Bad PC Sales Staff Exposed 650
Barence writes "An undercover investigation has revealed how Dell's online sales staff take liberties with the truth when trying to sell customers new PCs. One member of staff told an undercover reporter that he would need a PC with a good graphics card to download digital photos. Another, who was more incompetent than devious, was asked how many photos could be stored on a 250GB hard disk. 'Its[sic] on average 2 MB then 1024 MB * 2,' came the bewildering reply. Meanwhile, a sales assistant at supermarket Tesco told the reporter that netbooks got their name because 'a Japanese man on a plane fell asleep with a laptop on his thighs and was horribly burned, so the industry has dropped the name laptop.'"
What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesman- (Score:5, Funny)
Q: What's the difference between a computer salesman and a used car salesman?
A: The used car salesman knows when he is lying.
Inconceivable (Score:5, Funny)
no, no, no (Score:5, Funny)
the term "netbook" comes from the fact that because they are small lightweight laptops, they are much more prone to contamination than regular laptops. therefore, they require the use of hairnets during operation. why this is true requires profound technological expertise i don't have the time to educate you fools on in this venue, but suffice it to say that it has to do with the cube of the static charge carried by the contamination proportionate to the surface area of the hard drive
and i am flabbergasted and horrified evey time i see someone using their netbooks without the mandatory use of a proper hairnet. just one little hair sliding in a crack in between the keys on the keyboard! you fools
Nit pick (Score:1, Funny)
FTA: "The netbooks comes [sic] with a slower processor, lesser memory, lesser hard drive, no optical drive and it would not be possible to have any software loaded on this netbook," he stated, once again playing hard and fast with the truth.
No, he is playing fast and loose with the truth.
Re:I think the computer guys know too (Score:5, Funny)
I know Hanlon's Razor, "never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"
' A sufficiently advanced form of incompetence is indistinguishable from malice. '
Last time I bought a laptop... (Score:2, Funny)
Best Buy Sales Girl: Now you know you'll need to buy anti-virus software don't you?
Me: No, no I won't.
BBSG: But without anti-virus software your computer will {insert non-sequitor that problem mentions terrorists winning}
Me: First, that's not quite how that works. Second, I'm planning on installing Linux on this laptop.
BBSG: I see, but you're still going to need anti-virus software, I recommend you get {insert name of crappy anti-virus software}
Me: Please just ring up my computer.
Re:Is this news? (Score:5, Funny)
PC sales staff are clueless droids - film at 11. It's been this way since PCs hit retail sales floors. Anybody with the smarts to sell a PC with competence has the smarts to not be in retail.
Agreed, but PC sales staff can be very helpful, based on my experience. You can ask them where the Toshiba laptop you saw advertised is located, and they can expertly guide you to the correct shelf. You can ask if they have a fresh piece available instead of the display unit, and they can effectively locate one in the back for you. Based on their extensive experience, they can advise you about the best way to beat traffic on your way home.
Re:HDMI (Score:4, Funny)
At least they're not trying to sell you a gold plated optical cable.
HiFI sales people are better. (Score:4, Funny)
I just bought a new reciever and I was a bit unsure if it was the right one with enough bass, but then the guy in the shop said they could modify it with a tk-421 upgrade. They gave it 3-4 quads more per channel by adding that and they did that modification right in the store.
Plus it didn't add a lot to the price.
Re:Inconceivable (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:2, Funny)
it's worse than the summary says (Score:5, Funny)
In the investigation they even found some Dell outlets were selling computers to pimps and prostitutes, even after they explained that they were going to use the computers to keep track of illegal alien prostitutes.
OMG, Exposed! The real world! (Score:2, Funny)
Wow, what a revelation! Dell has some sales people who don't know everything about their products, are not technical experts or use "tricks" to close sales! Revelation!
Welcome to the real world.
This isn't anything new and this kind of thing occurs everywhere. I could call HP, Lenovo, Walmart, etc etc and have the same kind of thing happen. Dell has thousands of sales people on the phone.
I'm not saying it's right, it's not "right" to make mistakes or mislead, but I really don't think this is some kind of "omg EXPOSED" news story.
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:5, Funny)
They equipped her, someone whose most intensive task is copying photos off of a camera, with a quad core desktop with like 4 or 8 GB of RAM.
So they were getting her ready for doing the same task on Windows 7? I would thank them.
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:5, Funny)
Same here, and the worst part is, my dad was a CAR SALESMAN for 25 years (both new and used). You'd think he could recognize the smell of bullshit.
Don't you realize how our senses work? For the most part they pick out contrasts. This is why camouflage works. It's also why you can walk into the kitchen on a cool day, and know where the stove is, just by the radiated heat. If however, the room was on fire, that trick wouldn't work.
In other words. A used car salesman's BS detector is so saturated with internally generated noise that he has little chance of ever detecting BS around him.
Re:Fake it 'till you make it (Score:3, Funny)
Most people can't define the difference between a megabyte and a megahertz.
That's easy. The first one is what you do when you eat a super-double cheeseburger at Carl's Junior. The second is what your colon does afterwards.
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:2, Funny)
Yes, it would be absolutely awesome if he did, but it's shit he doesn't need
No, NO!
...you luddite. !
Sounds completely cool to me!
He could very well be on his way to a Beowulf cluster! Don'r discourage this behaviour!
My brother-in-law got out of computer sales (Score:3, Funny)
and into sub-prime mortgage brokering. In part because he couldn't stand all the lying required.