Bad PC Sales Staff Exposed 650
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the barely-trying dept.
from the barely-trying dept.
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.'"
Tesco off by a few letters - ass summary (Score:4, Informative)
And of course like a noob I just read the article and indeed that is what happened - the rep thought notebook - and the article takes a shot at the rep for saying a netbook is: "They're just small notebooks without word processors."
So now im really pissed at giving pcpro a page click.
Re:How many photos fit on a 500GB HD? (Score:2, Informative)
I run at least one instance of Windows on at least one of my various computers at home.
Last time I formatted: last year. Reason: wanted to.
Last time I formatted before that: probably 4 years ago. Reason: didn't want XP x64 anymore and went back to 32 bit XP.
Last time I HAD to format: no clue. A long time ago....
I really don't buy into the "if you run Windows, you're going to have to format yearly just to keep your computer at operating speed" stuff anymore than I buy into the "if you run Linux, you will never have any performance problems anymore" stuff.
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:5, Informative)
As we're speaking, I'm working on a laptop from a lady who came from Best Buy. The "Geek Squad" claimed that she had a failing hard drive, and that she would need to buy a new one, as well as a Windows Vista install. The only symptom was "My laptop is running slow"
One pass of Malwarebytes, thirty minutes later, a S.M.A.R.T. check, the machine is performing properly.
The trolls even left their stupid "GeekSquad" system checking software on my customer's machine. I checked the logs of the program, no found errors.
People disgust me.
Re:How many photos fit on a 500GB HD? (Score:3, Informative)
I feel like you didn't read your parent post before replying angrily to it.
He said:
Reason: The type of people who have to talk to a sales person, will run windows in a single partition, and will have to reformat before filling their drive.
He didn't say, all people who run windows can't manage their pc and should be put out to pasture.
Hanlon's Razor (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:5, Informative)
The mobile section is actually only half Best Buy, and half Carphone Warehouse. They work on a different bonus structure and different power structure than the rest of the store, which the Mobile Manager reporting directly to a district manager and skipping the General Manager of the store, unlike every other dept.
Re:I think the computer guys know too (Score:2, Informative)
A friend of mine used to work at Fry's. He told me that they have no training at all, they are just put into an area of the store to sell stuff, more senior sales staff get to work more lucrative departments. From his description, sales people basically spouted off random technical sounding words in an attempt to get customers to buy stuff, most of them really had no idea about the products they were selling. He quite after a few months because he couldn't stand lying to customers anymore.
Re:Fake it 'till you make it (Score:5, Informative)
Best Buy's sales staff are not paid on commission, as far as I'm aware.
HDMI Cables (Score:5, Informative)
Just the Facts (Score:4, Informative)
https://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/Browse.aspx?type=Software&category=Business%20%26%20Home%20Office&subcategory=Office%20Suites&page=2 [microsoft.com]
Perhaps you should either do some research or work for Dell.
Microcenter (Score:4, Informative)
I don't mean this to be advertisement, but considering that the typical retail store and most American businesses for that matter treat the customer as some sort of nuisance, I'd like to give some good words to a company that, so far, has been treating me right. Note, as soon as they slip up I'll be the first to slam them.
Disclaimer: This is a sample of one person dealing with one store with about a dozen purchases.
Re:HDMI (Score:5, Informative)
You mean like the Rocketfish toslink cable with 24k gold plated connectors..
Yeah, they have those too:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7832223&type=product&id=1142297086861 [bestbuy.com]
"24K gold-plated connectors for corrosion resistance and enhanced signal transfer"
Brilliant.
Sales Targets (Score:3, Informative)
Best Buy's sales staff are not paid on commission, as far as I'm aware.
True. Most stores do not have commissioned sales staff these days, including Best Buy.
However, I believe that Best Buy people (and Circuit City people to an even greater degree, before CC imploded) are required to meet certain performance targets. I believe one of them is the number of extended warranties they sell. They may also be expected (and even trained) to up-sell from the low-end advertised models. If they don't meet their targets, they may be denied raises or promotions.
Sears, Roebuck salespeople are on commission, at least in the appliances and electronics departments. If anything, I think you get better service from them, but they definitely try to steer you to their highest-margin stuff.
Re:Fake it 'till you make it (Score:4, Informative)
I used to work for Circuit City (right until they closed their doors), and our sales guys didn't make commission either. But they did have to meet certain quotas to keep their job, and in some ways, the quota frequently changed.
Corporate would send in "budgets" each morning for each department, listing goals for the sales guys. The budget was a certain gross dollar amount, but the focus was always on things like extended warranties ("City Advantage"), services ("Firedog"), and peripherals (USB cables, anti-adware, etc). In addition to meeting the budget, which was a department-wide goal, a large percentage of your personal sales numbers had to be those three things. (I believe the minimum for City Advantage was 20% and Firedog was 10%, but I could be off.) They told us the reason for this was the company priced computers so low that we actually lost money on each sale, so we had to make it up by selling the services and such, which were basically pure profit. (It was probably the same deal with TVs, but the HE department was regarded as an elite group since TVs were the big moneymaker for CC, so they usually kept their briefings and meetings separate from the rest of the group.) A monthly list was displayed in the break room and behind the front desk, breaking down the numbers and ranking each salesperson. The guys in the red knew they were about to lose their jobs, so they would try to step up their game before the next month's numbers would come out. (It was also not uncommon for the managers to have patronizing or angry closed-door "meetings" with the salespeople who didn't sell quite enough of one of the Big 3. We had a very high turnover rate, and this is partially why.)
In addition to this "incentive", some vendors would occasionally have contests and rewards for employees who sold certain items and packages. For example, about a year ago, Microsoft had a contest: whoever sold the most Zunes (company wide) would get a cash prize, and their store would get a party. Vendors like HP and Bose would regularly credit employees with "Rewards Points" for selling certain promoted items, which could be redeemed on CC's employee rewards site for things like giftcards and cologne.
And for the record, most of our sales guys were high-school kids who knew very little about computers; all of their knowledge was based on watered-down e-Learnings that filled their minds with platitudes and corporate double-think. Firedog technicians were usually an exception, but not always, and the few guys who did know what they were talking about didn't last, because they were horrible with customers. The guys who stayed the longest and moved ahead in the company were not the knowledgeable ones; it was the guys who sold the most warranties and installs, and it didn't matter if they were dishonest about it, or if the customer even knew it had been tacked on to their receipt. (In fact, this latter practice was encouraged off-the-record by management.)
I worked sales briefly, but quickly moved to a different job so I didn't have to lie to customers and worry about the quotas. I still got to help people with questions, which was great, but management didn't really care what my sales numbers were, so I was happy.
American, meet European. European, meet American (Score:3, Informative)
The mobile section is actually only half Best Buy, and half Carphone Warehouse. They work on a different bonus structure and different power structure than the rest of the store, which the Mobile Manager reporting directly to a district manager and skipping the General Manager of the store, unlike every other dept.
I have no idea what you think you're talking about, but that is absolutely not true. Mobile is treated just like every other dept in the Best Buy stores. The only that is any different at all is the Magnolia sections, which work off of commission.
Carphone Warehouse is a European company. They announced a merger with Best Buy in May. Your info may be either out of date or country specific.
Re:HDMI Cables (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:2, Informative)
I happened to be over my gramma's house when a window sales guy was there, so I sat in. He was pushing very hard on a price, about $4000 for all windows in the house (was about 20 years ago), but he'd "knock off a thousand" if she signed right that instant.
I pointed out how an honest organization would be capable of knocking off that much tomorrow or the next day, too.
High pressure tactics on old people is an ancient right of dishonor among the fraudulent.
Re:Last time I bought a laptop... (Score:3, Informative)
They are ALL idiots (Score:3, Informative)
Selling computers on the other hand, SUCKS. There really isnt much of a valid selling point to a "better" computer to most consumers. Rule of thumb, if you have to ask what one is the best, you dont need that one. The only things I really talk about are screen size, weight, hard drive size, and battery. Other than that, any computer is going to work for most people just as good as any other. They aren't going to fill their 500gb hard drive, even if they ask how many photos they can put on it. They aren't going to tax the 2.0ghz dual core, even if they ask if it is fast. 3gb ram is plenty unless you are going to be gaming. Yet I still have people who are worried about if it is a good deal (another hint, you are in a RETAIL store buying a computer. Its not a good deal.) What they do with it after they take it out of the box affects how fast it is way more than the technical specs on the box. The only thing I try to push are netbooks. I've found customer satisfaction is usually a lot higher with them, because you are only getting what you need and nothing more.
As for BestBuy, we recently had two new hires who came from there. One is our new tech manager and the other does the same stuff I do. Both are really good guys, not the sterotypical geeksquad loosers. I asked them once how in the world they could stand working at BestBuy when they really are geeks, not just wannabes. They both looked at each other, laughed and said in sync "Employee Discount". Turns out, their discount is 5% over stock price on EVERYTHING. That is an amazing deal. They told me about getting $1500 TVs for under $600 and computers for almost nothing.
To sweeten that, their standard policy is like a 60 day probation period after hire before you get the discount. Not a bad idea all considering. However, that probation doesn't apply to seasonal workers, they get it from day 1. If you can take the abuse, not a bad idea to swing over for a few weeks/months, get a seasonal christmas job, load up with everything you wanted to buy all year, then after Christmas you're done
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:4, Informative)
You also can't be fired when you're trying to report a crime (theft of customer property). That's why I mentioned the whistle blower law that's supposed to protect employees when they report illegal acts performed by a company.
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:1, Informative)
Keep that disc. It contains a utility for removing Windows passwords.
Re:Fake it 'till you make it (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, how dare they not take a complete stranger's word alone that this credit card is legitimately theirs when trying to make a high-dollar purchase. Damn the man!
I know you think you are being clever, but you are completely and utterly wrong.
The merchant agreement for all major credit cards in the USA require one of two things:
1) Without significant reason to suspect fraud, merchants are forbidden to require any form of id in order to complete a transaction with a credit card. Simply being a high-dollar purchase is not sufficient reason to suspect fraud. This requirement is standard for VISA and MasterCard merchant contracts.
2) Or any requirement for ID must be consistent across all cards that the merchant accepts - that's in the AMEX and Discover merchant contracts, which makes them equivalent to the VISA and MasterCard contracts for nearly all merchants.
These merchant agreements are online and accessible to the general public at their respective card issuer websites. You are welcome to confirm these points yourself.
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:2, Informative)
This will undo some mods I've made on this topic, but oh well. Ask a linux geek, online, or at LUGs http://www.linux.org/groups/ [linux.org] Most linux people know hardware due to having to figure out how to get stuff to work, and what scams people try. They may try to "upsell" you to linux, but if you say you're fixing a gaming rig or somesuch, they'll help out ;)
Besides, most computer savvy people I know like to help people out, as long as it isn't a long term commitment. Most of us have figured it out on our own (best way to learn). I'll help as long as it doesn't take too much of my time. And all bets are off if it's a pretty girl :)
(disclaimer: married to female geek)
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:3, Informative)
Failing that, don't authorise any repairs until you have asked (us?) someone on IRC if the proposed fix sounds right.
Pro tip: Use Linux and people on IRC will be falling over themselves to diagnose your problem. We love to help.
Small caveat: Free advice is worth what you pay for it.
Re:Fake it 'till you make it (Score:3, Informative)
The phrase "significant reason to suspect fraud" doesn't sound too specific.
Ok. Let me be very specific and quote from the visa merchant guidelines:
merchants cannot refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to provide ID.
...
If you are suspicious about the transaction or feel you need additional information to insure the identity of the cardholder, make a Code 10 call.
If merchants are accountable for fraudulent charges, why exactly do you expect to not be checked for ID?
Tough shit. If the merchant isn't willing to abide by the rules of their contract with the card processor, they should not have agreed to it in the first place.