How Office Depot Pushes Service Plans On Customers 417
Harry writes "I was amused, appalled, and angry — yes, all three — when I spotted signs above every register at my local Office Depot with handy scripts for clerks to use in 'recommending' that customers buy extra-cost, extremely profitable protection plans. And now Laptop Magazine has posted an eye-opening investigative report that charges local Office Depot stores with instructing staffers to lie and tell people who want to buy laptops without service plans that they're out of stock." Update: 03/13 00:53 GMT by T : An employee with Office Depot, somewhere in the southeastern US, wrote to respond to this story as a employee of the company, but in his off time and not in any official capacity:
"I will only say that what is described in your article and the Laptop
Mag article is not something that occurs across the entire company as
sanctioned or ordered by the Corporate Higher Ups and is certainly
nothing I have experienced as a 10-year employee of the company, we
want sales. Yes, we want add-ons, but we will take the sales regardless."
The More You Read the Uglier It Gets (Score:5, Funny)
Remember, you're helping them by saving them the loss N years from now when it breaks and they didn't buy an N + 1 year warranty.
Re: (Score:2)
Remember, you're helping them by saving them the loss N years from now when it breaks and they didn't buy an N + 1 year warranty.
I'm reminded of a certain really bad thriller starring Judd Nelson as a serial killer. He'd always inform his victims that he was there to "help" them.
Re:The More You Read the Uglier It Gets (Score:5, Funny)
New great lie of history: "I'm from (wall street/mortgage broker/bank/investment firm) and I'm here to help."
Re:The More You Read the Uglier It Gets (Score:5, Funny)
I know the first two:
The check is in your mouth...
and
I won't cum in your mailbox...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
#2 is: I won't cum in your mouth.
#3 is: I'll still respect you in the morning.
and #5 is: This won't hurt a bit.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Here's an account [consumerist.com] of a former Circuit City employee.
Re:The More You Read the Uglier It Gets (Score:4, Insightful)
When I worked at Sears they made us push their "protection plans" which supposedly were better than extended warranties because a technician would clean your refrigerator or dryer or whatever once a year. Well, I can clean my own unit thank you, and so too can my customer.
I quit that job as quickly as I could. I don't like lying to customers. Fact is: You Do Not Need an extended warranty. Most items die during the first few months, and that repair is provided FREE by the manufacturer. If an item survives its infancy, it will last a long long time.
And when it finally dies 10-15 years later, it's cheaper to just buy a new unit than to pay that ~$50/year ($500 per decade) extended warranty fee.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
P.S.
What really annoyed me about Sears is, if you don't sell their extended warranties, they take you off the floor & make you sit in the break room watching videos. All day. You can't earn a commission if they force you off the floor. I can't believe such tactics are legal.
Re:The More You Read the Uglier It Gets (Score:5, Funny)
Circuit City is bankrupt. Apparently this tactic didn't actually keep them competitive.
Obviously they didn't lie enough.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem is that the margins on electronics, and in particular notebooks, are so low that the only way a lot of these places can remain viable is to sell extended warranty plans. It's been like that for some time. I was working for a guy who sold point-of-sale systems back in the early 1990s, and basically the hardware was little more than a giveaway. We made a respectable margin on the software, but the real money was in setting up the systems and consultation.
Unfortunately, when you're just a big bo
Better Question (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Better Question (Score:5, Funny)
Why would you buy a computer at office depot?
Because you need something with enough mass to make it through the store window when you plan on returning it?
Because you don't feel satisfied with a computer purchase unless you know you've been ripped off?
Because Office Depot is the only place that will extend you credit because you put a months worth of hookers and blow on your creditcard?
Re:Better Question (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Better Question (Score:5, Interesting)
Glad I could help [wisegeek.com]. On a serious note, if you're the sharp type and good at reading fine print, you can occasionally make money with "credit card arbitrage" by taking advantage of 0% APR balance transfer options. Not for the faint of heart, of course. Or you can take advantage of the US Mint's offers [slickdeals.net] to sell dollar coins at face value with free shipping to skim credit card rewards points.
Re:Better Question (Score:5, Funny)
Oh... OH. You meant BUY it. Nevermind.
Re:Better Question (Score:5, Insightful)
Not so long ago you could have said the same thing about Best Buy - why would you buy a computer from them?
If you can find a better deal at Office Depot, why not?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Better Question (Score:5, Funny)
250MB hard disk
In this case, I think I'm going to have to agree with the OP.
Re: (Score:2)
I still say the same thing about Best Buy. What was your point again? ;P
Re:Better Question (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Because, douchebag, you are sowing the seeds of your own demise.
Buy from a national chain, and the money flows outward, probably never to return to your region/city/neighborhood.
For every $100 spent at a national book chain, only an infinitesimal amount remains locally (something like $10 or so). Buy from a local book store, and at least $45 remains in your neighborhood.
Which means more employment, etc., etc. Dig????
And in the present economy - which will take from 10 to 20 years to rebound from, if they
Re:Better Question (Score:5, Interesting)
Great! Point me to a local, non-national chain store to buy a netbook or MID (or laptop, for that matter) and I'm totally there (oh, and I should add at an attractive price, since that's usually what takes people to national chains).
Look, electronics and books are two very different industries and you just can't compare them. Books can be and are sometimes published and produced locally. I don't know of any local, US-based place that produces the electronics I would use. Dig?
Re:Better Question (Score:4, Funny)
Great! Point me to a local, non-national chain store to buy a netbook or MID (or laptop, for that matter) and I'm totally there.
Do you happen to live in Richfield, Minnesota? Because if that non-national part isn't a sticker, there's this company there called Best Buy you should look into.
If not, I'm 100% out of ideas.
Office Depot CEO: "Worst CEO of 2008" (Score:5, Informative)
It would be interesting if we could know two things: 1) Exactly how much Office Depot makes by selling overpriced "protection" plans. 2) How much it will cost Office Depot because of stories about the company being abusive on Reddit.com [reddit.com], Digg.com [digg.com], and Slashdot.
That Digg link leads to a New York Times article about the Office Depot CEO. Quoting: "The worst chief executive of the year was Steve Odland of Office Depot, according to Glassdoor.com's reviewers. He had an 80 percent disapproval rating."
CEOs in the U.S. often make 475 times [nybooks.com] the pay of the average person. I suppose it doesn't matter to many CEOs if the company they are managing dies. The CEOs make millions as fast as possible, and when the company dies, they retire or do something else.
That isn't honest, I think it is psychologically self-destructive, but it seems to me that's the way things often are.
Warren Buffett warned about bank failures in 2003 [bbc.co.uk]. It was certainly no secret; anyone with any interest in financial business knew about the problem. Bank executives knew that what they were doing would be the end of their companies. I suppose they were making so much money (sometimes $40 million per year) that they didn't feel it was necessary to care. It was understood, and often discussed even on TV, that the U.S. taxpayer would pay for any problems that were created; that is happening exactly the way it was planned.
Re:Office Depot CEO: "Worst CEO of 2008" (Score:5)
You mean this?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It would be interesting if we could know two things: 1) Exactly how much Office Depot makes by selling overpriced "protection" plans. 2) How much it will cost Office Depot because of stories about the company being abusive on Reddit.com [reddit.com], Digg.com [digg.com], and Slashdot.
Not only that, but it seems to me that they're doing it wrong if they're pushing an extended warranty with the hard-sell. Its supposed to be an impulse buy that customers don't really care one way or another about, so they'll agree to another nickel and dime.
I worked at gamestop for a while, they have their version of the extended warranty that was for 1 year on new and used games, for something like three dollars I think. The trick was telling the customers they wanted to spend just a tiny bit more rathe
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Because once you get past having enough money to survive the rest of your life, money just becomes a way of keeping score. I remember hearing Bernie Ecclestone saying it once in an interview and I've heard other very rich people express the same sentiment.
I expect someone like Buffett will have a hundred million or so stashed somewhere. He could loose everything else and still be able to live better than virtually almost anyone else in the world.
I bought mine... at Circuit City (Score:5, Interesting)
Believe it or not, I bought my current PC at Circuit City. I know, I know. But at the time, Circuit City had the same model HP Pavilion for as little or less than anyone online, with the additional advantage that I could jump on the bus and go buy one today, rather than having to wait around for UPS to deliver it. A week later, Amazon.com dropped the price by $50, so I went back to Circuit City and said, "Hey! I you guys ripped me off!" The nice kid at the cash register promptly credited $50 to my card. Total time without a working computer: 18 hours. Total money lost due to not shopping online: $0.
Am I sorry they're out of business?
I dunno. Not really.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Am I sorry they're out of business?
I dunno. Not really.
Good. You shouldn't be sorry. It's not your fault they're finished. It's everyone who didn't buy their computers from Circuit City, thereby denying Circuit City a profit from the consumer's money.
Office Despot (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Office Despot (Score:5, Funny)
I suppose that's one way to think about it. Another is that since those drugs are illegal, they tend to be supplied by large drug-smuggling operations.
I run a mom-and-pop drug smuggling operation, you insensitive clod!
Re:Office Despot (Score:5, Insightful)
Given the choice would you really want to be standing next to warehouse racks holding palettes of merchandise built by some one who toked up before they came to work or some one who doesn't use.
This is a red herring. "Before they came to work," of course not, but then, I wouldn't want to be there next to someone who downed a six-pack before coming to work either. But if he got stoned the night before, or got drunk the night before, or both, or neither -- why should I care?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Same reason I bought my new dell laptop at Staples..
it was $350.00 cheaper than I could get the exact same thing with my partner pricing from dell.com.
I saved a crapload of cash and got it right now instead of waiting a week and paying for shipping.
for some reason these office supply stores have insane deals that the manufacturers cant touch. Funny part is that I was able to buy a dell extended warranty for it when I got to work at dell.com for 1/2 the price of their special staples care package.
Company or store policy? (Score:5, Insightful)
I worked for OfficeMax a few years ago. Everybody who worked there received commissions for selling those overpriced plans to customers.
I'm wondering if the examples discussed in TFA are a companywide policy a la Best Buy with their seperate pricing for internet and intranet, or the brainchild of some greedy store manager. When I worked as a film-developer for a major drugstore chain, the store manager approached me about finding a way to cheat customers using standard processing for customers who turned in their film with premium envelopes(which means that customers who wanted offsite "premium" processing would instead have their stuff done in-house, saving us tons of cash and leaving us hoping that the customer wouldn't notice the lack of the extra features they wanted ^_^).
My biggest mistake in that job was mentioning the word "ethics" to my manager. I was never promoted ^_^
Re:Company or store policy? (Score:5, Informative)
Office Depot does not pay commissions. Instead, they just threaten your job if you don't sell enough. Since the employees are easy replaceable, even at near-minimum-wage, they don't have to care.
Yes, I used to work there as a 'customer service representative' (or some stupid title) and I was told 'never lie', etc etc... And then told that if I didn't sell enough plans there would be problems.
I refused to lie and refused to even -try- to sell the plans to people who didn't want them. Most of the time, I didn't even mention them. The only way I survived was that I was the -only- employee with any actual computer knowledge. I could actually fix computers where others couldn't even name the parts if they weren't labeled. (Okay, there were a couple that could install RAM, if they -had- to.)
They don't just push those plans, though. They also push overpriced ink, paper, cords, power strips... Anything and everything to add money to that sale.
Obviously, the employees hate that shit as much as the customers do. I'm not surprised that they've resorted to lying directly from management to the customer to try to sell the extras.
The one article claims a really odd commission system... While it wasn't in effect when I was there, it was the kind of bullshit they'd pull, so it might be true. They're really, really cheap though, so I seriously doubt it's true.
Re:Company or store policy? (Score:5, Interesting)
Obviously, the employees hate that shit as much as the customers do.
Yes! Laymen, please keep that in mind the next time you get that crap from one of us working that shit job. Also know that those bullshit policies are often enforced by secret shoppers. Secret shoppers are people who work for agencies who are paid by the company to monitor employee behavioral compliance.
OfficeMax didn't have them then, but the drugstore chain did. In that case, the random weekly visits measured for all of the employees working in the store(YMMV):
Did the employee greet you with a smile?
Did the employee ask you if you found everything you wanted?
Did the employee offer to take(or call somebody to take) you to the item?
Did the employee offer a friendly parting comment?
I never found out for sure, but I've heard that store managers receive bonuses for keeping payrolls low. My store manager was paid 63K a year while the understaffed underlings often work for minimum wages. Keep that in mind the next time you visit a drug or grocery store with 30 people in line being served by only 2 cashiers.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
"I never found out for sure, but I've heard that store managers receive bonuses for keeping payrolls low. My store manager was paid 63K a year while the understaffed underlings often work for minimum wages. Keep that in mind the next time you visit a drug or grocery store with 30 people in line being served by only 2 cashiers."
Oh please. Everything up until that paragraph I would buy as plausible. But do you know WHY they pay their employees so little ? Because people are willing to take the jobs at those w
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Due to all kinds of factors like economies of scale, customer loyalty, established physical presence, detailed infrastructure, etc. an existing company has so many competitive advantages over an upstart that to pretend some entrepreneur could (for God knows what reason) start up a consumer electronics store to take on, say Best Buy, is just absurd.
Somehow this perfect entrepreneur would have to know that (for example) Best Buy was
Re:Company or store policy? (Score:5, Insightful)
So if the owners are paying the managers ridiculously large wages while the people actually doing the "real work" are getting cheated then the entrepreneur will not be in business very long.
Is that why CEOs are paid so many million whether or not the company is failing? Everything up until that paragraph was BS, but that really clinched it.
Here in Australia we have a scandal going on where an iconic Australian clothing company called Pacific Brands is firing thousands of local staff to move their operations offshore. Anyone that quits early loses their redundancy payouts. Meanwhile the CEO doubled her salary. This is possible because company executives have all the power and are able to decide where to make cuts first. Meanwhile they also pat each other on the back and increase their own wages if company performance improves as a result. Their money doesn't come from the money fairy. The employees and the share holders all lose out as the company is sold out from under them.
Re:Company or store policy? (Score:4, Insightful)
>>EVERYONE, whether you're a business owner or not, always wants to sell high and buy low.That's not greed. It's common sense.
>Nope. Still greed.
Not really. If you're buying a used car from a guy, and he's asking for $5K, and book value is $4K is he being greedy?
What if you offer him $3K? Are you being greedy?
I think the answer to that is no. It's not immoral to sell things for as much as you can, nor is it immoral to buy things for as low as you can. Even communists do that. Nobody gives away stuff to be a nice guy. Nobody pays too much because they feel it's "the right thing to do". That applies to cars, widgets or labor. It's all a commodity.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Nobody gives away stuff to be a nice guy.
Bullshit. Sometimes I really wonder what circles you people travel in.
Re:Company or store policy? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Company or store policy? (Score:4, Interesting)
OfficeMax was my shitty high school job, I had the same thing... I don't think I'll ever forget the poor customer who bought the protection plan on a $5 mouse because I was following the script and she didn't know how to say "no." I stopped following the script after that.
I can top that... (Score:5, Informative)
When the boss found out, he yelled at the guy, not for being a total slimeball, but because the woman could have probably come back and got free replacements for her 'defective' (re:empty) ink cartridges for the next year...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
A clever manager would be able to point to the clause that states normal wear through proper usage is not covered.
He probably wasn't clever enough for that though.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Could you be any more insulting to your species ?
Yes, of course he could. He could offer them a protection plan they don't need. I'd call that a first rate insult.
Re:Company or store policy? (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, the GP didn't say how much the warranty cost.
I don't remember exactly, but far more than simply buying a new mouse when the old one fails, especially considering we're talking about devices with no moving parts here. I've never had an optical mouse fail on me under normal use. Also, depending on how you value your time, spending the hour or so digging up the receipt and waiting on the phone, going through whatever procedures they require for you to get your replacement... It's simply not worth spending that kind of time on something you can pay for out of pocket by just working for 15 minutes.
If it weren't for competitive strategies such as that we'd all still be paying $50 per mouse like we were 10 - 15 years ago.
Yeah, advances in miniaturization and manufacturing techniques have totally had nothing to do with that. I suppose you think the reason I've got more computing power for a third of the cost in my iPod Touch than my desktop machine had 15 years ago is because Apple sells warranties too!
Insinuating that people are somehow idiots who can't think for themselves, and that companies prey on them is WAY more insulting.
I suggest you take a hypnosis class some time, you'll learn that even your average person is fairly suggestible. On the low end of the bell curve there are people you can sell *anything* to. There's enough weak-willed people out there that a good panhandler can live in a house.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
My biggest mistake in that job was mentioning the word "ethics" to my manager. I was never promoted ^_^
Heh. I actually used the sentence "If you want to be ripped off that badly, I can get a colleague for you, but I won't sell you this" once. I was supposed to sell phone plans and horribly crappy and overpriced ADSL connections together. The phone part was good though.
I worked a total of four days there.
Re:Company or store policy? (Score:5, Interesting)
Best Buy employees don't work on commission, true, but of course they gave more hours to the people that managed to get more customers to sign up for service plans. There's nothing wrong with that. Now, most of my co-workers were honest people; it wasn't uncommon to see some of them give the customers faulty information, but it was usually out of ignorance rather than trying to purposely be deceptive.
There was a handful of people, though, that would tell outright falsehoods to customers to get them to get a service plan or what have you. There was one employee in particular that would sign people up for the magazine subscriptions without even asking then (the 'free' trial that they charge you for after the 8th week if you don't cancel).
Of course, since I worked Customer Service I was the one who had to deal with all of the angry customers. Easily the most stressful job I've ever had. On the one side I had customers venting their frustrations at me. Then, with the way Best Buy's hierarchy is set up (there were about 12 managers, all with the same level of authority and conflicting sets of instructions) it was chaos trying to figure out exactly what they expected from me. So, I simply stuck to the official store policy and, of course, I got 'spoken to' (but not written up, because they really wouldn't have a leg to stand on) for accepting too many returns even though I was following company policy to the letter. After putting up with that shit for two years, I'd finally had enough and quit.
I suppose I'm going off on a tangent here, so let me get back on topic. I think that, with the exception of a few people, most retail employees loathe using lying to people, even if only through omission. Unfortunately, the way the system is setup, there isn't really much of a choice. I was fortunate enough that I could afford to quit a job that I hated (and that was back when the economy was still relatively good). But not everyone has that luxury. If you have a family to support or are a student paying your own tuition (as a lot of my co-workers were) it's not really an option. When I was working at Best Buy, the only people there that seemed to genuinely enjoy their job, other than the managers, were the people working in the warehouse (away from the customers). Most everyone else just sort of begrudgingly accepted that things could be worse and did their best to bear it.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I worked at CompUSA, and our management was constantly trying to get us to sign people up with *AOL*. The whole thing was so ridiculous that even the department managers didn't fire us for lack of sales.
The people who made a lot of money on commissions were the hardware guys selling compete systems. I never got to see a big benefit from selling the plans, other than I got to keep my job.
Appalled? (Score:5, Insightful)
OK I'll stop now to keep your rage meter from going overboard.
(This message brought to you from the 'please channel your anger towards things that actually matter dept').
Man, I must be feeling bitter today.
Things that matter? (Score:2)
> This message brought to you from the 'please channel your anger towards things that actually matter dept
I believe that when you say "things that actually matter", you really mean "things that you feel you can change". Politicians not reading bills is Very Bad -- but there's little one feels they can do about it.
the slide shown (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:the slide shown (Score:5, Insightful)
Not at all. The true reason the salesperson recommends the extended warranty is because they get commission. The reason given in the script is an unrelated fact, so by following the script the salesperson is lying.
No. By following the script the sales person is giving you a true reason why you might want to buy it. It doesn't happen to be the reason he wants to sell it to you, but what has that got to do with anything?
The true reason the store exists at all is to extract money from customers. So if I walk in an ask to buy a single pen, and an employee suggests buying the 3 pack for twice the price 'because you get 2 for the price of 1' he isn't lying to me. Its the truth, and perhaps even a good reason to buy the 3 pack.
The fact that he makes more money from the sale this way is the reason he suggested it, but that doesn't make the rest of the conversation a lie.
Depot dumbness (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Depot dumbness (Score:4, Insightful)
Meanwhile everyone has a higher cost of living because stores need to account for the higher costs of complying with such regulations (being out perfectly good inventory that comes back damaged, having to pay more for labour to deal with accepting returns and the turn-around etc.) which goes straight on to the prices.
If the majority thinks that the cost is worth it, then it doesn't matter. They're getting something for it. People just need to realize that those types of regulations don't purely help consumers and hurt businesses. They have a cost associated that everyone has to bear.
On the flip side, without those regulations you can always turn around and resell a product that you realize that you don't want. You might still take a loss, but then, you went out and bought a product you didn't really want. Personally I'd rather people who buy products that they don't want take the loss instead of everyone.
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If USB goes away... start collecting USB-equipped dumb terminals, as ethernet isn't going anywhere any time soon. Use them to VNC into your main computer, and just use it for the keyboard.
Best Buy tried this as well to "fight" piracy. (Score:5, Interesting)
About a year ago, I walked into a local Best Buy, and was shocked, appalled, angry, but not surprised, to see anti-filesharing propaganda set up throughout the store.
I counted over 25 fliers hanging on walls, telling people "DOWNLOADING IS A CRIME!", and other propaganda. The most elaborate display they set up was in the MP3 Players section of the store. They mounted two flashing strobe lights on top of a display, designed to look like a police car's flashing lights. They then placed a large sign stating that "DOWNLOADING IS A CRIME. DON'T GO TO JAIL, DON'T DOWNLOAD".
So I asked one of the employees about the signs. They said it was an order by their upper management (as in, from their corporate offices). I then asked if they believed that downloading music is a criminal offense that can result in arrest, as they clearly try to say. They did not know. Some of them said "Yes", while others didn't answer the question.
Needless to say, I guess people complained, because the signs were gone after a while...
Re:Best Buy tried this as well to "fight" piracy. (Score:5, Funny)
"Sir, I saw you put those CDs in your pants. Are you stealing them?"
"Yes, well I wasn't going to download these, but then I saw your sign..."
Re:Best Buy tried this as well to "fight" piracy. (Score:5, Funny)
-wasn't
+was
Guess I should have bought an extended warranty on my original post.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Sir, you didn't purchase any music CDs today, so I must believe you have stolen CDs. Please strip naked and prepare for a cavity search. On another note, remember to have your handy RIAA Support badge worn for a low low purchase price of $100 to avoid being hassled on the way out of our store.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Needless to say, I guess people complained, because the signs were gone after a while...
Actually, I think it's more likely that the [RI|MP]AA paid to advertise at Best Buy, the same way that technology companies can buy end-of-aisle display placement. When the money ran out, the ads came down.
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Funny... I bought a DVD player from BestBuy last boxing day. The employee told me he has the same model and it played every DivX file he has downloaded.
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I hope they answered "yes", because it is.
"Downloading music" is certainly not a crime. Violating someone's copyright is, but it's not something that's inherent in downloading. For example, you can download these songs [tds.net] absolutely legally, and there are plenty more.
The Script.. (Score:5, Insightful)
If this shocks, amazes, or angers you. Get a fucking life. How is this news at all? If they want to lose a sale b/c they're not selling a protection plan, well I would think they are just shooting themselves in the foot.
Re: (Score:2)
Also, while people might not like the sales pitch, by selling protection plans the company is able to lower the prices of it's products to compete. It's competitors follow suit to remain competitive and, while we might have to listen to a slightly annoying 2 second sales pitch, we ALL pay less for hardware as a result.
Reminds me of OMAX.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Yabbut... (Score:5, Funny)
Wait till they get a patent on this method!
Re:Yabbut... (Score:4, Funny)
Wait till they get a patent on this method!
Exactly. We have the patent system so that new ideas do not become widely available to society, thereby confining the damage.
Pushing the hell out of service plans in retail... (Score:2, Interesting)
I have -2 words- for Office Depot (Score:2)
"Circuit City".
Not that I'd buy tech there in any event (I'm one of those smarmy Mac guys), but this certainly means I'll minimize my purchases to only those staples (pun possibly intended) like paper and pencils.
Here is what I do (Score:5, Insightful)
When I am to buy anything from stores like Office Depot, and happen to be coaxed into these service plans, I tell them:
"Look, this is a gift. If I must purchase a service plan before walking out with this product, then I will leave it. Now, can I have this product without a service plan or not?"
This script has worked remarkably well at all times. I have never been disappointed.
Re:Here is what I do (Score:5, Funny)
Or you could try my favorite.
Oh its out of stock? Damn thought you guys had a good service plan too. Guess I will go to insert other store here.
Magically in stock again? At register with item in hand. Service plan? What service plan? I didnt say I wanted one please take it off.
Bait and switch works BOTH ways.
An Old Adage and a Modern One (Score:2, Funny)
Since the days of the Romans, the adage has been "Caveat emptor." (Let the buyer beware.)
Now Modern Marketing has their own adage: "Carpe emptor!" (Seize the buyer.)
Let the Battle of the Adages Begin!
Re:An Old Adage and a Modern One (Score:4, Funny)
"Carpe emptorem!" Perhaps
Certainly not new (Score:4, Informative)
Selling up is hardly new with computer stores. Long time ago I bought a high-end VCR (Yup, THAT long ago) from a Silo store I had frequented. They always tried to sell the warranty, and this time I was damn sure I wasn't going to buy one. The sales lady rung up the order without asking, so I sarcastically asked, "Aren't you going to try to sell me one of those extended warranties?" "No," she said. "I can see it in your face that you aren't going to buy one." which I thought was pretty funny.
About the scripts: I worked retail for awhile and I gotta tell you, some of these 'sales associates' are so afraid of what to say that they demand scripts. They'll say, "What do I say?" so I'd say, 'Just talk to the customer and answer his questions.' "But what, exactly, am I supposed to say?" and it just goes on and on until you write them up a script to keep them quiet. This was especially true for customer complaints where no one wants to say the 'wrong' thing. As you know, once in awhile a customer can be kind of unreasonable, and there's this old aphorism that "the customer is always right." But as far as I'm concerned, that doesn't mean a front-line flak catcher has to take abuse. What the phrase means is, "The customer knows what he wants to buy, and if you don't have it, you screwed up." It doesn't mean if he starts yelling at tou that you have to stand there and just take it. Leave. get a manager. Whatever.
I did the same thing at Office Max (Score:5, Informative)
The incentives that they gave the salesperson who sold the extended "warranty" on any electronic/furniture item far outweighed any moral obligation for me. I would push a $5.99 1-year replacement warranty on just about anything I could, selling someone a $29.99 inkjet printer with a warranty gave me an extra $12 bucks in my check. Some weeks my check gross amount just about doubled from the volume of extended replacement plans I sold.
I don't blame them.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Yep, did the same at Staples during high school. I remember one particular Sunday morning where I had sold a bunch of plans by noon, basically tripling my pay check for those sorry few hours, "$19 an hour! WOW!"
I don't regret selling the plans, some of them were nice, like the laptop screen repair. I never followed scripts, you can read people pretty easily after a while of selling electronics, I don't think I bothered asking even 50% of the time. I was only a top seller like once, but it didn't bother m
A former employee (Score:4, Interesting)
I went to one of these stupid meetings and all I could say for myself is that since I worked as a stocker in office supplies, I didn't even sell anything that I could in theory have pushed a service plan on, even if I didn't think they were crap. They responded that I was mistaken because batteries were in my department and they qualified. WTF? How the hell are you supposed to sell a service plan on a pack of AA batteries? I quit before the next Saturday as I'd found another job, though I probably would have given them notice if it weren't for the crappy work environment.
Re:A former employee (Score:4, Interesting)
I witnessed, firsthand, a 'model' employee taking a printer out of a customer's cart when the customer revealed that they weren't going to buy the money pit of an extended warranty plan! Subsequently telling that same customer that the entire wall of boxed printers was on hold for 'a school' was the icing on that particular cake.
Our store had the best rankings in the district because 'we' flat-out refused to let warranty-able items go out the door without a warranty being purchased. While the official store policy was never to use those sorts of tactics, there was a sheet that was distributed to each store in a given district, posted prominently in the break room, ranking each store by how well they did selling those warranty plans, and the best store got awards and the like. Kind of a we don't condone this behavior, but if it gets results, we'll pretend not to notice arrangement, it seemed.
I got in some hot water for not pushing those warranties - I sold perhaps one a month, usually because the customer wanted it - but I had other good employee qualities that they apparently decided were worth keeping me for.
Anyway. I have no idea if they still do such a thing, but it's not a new idea.
I've got a better script. (Score:5, Funny)
Not just Office Depot (Score:2)
Scam (Score:3, Insightful)
Will they replace a candy bar under the plan? (Score:3, Funny)
Will they replace a candy bar under the plan?
I can see it now.
Just buy a candy bar and they ask do you want a protection plan you say yes eat it right there and ask them How do I make a clam?
As for batteries will they give new ones for free when they go dead or does the plan cost more then the batteries?
Re:Will they replace a candy bar under the plan? (Score:4, Funny)
clam
Get a mother clam, a father clam, and put them in a clamhouse.
Re:Will they replace a candy bar under the plan? (Score:4, Informative)
*sigh* -1 ruined joke. what I meant to say is ...
How do I make a clam?
Get a mother clam, a father clam, and put them in a clamhouse.
Not News (Score:3, Interesting)
I once worked at a bank that set high goals for the "sale" of credit life insurance on consumer loans. Without exception, credit life insurance obtained through the lender is a bad deal for the borrower and a great deal for the bank - DON'T EVER BUY CREDIT LIFE INSURANCE. If the borrower "asks" for it, the premium is not counted in the A.P.R. calculation; if it is required, it must be part of that calculation, vastly inflating the A.P.R. Guess how much credit life was sold as "asked for" and how much was sold as "required"?
We were instructed as to patently illegal and devious means to write it as "asked for" while the bank President stood in the room. The one fellow who questioned the practices was fired within the month. I left shortly thereafter.
It happens everywhere. That's the sad, harsh real world.
This is not news.
"Office Depot Provides Legitimate Extended Warranties At No Extra Cost" would be news.
Lie? (Score:5, Insightful)
instructing staffers to lie and tell people who want to buy laptops without service plans that they're out of stock.
I don't get how this would work. Generally, extended service plans are pushed at the end of the sales transaction, when you are standing at the cash register.* They might be good, but I've yet to meet a sales person that can convince me that the laptop I'm holding is out of stock** and must be a figment of my imagination.
*Any earlier and the issue of product reliability becomes an issue. "What! I need a service plan? Does this thing break down a lot?"
**Generally, when I walk in to a store to buy something, the first thing I do (before aking about all of the expensive accessories) is to see if they actually have one in stock. Yes? Well, bring it out and let me take a look at it. The continuation of the transaction is predecated upon them actually producting the item in person.
How does that work? (Score:5, Funny)
While this is an annoying policy on paper, there are several ways I could see this actually playing out, and none of them really seem to work.
Scenario 1
Customer: "Hi, I want to buy this laptop"
Clerk: "You wanna buy an extended warranty?"
Customer: "No thanks"
Clerk: "We don't have any in stock"
Customer: "Uh... then yes I do?"
Clerk: "We just got some in right now!"
Customer: "Then I'll take one without the warranty."
Clerk: "Aw, what a shame, we just sold out."
Scenario 2
Clerk: "Hey, you seem interested in that there laptop, you want to buy one?"
Customer: "Sure."
Clerk: "Extended warranty?"
Customer: "No thanks"
Clerk: "Sorry, I just checked, we're out of stock"
Customer: "But... you didn't go anywhere, you didn't even act like you were looking in the stock room"
Clerk: "Uh... Telepathy!"
Scenario 3:
Customer: "I want this laptop."
Clerk: "You want extend waranty."
Customer: "No"
Clerk: "No computer in stock"
Customer: "Yes you do, this box right here, in my hand, I want to buy it."
Clerk: "Me ring up"
Customer: "Okay here"
(Customer hands computer to Clerk, Clerk smashes the computer with a primitive club)
Clerk: "No computer in stock."
Then again, I haven't worked in retail for a long time, maybe my "Lying to strangers" skills are rusty.
A fool and his money are soon parted (Score:3, Insightful)
Everyone here knows not to buy these warranties. People who do buy the warranties subsidize the cheaper purchases that YOU make. This is how they offer the good deals on priceline (except on priceline stores, they call it "accessories").
By bringing attention to the matter, you are making it harder for us in-the-knows to buy things for subsidized prices.
Re: (Score:2)
the only hurdle is used-car salesmen who might sue claiming prior art
I don't know why people slag off used-car salesmen. I've bought a lot of cars from used-car salesmen, and paid a price commensurate with the vehicle I was getting. Cheapest car was the absolutely immaculate Volvo 340 for £30 ("Get it off the lot before someone sees it, jeez, just get it out of here") that had to be towed away and repaired in the next street ;-) There's a refreshing honesty in "Warranty? Yes, it'll get at least a
read this for the real stormy on car sales men (Score:3, Informative)
read this for the real stormy on car sales men
http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying/articles/42962/article.html [edmunds.com]
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
IT vendors only exist so that people who are too evil to sell used cars have somewhere to work.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
That's a good word.
Actually, it's not. Appalling is a word, but not appaling.
Well, that's one problem I'll never have (Score:3, Funny)
I found one vintage keyboard model that I like, and I've stuck with it, accumulating them when they come up on eBay and various other places. The one I'm typing on now has dual English-Japanese key caps on it which, IMHO, is cool and different. I have to use an AT to PS2 converter, which I plug into a PS2 to USB converter. If anything supersedes USB (doesn't seem likely) it might get really ugly though.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
When the purpose of a store becomes to avoid the simple sale of the product at the marked price, management has failed and the store is doomed.