OP thinks he or she was. I have no reason to doubt it. I have a theory that doesn't speak well for the knowledge of the sales person. Trek's website has a quick synopsis of he features for each upgrade over the previous model. It doesn't mention anything about shifters in the synopsis, but it does if you look at the full specs. Maybe it is too much for the sales staff to know the differences between models for a giant company like Trek, but these differences matter to OP.