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.'"
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:3, Interesting)
The best part for me was seeing that they outsource their sales staff, too. Shouldn't they just be moving their headquarters to India by now? So much for the "American" company started out of the guy next door's garage.
I somehow let myself fall into this @ Circuit City (Score:5, Interesting)
I was shopping for a new laptop for my wife a year or two ago and browsing Circuit City (no intentions of buying there, I just like to get my hands on the products before I buy them online). One of the "salesmen" asked me if I needed help and I decided to play along. I told him I was just checking out a few models for an upcoming purchase for my wife.
Him: Will you need a Microsoft to go with it?
Me: A Microsoft what? It comes with Windows Vista, doesn't it? Microsoft makes a lot of software.
Him: Will she need any office software?
Me: Yeah, but I've got a copy of Office XP (maybe it's 2003, I don't recall) I don't use anymore since I bought a Mac, so she'll just use that.
Him: Oh, no, you can't do that. Office XP won't work on this computer
Me: Huh? It should work fine, it's recent enough, Vista works with just about anything.
Him: Nope, Office XP/2003 doesn't work on Vista at all, you need Office 2007.
Me: Are you sure that it's not just that Office 2007 works better than the older versions on Vista?
Him: No, it's not going to work at all.
And then people wonder why sales dropped through the floor when they laid off their best staff.
Hidden video camera captures Dell sales meeting... (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TROhlThs9qY [youtube.com]
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:4, Interesting)
Not where I worked (Score:4, Interesting)
Returns are more of a pain to deal with.
Of course, that's just anecdotal stuff. Plenty of stores do give out bonus goodies (or firings) based on total money made per individual worker, and there are plenty of people that just don't anything about electronics but needed a job badly.
All your engineering belong to customer service. (Score:3, Interesting)
Excellent point. Machines don't matter. People matter. ONLY people matter. Machines exist only to serve humans.
So, the deal is this. They paid money for your POS OS, machine or software. It had better work. Period. End of story. They don't care about closing processes, ending threads, reclaiming memory from the stack, optimizing the sorting algorithm, and so on. What they care about is the when they ask the computer to jump, the only question the computer has is "how high?"
Seriously, computers are about money, provided by users who DO NOT CARE about any of the mechanics any more than you care about the mechanics of your local sewage processing facility. Your job (and mine) as a programmer is to wipe their hineys gently and dispose of the waste, preferably without asking. You may hate it, as I do, but THAT'S YOUR JOB. Get over it. Don't like it? Get a new one.
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:5, Interesting)
The incompetence of the sales staff at Best Buy is not restricted to the computer department. Case in point: the other night I went to look for a cordless phone with a switching power supply - i.e. something that could run on either 110V or 220V.
Looking at the shelf of phones, none of the boxes gave any indication of input voltage or being dual-voltage capable. I asked a droid which of the phones would accept 220V and he said
"All of them."
"Are you sure? All of them?"
"Any of these will work."
I looked over the phones on display until I found one with a power brick attached. It clearly said Input: 110-120V AC.
"What about this one? It says 110V AC input."
He squinted at the brick and said
"No look. It says 250 here."
I looked where he was pointing and sure enough, it said Output: 250mW 12V DC. ..."
"Okay thanks. I think I'll do some research online or something and maybe come back in tomorrow with a specific model number in hand
If these guys can't master the simple concept of input and output voltages, there really is very little hope of them navigating the world of memory bandwidth, sockets, or video performance.
Dell (Score:2, Interesting)
Had a bit of first hand experience with this recently. I've always known Dell has devious pricing systems, the same system will have different starting prices and instant discounts applied to it depending on how you get to it and result in systems with the same specs being priced hundreds of dollars apart from one another.
I own a business and needed some systems quick for new hires. We have a line of credit through dell which has come in handy a few times. The new hires were going to be working heavily in the Adobe suite and needed some firepower but nothing crazy. I just could not price a system with the specs I wanted. I called up sales and they told me that it was impossible to get the system I wanted with 64-bit Vista despite that, when both options were available, there was no price difference, the sales guy made some nonsensical reference to the motherboard (was getting a intel quad-core). I asked could I get the 2GBs of memory that came with the system on one DIMM instead of two, but this was not possible because the system wouldn't support it.
In the end I broke down and now and ordering three systems worth of parts from Newegg, which, of course, satisfies my inner geek but has lead to significant delays in getting the hardware I need.
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:5, Interesting)
The best part is when they decided the slowness was due to the PC not having enough RAM for XP. Which is curious, because I had run XP on that PC just fine. So they tell her they need to buy 2 x 1 GB sticks. Eventually we managed to get a refund on all of that stuff after Windows failed to boot up.
After I had to head back to my home state, she was left with no computer and, even worse, no one who even remotely knows that they're talking about with computers. She went to the same Best Buy and asked for assistance on what computer to buy. 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.
Somewhat (Score:2, Interesting)
Best Buy is not paid on commissions, BUT each department is rewarded for having high sales, which is kind of like a commission.
Plus, the best salesmen can get on geek squad, where they can use the name to fleece more victims. :D
Re:Fake it 'till you make it (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Fake it 'till you make it (Score:4, Interesting)
I worked computer sales at an Office Depot. At that time, they did not pay commission. I got a (really low) wage and sales was just part of my job. (The most important part, though.)
However, despite that, it doesn't change much from what you've said. Even if there are no commissions, sales (especially of warranties) are tracked and are linked to rewards or pay raises.
I was one of the few salesman I've ever met that put the customer before the company. I got a -lot- of compliments from customers because I would explain anything and everything to them and put no pressure on them whatsoever.
Why am I so special? I've done computer repair and computer programming all my life. That job was only because I couldn't get a 'real' job. I really didn't care if I lost it and the money was crap, so I got my reward by actually helping people. I even sent people to other stores when things were significantly cheaper. (It didn't happen often, though, and I saw almost every one of those people again for a future purchase.)
As for the situation you describe, it's due to the customers' ignorance. If they would educate themselves, even a little, they wouldn't fall into that trap. This is true about cars as well, though, and we all know how long that has gone on.
Re:Fake it 'till you make it (Score:5, Interesting)
The way it works at BBY (worked there years back so I have some insight) is that they have goals to meet as a department, but they are not on commission. The goals generally have to do with straight up sales, attach rates (accessories), and service/repair plan attach rates. Generally speaking there's not anything in the way of monetary rewards for meeting these goals, for the line employees, but if your numbers are high your chances of promoting up are very good, and if not, well you will forever be stuck in the purgatory of being the bum who gets stuck with the short stick when hours are handed out.
Re:Inconceivable (Score:3, Interesting)
Woosh!
Unfortunately I couldn't find a good quote to the effect of "woosh," but this one seems to fit in the thread:
"Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something. "
Incompetence will always be with us (Score:3, Interesting)
Years ago, back in the prehistoric era when televisions had things called picture tubes, I can recall a time when a salescritter in a mall electronics store told me that one model of TV was better than another because it had more channels in the picture tube. Sensing that I now smelled raw meat, my wife had to drag me out of the store before I really got going in my attempt to see how stupid this guy might have actually been about the products he was selling.
Then there was the guy that explained to me and a friend that one RF amp cost more than that other one because it contained more dBs. Of course that was at a small town Radio Shack so that wasn't exactly surprising.
There will always be clueless sales people as long as there are retailers that care more about hiring warm bodies at a discount than having a knowledgable staff. Unfortunately, not all of them will see the same fate as Circuit City after they laid off all of their experienced staffers for lower paid entry level people. So we'll all have to do our own homework before walking into one of these places.
Speaking as a former computer salesman... (Score:5, Interesting)
In 1999, I worked sales at PCs For Everyone, a (now-defunct, mostly) whitebox dealer in Cambridge, MA. They were a big operation, with a stellar reputation and good draw. People would drive for hundreds of miles to get a PCsFE system. As New England's largest whitebox dealer, they had about 15 guys in the back room assembling computers on any given day, and the burn-in racks were usually backlogged. We were always busy - when we weren't selling systems we were selling parts, and we got so packed on the weekends that there was a numbered ticketing system for counter help. I worked my ass off there 5 and a half days a week (the mandatory sales meeting was on my day off) and brought in, by my own conservative estimate, about $2M in gross sales during my year working for them. You wouldn't believe how many Celeron A 300's we went through. Those things went out the door like you could get high by smoking them.
I know a lot about personal computer internals. I knew even more back then. I spent at least an hour every night reading up on Anandtech and Tom's Hardware, and the other big hardware sites of 10 years back. I helped set up the demos, and I never sold anyone more computer than I thought they could reasonably need. I did product research, recommended new kit for us to sell, and did basic troubleshooting with customers, spending 1:1 time. I had a base of dedicated customers who would wait for me rather than deal with another salesman.
When stumped, other sales reps would come to me for answers much of the time. In short, if I haven't tooted my own horn enough, I was the goddamn bomb when it came to selling computers and parts.
In that year, I made a little over $22,000, and was shafted out of my bonus . I was gone on day 380, off to a job that paid 3 times as much that I got through a customer.
Taking away for a minute from the fact that my boss / the owner was a crook (and he was), even when shafting me that hard, here's the thing: I brought in $2M to a business myself, and that business 2 years later wasjust an online storefront.
There is no margin in computer sales. Even with a locally-respected brand name that drew customers from out-of-state, even when the owner was as crooked as Quasimodo's back, even when bringing in gross revenues in the tens of millions, the storefront was gone inside of a few years.
The reason PC sales sucks is because the margins are 0. The average PC salesman doesn't make dick unless he's selling in enterprise volumes, and you're lucky if they've even taken an A+ course. Anyone who genuinely enjoys both computers and sales quickly moves into sales engineering, or finds another lateral move that will net some income. The margins on each part are nil, the margins on systems are nil. CompUSA is gone because the margins were too slim. The Best Buy rep and the Dell consumer reps are incompetent because they're given 2 days with a 3-ring binder of training, then set loose on the floor. Like it or not, qualified sales staff costs money, and anyone with the know-how to be an effective salesperson with computers is going to chase the dollar out of that basement as soon as possible.
Problem of evolution (Score:4, Interesting)
This is a nasty problem because computers are not quite a commodity and not quite a geeky lab tool. People think of them as a commodity and companies try to sell them as a commodity but they require more care and feeding than say your toaster, microwave or VCR. Frankly if my VCR was as finicky and required the level of hand-holding (think frequent patching, etc) that my computer does, I'd toss it in the bin and get a new one.
It's a problem from both ends. Simple gadgets like a toaster do one established thing pretty much one way. Everybody has the same expectation of the outcome and anticipates the process pretty much the same. So we are intrinsically "trained" to know what to look for in the purchase of a toaster. Computers don't have such clearcut uses and functional pathways. This means that even tech savvy people are a bit lost in what they want from a computer (I'm agonizing on my next media server: atom or other processor, mirroring or raid 6, which case, hot-swap, etc). Combine this with sales staff whose knowledge matches their pay, and you have a recipe for chaos.
We complain bitch and moan about poorly trained sales staff, but at the same time, we want the widget at a brick and mortar store to be only ten cents more than online. We don't value well trained sales staff and good customer service. Some of us say we do, but "we" as a society feed our money to best-buy and wall-marts while many local higher caliber stores suffer and die because the prices are too high (which they have to be to cover the staff, etc). We are voting for crap employees with our wallets.
This extends to Dell online, they are leading the race to the bottom of computer sales. I suspect if you call up PSSC, you'll get somebody who knows something, but expect to pay more.
Sheldon
But...why? (Score:3, Interesting)
That salespeople lie either deliberately or unintentionally is no news. But why they lie is always the interesting bit.
- Self interest: Here the liar is lying because it will net them some gain. Be it them keeping their job or making more money at the job or whatever. Or even, say when someone like Bill Gates lies, the results of the lie might not be any sort of immediate gain but rather part of a larger plan. (But we can't remove IE from Windows...because...because...)
- Ignorance: The person does not know the answer and is just making shit up. Saying, "I don't know," on the sales floor never looks good.
- Bad training: The person honestly believes what they are saying is true because their training was wrong, be it by design or honest mistake.
- Dissatisfaction: This is a rare occurrence but it is worthy of note. Sometimes there will be a person in a sales job who knows exactly what is going on but out of spite for their employer or some such motivation they are out to mess with people. ('Short timer' sales persons often can do things like this.)
Also keep in mind that none of these reasons are mutually exclusive. So when you get the ignorant salesperson who is highly motivated to keep their job you can really get some whoppers.
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Fake it 'till you make it (Score:5, Interesting)
I was trying to buy the sale of the week hard drive once and they were taking AGES to help me because they had people looking at computers. I watched one rep sell an elderly couple a high dollar gaming rig so they could email their child who was doing missionary work abroad. He ran off to get the paperwork for them to sign and I walked up, walked them all the way down to the other end of the display and pointed out a machine that was $1500 less. They were VERY happy. The associates, when they could finally be bothered to help me, got the drive and walked me to the front of the store like a criminal. I would have left, but the drive was a really good deal, and I was feeling pretty good about screwing them on the $1500 for being assholes.
Not News, and Not a Fixable Problem (Score:2, Interesting)
The biggest problem I see is that the associates who usually know the most about computers (myself included) are the worst at the retail side of computers. I.E. making yourself clear to the customer, figuring out what they want/need, etc.
The associates who get the most accessories, services, and compliments are the personable ones, your knowledge is really secondary and can even sometimes hamper your sales ability. I find myself having to use gross exaggerations and generalisations to be able to get customers to understand what i'm talking about (a multi-core processor is like a multi-lane highway...)
Retail has never been about your product knowledge, its about your personality. As long as you know more then the customer (which is so so very little...) they think you are a computer expert. There are very few times in a work day I have to actually think about what i'm saying, its always the same responses and the same questions. I don't even remember the last time I talked to someone who knew what a front side bus was (can't people understand there is more to a processor then just the clock speed?).
Doesn't matter what industry your talking about, welcome to retail.
Re:Is this news? (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a solution. Start a retail chain and set up video chat screens to chat with a bunch of highly paid geek advisers. They do nothing but handle continuous questions from people interested in buying products of whatever type, and they try to give the best answers. By consolidating the entire nationwide chain to a few dozen advisers spread across the entire chain, the per-store training costs drop to a fraction of their current costs. Also, because your sales droids are only there to physically assist customers in carrying heavy products, fetching things from shelves, pushing the button that says "customer needs help", etc., your sales costs go down because you can hire Wal-Mart stock boys instead of people with a computer background.
The net win in the cost of doing business that way means that you can continue to make good profits without the need to resort to underhanded sales tactics to get more profit. This, in turn, leads to greater customer trust, which leads to brand loyalty, which leads to a long-term revenue stream.
Treat your customers with respect and they will respect you in return. Treat your customers with disdain, and you become nothing more than a purveyor of commodities, easily replaced by the next big thing to come along.
Re:I think the computer guys know too (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm surprised. At Sears they gave us training on dishwashers, refrigerators, and dryers, so we could explain basic things like "what's a vegetable drawer". I would expect a Circuit City to do the bare minimum for its staff too.
Sears also forced us to sell extended warranties (service agreements) which annoyed me to no end. I know that extended warranties benefit the customer about 0.1% of the time, and in the other 99.9% of the time is just wasting customer cash, but I HAD to sell them or else be drug off the floor.
They also encouraged us to sell the most or second-most expensive models, even though in most cases a customer only wants the base model. I typically sold whatever the customer asked for, since the customer saved about $1000.
Re:The only person dumber than a computer salesper (Score:3, Interesting)
We all talk about the features that a computer has. That's wrong, the users don't care, they want to know how it will improve their lives: make things easier, let them do things cheaper or faster or better. So instead of a salesperson saying "this computer has a 1 terabyte hard drive and a quad core I7 processor" and expecting the victim^H^H^H^H^H^Hcustomer to understand how that helps them, we should know what their goals are and explain what model will best suit them. Even a car salesperson can do that (though soe might choose not to, they could if it pleased them.)
Plus all this garbage about compatibility just shows what an immature industry we have. We're at the same point the car (american: automobile) industry was at when they were still trying to decide whether to have a steering wheel, and which position the various pedals and levers should be in.
Most industries: medicine, law, engineering etc. use jargon as a way of excluding the general public. It acts as a barrier to entry for their arcane knowledge and practices - thus preserving jobs and keeping fees high. That only works when an industry regulates it's own people with professional qualifications, guilds that enforce standards and legal obligations that they have to comply with. When you're trying to sell commodity goods at knock-down prices; especially when customers don't actually need to buy them, this doesn't work. They just spend their money on beer, or something else.
Re:Sales Targets (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
They have to at least TRY to upsell. In fact, it is good salesmanship to start with the high end. You do not want to offend people by assuming they can only afford the wash tub and clothesline model.
;)
Being an educated consumer does not stop with computers. The consumer should know the rules by their 18th birthday. You want to buy, they want to sell; when you meet in the middle a deal is struck. Remember, the hallmark of a successful negotiation is when both parties walk away slightly unhappy.
I sold paint for a number of years on partial commission (don't ask what that means). We had a very moral knowledgeable staff of 4. Our numbers were high and steady even in the CY first quarter simply because of repeat business (few people paint in the Winter, but more than you'd think). We would actually inform our big buyers when pending sales/promotions were occurring. Often we would get very large orders that we could place ahead of time to have stock on hand for the promotion--they didn't have ERP systems 25 years ago.
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Problem of evolution (Score:3, Interesting)
I was in that business back then for a short while and I remember there were a lot of people that we educated who then went mail order to buy the computer. Then they'd have the nerve to come to us for help when they had problems. We got tired of being nice and started sticking it to them with high support fees.
Consumers did the same things to the audio shops. There used to be a lot of places you could go and learn about and compare audio equipment. However, after doing so the consumers kept ordering from J&R or some such instead of paying extra to the local retailer.
I posted thes on /g after I quite. (Score:1, Interesting)
Depend on your ethic.
Look at it this way. The company wants you to make them money. And 99 percent of hardware failures are power supply or hard drive. If it's the power supply, you tell them the power supply is bad, the mobo was fried, the video card was fried, and that maybe they can recover your hard drive data with their "tools". But you need a new hard drive too cause it going to go soon. And then say you're looking at $300 at least. Or the other option.....
If they're busy they might tell you to buy a new computer and then pay them $150 to Transfer all that data.
Then when they buy the new computer (cause they're a retard) you tell them the extended warranty would have covered all those problems the old computer had and now they feel smart that they're "protecting them self from a future crash like this" so you get a few more hundred out of them. Of course you can recover their doc files but because you're buying a new computer. They'll need office and antivirus. There a few more hundred. But you only do that when you still have a shred of self respect. Because!!!
Now let's say that they don't want a new computer no matter what. Well let's see.
$40 for the hardware install (power supply that shitty and $100 plus part )
$40 for the hardware install (mobo also at least $100 plus part)
$40 for the memory install (at least $65 part)
$40 for the video card install (shitty $100 that is slightly better than the onboard)
$40 for the CPU install ($200 plus for any duel core )
Of course now windows won't even boot into safe mode. Hope they paid you for that data backup ($100). And you will have to reinstall windows from scratch ($100) and it doesn't matter that you got that windows key on the case and there a FUCKING stack of OEM windows XP edition CD's under the counter. You need the customer to "PROVIDE OWN SOFTWARE MEDIA". And now that you have a new mobo, your compact/HP or dell restore CD doesn't work. So you'll sell them a retail box of Vista even they the customer said they hate vista because "new hardware lacks XP drivers" ( lol) . Now you got them way over $700. Finally, one of their old apps doesn't work. You'll charge them a configuration charge ($40) for right clicking on their old app and choosing to run in legacy mode. They need new printer drivers for vista. You won't be able to "find them" so you push a printer sale. Get it and the extended warranty, And hey there a coupon if they get the HP/DELL/Epson wireless edition. And you'll send a tech to their house for $135 to set up that wireless printer. And then when the tech gets there, the problems the router is too old. But hey you got a spare in the car for $99. Real cheap you'll tell them. What another hundred dollars to "do it the right way" when their in the hole for over a thousand.
On the software side of things. A virus is fixable for $100 and for that you'll run malwares byte anti malware in safe mode (it cost you nothing) if you're in a good/nice/ feel sorry for the poor basterd.
Otherwise you tell them a story about how the virus is embedded and really infected. So the OS need to be reinstalled. (100 plus OS if they don't have media CD, and of course you'll recommend Norton cause the company pushing it that week. And of course you'll install that for $40. And of course office is gone. They have the CD right? No, there another hundred, how about Photoshop? Or anything else. Not your problem...... this post is way to big.....
Basically if you work at geek squad, after a few weeks if you haven't gotten use to ripping people off for hundreds of dollars. They terminate you at the 90 days evaluation.
and my captcha is feeling
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah my sister got a virus on her new PC and brought it to the Geek Squad. They told her she needed her hard drive wiped, but she had already spoken to me and I told her to hand them this piece of paper with the name of the virus on it- and for them to get the proper removal instructions and clean it off- no formatting the HD! (I didn't have time to do it).
They came back to her afterwards and said "Gee, that was easier than we though it would be!". *face palm*
Not new (Score:1, Interesting)
At Best Try...getting a replacement headset.
"That is a nice headset!"
"Yea, broke my old Panasonic."
"That sucks, Dolby makes good stuff."
"Yea sure..."
The box said Dolby 5.1 larger than the company that actually manufactured the product. Seriously though, that ignorance spans 3 departments...
I worked at Best Try, long ago, and actually in the PC department. I would consider myself somewhat educated in the workings of general PC components, and now the amazing things customers argue about/say. Wow! Compaq is better than HP, 'How many Megaflops does this flaptop have', and the all time favorite/most common..."How many UPS ports does this laptop have?" 5 times a day... (Atleast the last one is close, also UBS/USP came up alot)
I'm not going to say it is all customers either. Supervisors who do not know capacity, at all. kb/mb/gb. Have no idea what DVI is let alone how it works. Thought minimum req. for XP was 4gb ram (They sold them preaching that!). Praise employees who sell computers that are equipped w/ flux capacitors.
Employees at Best Try, specifically PC department, are there for 2 reasons. 1) Face every aisle all the time - everything needs to look nice. And 2) Talk about something profitable - (Geeksquad/cables/UPS/software). If an employee sold that $399 sale laptop...harassed. Didnt sell a cable w/ a printer...harassed. Didnt attach Geek Squad service...harassed.
Overall, the sales staff is made up of 340 high school students and one geek going w/ the flow to collect a pay check.
Side note, ask a manager what customer demographic you fall in, and what name they apply to that demographic. You will get a good laugh.
D
Re:That's not what I had in mind (Score:5, Interesting)
I worked at a Mom & Pop computer repair place for two years. We had a retired electrical engineer professor (phd in EE) who did laptop mobo repairs. He was just happy to get out of the house and have some guys to hang around with while soldering power plug connectors back together. There was an ex-HP guy doing printer repairs and the boss who, while not a great out-of-box thinker, had a hell of a memory for parts and settings. Cool thing was, Christmas: $500 bonus and dinner out with open bar on $18/hr salary. The rest of my tech job history has been at corporate places and never got any type of bonus like that.
Re:Fake it 'till you make it (Score:1, Interesting)
Circuit City paid their sales staff commission when I worked there in the early 1990's.
Re:Is this news? (Score:4, Interesting)
You handle peak times the same way as any other store. You bring in temp people. You may not get the best people during those times, but I guarantee you can find contractors willing to work on a 1 1/2 month contract from mid November through early January. That problem isn't in any way specific to this model. It's the same problem if your experts are at the store.
That said, with the model I proposed, it's a much easier problem to solve because you can hire these people without any need for them to actually be located anywhere near the people you're serving. Hire a handful of college CS students at universities to take shifts of as little as an hour or two between classes. Once you eliminate the physical constraints of the experts being on site, lots of problems just cease to be problems.
Also, because it's a queue system, your wait times can increase on average and the worst case times still diminish. It's not the difference between a 1 minute and a 65 second average wait that drives away customers. It's the "I couldn't find an employee to help me for twelve minutes" peak waits that drive people away.
bad experience all the way (Score:1, Interesting)
I bought a 1200$+ laptop, a dell 15 inch machine. After 60 days, i noticed some of the components started failing. I called Dell support to return the whole thing. I asked - since the 60 days period had passed, could i still return it. I was also ready to buy another dell product in exchange for this. I was ready to lose upto 2-300$ on this exchange too.
I was haggling with them for a long time , and finally this guy on the other side told me that he had spoken to his manager and everyting was good. I would lose 150$ in the exchange.
I return the machine, i get back 400$. i lost over 800$ in this transaction. I call them back, and they tell me that not only is the transaction final and binding, but they have put a hold on my card, which means till that hold is cleared, i could not buy anything from Dell online.
Moral of the story - Dell products are good, used them personally for years. Its the support staff that lets them down. Just try to call their tech support line to resolve a tech issue.
Re:That's not what I had in mind (Score:3, Interesting)
A corporation is simply a group of people working together. The moral actions of the people participating are the moral actions of the corporation and vice versa.
I'm sorry, but this is too simplistic. A corporation (the kind we're talking about here, a national retail chain) is generally composed of several different groups of people, whose needs tend to conflict with each other. Also, some of those people are shielded from the consequences of the actions of others in such a way that they may benefit from moral decisions that other people are making, and responsible for.
Very roughly, you have Shareholders, upper management, and Store staff/management. These people all have different motives. Generally, the Shareholders want a better return on their investment. The Upper management want the bonuses that come with giving the shareholders what they want, and the store staff mostly just want to keep themselves and their families fed.
The upper management know what the lower-level staff need, and they use this knowledge as a stick to keep the staff in line. If you don't sell high-profit stuff, you lose your job. It's really that simple. The shareholders hold a similar stick over the heads of the upper management.
Morally, most of us consider that you have to do something immoral to survive, you're less blameworthy than someone who simply does immoral things for their own unnecessary gain. This isn't a universal truth, of course, but many consider this to make some kind of sense. The salesman who needs to lie to a customer so he can buy groceries this week is less blameworthy than someone who has no financial worries, but lies to the customer anyway, maybe to pay for opera tickets that week. But in a large corporation, it's the poor salesman who has to make the moral decisions.
The upper management is able to set store policies against this behaviour, and simply order the workings of the company in such a way that the sales force is always under pressure, and the sales force will do what they have to do to stay employed and fed.
The shareholder is even more removed from the immoral actions of the company. All they generally know is that they own shares in a corporation, and if that corporation underperforms, they sell their shares and move on. Most shareholders are not privy to the decisions of upper management, and if you happen to hold a mutual fund, which happens to own a piece of Best Buy, when you go to the store and get sold a bill of goods by the salesman, you will think you just got rooked by a greedy bastard, and not even realise that the salesman acted as he did because of policies put into place by upper management, and that those policies, in some small way, are for YOUR benefit.
When you add in the various legal protections that a corporation gives to shareholders and employees, what you end up having is a legal structure that protects people at all levels from the consequences of their moral choices. This is what's ultimately wrong with corporations. While I agree that you can't ignore the morality of your decisions, the corporate structure makes it far too easy to push the moral decisions off on the most desperate employees of the corporation.
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:3, Interesting)
A used car salesman knew about cars, knew what to hide and what to talk about. The way it works for computer retail sales is quite simple, you see, there are quite a few people who are very knowledgeable about and understand computers, they of course need to be paid quite well and in fact they need to be paid even more to have to work in ugh 'retail sales' as for that group it is a very unpopular segment of the employment market. On the other hand you have a whole group of people that work the counter at junk food outlets, they are very cheap, minimum wage in fact, they will say exactly what they are told to say and sell exactly what they are told to sell, they neither know or understand computers but they are cheap and thus more 'profitable', so smile, be polite, say what you are told to say, make everything else up and try to survive for as long as you can before ending about back behind some fast food sales counter.
Quite some number of years back most computer retail outlets simply sacked their expensive staff and hired new staff for about a third of the prior wage about the same time as computers shifted from technical market to consumer market.
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm (Score:2, Interesting)
I make people cables for free and have them return the one they just bought at best buy. It costs me next to nothing, but best buy looses a fortune.