such..I have not been able to find that at the other communites I have been interested in", and absolute about the type of lot and location I would want to build on. Even still........hanging onto 90 minutes with white knuckles! The agent I had today was all but runnign a credit report. She asked my annual income, salary or hourly, number of credit cards, how much my payment was on each, how much my child support payment was, etc. Real life, I would have told her that at that time it was not a matter to discuss, but thought the client would want to know the information being asked of me. Considering she had a form for that discussion, I suppose they are instructed to ask all of those questions. However, if I don't know if I would even like the floorplans offered, why in the world would I start out giving out all my credit information?? Of course, everything was made up, but still, it was a little disturbing. The agent was so friendly and I knew she was doing her "job". I wish I could anonymously contact the builder and tell them how awful and torturous the unnaturally, awkward presentation they coach their sales agents to do can be.

Do the instructions say that you have to provide all that information? If you are not going to buy that day, it would not be unnatural to want to save all the credit information until you have made your final decision. In fact, it seems it would be an issue to pre-qualify you. Talk to the MSC and find out just how much of that crapola you are required to deal with and where you can draw the line.

They want the agent to quasi-qualify you for a home so they try to put on the mortgage lender hat which, while helpful to some, seems a bit too far ahead if the game to me if I have not yet even seen a home to decide if I wanted to pursue it further. Since I gave an alias name, phone number, email, job, number and names of children, what the heck...I gave a fake amount owed on credit cards and my income, of course keeping it realistic. I am supposed to give them an opportunity to talk about the builder, determine my needs, overcome an objection, and discuss financing. The talking about the builder and financing parts are what have me completely tripped up. Their presentation seems to be so rehearsed and canned (only because I have seen it several times) that I don't know how I would get around it without them doing their jobs as they have been trained to do.

I haven't gotten into video shopping yet, but received information from a MSC re: a car dealer and they would provide the video equipment. I'm not ready to do it, since I've just started shopping in August, but in reviewing the program, it says what I've known from my years in ham radio, when electronics are used, they will get hot; hot being a relative term here.

If you know when the "dreaded whiteboard" is about to start, is there a way to get up and walk around looking at something for 5-10 minutes? That movement, even with the battery/recording unit/whatever under a couple of layers of clothing, should provide enough air circulation to cool the equipment.

Also, heat will shorten the life of electronics. Try to keep everything as cool as possible.

Amie,
Since we are not mentioning any MSC names here, can you tell us which builder has such rigid agents?