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Office Depot Employee — "We Changed Prices Too"
Avram Piltch writes "Last week, LAPTOP reported that Office Depot employees were routinely lying to customers about notebook inventory, telling them that systems were out of stock if they didn't want to buy extended warranties or tech services. Now LAPTOP has spoken to more Office Depot associates, one of whom goes by the name Alex and reports widespread altering of prices in his region. He says he even Photoshops higher price tags on clearance notebooks so that associates can tell customers that they're getting a free warranty or tech service, when the price has been raised to cover it. LAPTOP also talked to a representative from the FTC, who would not comment on Office Depot specifically, but said that the sales practices described by LAPTOP clearly violate federal law."
Sadly, this is the attitude of many in sales in this country. Good Business is how much you can milk from your customers and how fast regardless of the consequences. I sat with a couple of sales guys (friends at that) last weekend who bragged back and forth about how they were literally screwing associates.
Paraphrasing a quote from The Grapes of Wrath, "Steal a tire and you're a criminal. Sell a man a tire with a hole in it and that's just good business."
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Well, except that for once sales people admit that they lie to customers.
Aware? Do you think a employee would actually care about that crappy company, to pull off shit like that?
I bet they even have to tell the employees that they can choose between lying to customers, or getting fired.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I don't think people would be complaining too loudly if the salesman was pushing a bag and a couple of blank disks at them. It's the warrenties that piss people off, especially when unethical scumbags try to sell them on mice, keyboards and the like.
A former employer of mine discovered our office supplies company had been charging us a hidden 2% "insurance" on all our purchases...
Yes, insurance on tape, staples and envelopes. Honestly. It took a few weeks to get it removed and backdated too, and he now has to call in every order and request it's not added to the invoice.
Sometimes though "reporting it" does absolutely no good. The damn government which is *supposed* to help the People which created it, refuses to do its job and crack-down on dishonest businessmen. Case in point:
I was staying at a Motel 6 week-after-week, and everything was great. Then about 6 months (and $3000 room rent) later the manager decided to no longer accept the "click to get 10% off" that I had been using via the website. I contacted the national office who said he MUST honor the rate. The manager responded by saying, "I am sick and tired of you. I told you I don't do the 10% off rate, and you refuse to listen so I'm kicking you out of the hotel." He ignored what the national office had told him to do (refund 10% of my money), and even went so far as to call the police and have them remove my luggage from the room. I complained to the Virginia Consumer Protection department, and they didn't do shit other than talk to the manager. The manager made-up a bunch of lies about how I had sex with a maid (false), yelled at employees (I'm quiet and timid, not a yeller), and falsified reservations (impossible; I'd have to hack the central corporate computer to do that). The VA government was completely worthless and this manager is still mistreating customers (I was not the only victim as it turns out).
Those reading this probably think this is non-relevant, except that it is. It goes back to Customer Service, and the lack thereof. Whether the product is hotel rooms or laptops, there is a prevailing attitude amongst Sales people and managers that WE the customer are there to serve them.
I hope the current economic collapse quickly corrects that misconception. Without customers, business can not survive. Mistreat the customer and soon you'll be the next Circuit City.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
When there was a CompUSA in my area. I went to buy a laptop. The sales person tried to sell me the extended warranty. When I refused, he indicated he was able to drop the price of the laptop enough so the end price was still the same with the warranty. When I refused and insisted on the lowered price, he indicated that he was not able to sell at the lowered price w/o the warranty.
When I worked electronics at Staples a few years back, 2 or 3 stores in our district were "reorganized" and all management at those stores fired for similar practices. One store was printing the higher price tags for big ticket items to sell warranties and replacement plans without having to even offer them. Another would lie about inventory levels on everything from printers to laptops.
All of this happened about 2 weeks after they sent 2 people from each store to the highest performing in our district for "training". This store had been performing TOO well, and as soon as the training session started, most of us start exchanging puzzled looks, as their methods were clearly against company policy.
Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?
I worked at CompUSA when I was a teenager, and I saw this kind of thing happen there too. The most successful salesmen would print up a second set of price tags for desktops and laptops that built in the warranty and put them up and then "stake out" that section of the store. They would sell customers that didn't know any better the machine at the inflated price and bundle in the warranty.
I also saw people sell electronics warranties on overpriced items that clearly didn't need them (the worst offender sold a 10 dollar warranty on a 15 dollar network cable. Both outrageous to begin with).
In the long run I think that these kinds of shady practices will alienate the customer and the company will go out of business, as we saw happen with CompUSA (and oh, how I rejoiced).
The brick and mortar stores have every right to charge whatever they want for RAM. Local stores at double the price are for emergencies only. Sure, you can get it online for half the cost. IF you are willing to wait.
It costs a lot to run a local store and maintain inventory -- even before the returns by morons whose computers are STILL broken because RAM wasn't the problem in the first place. They might not be so quick to spend the time shipping it back to Newegg, but they will surely return to the local Office Depot (even if they bought it at Newegg).
In the old days (before internet), local computer stores woulds sell RAM for 900% of mail order price. In those days, an plain (dual floppy) IBM PC would cost about $3600, a generic clone would be about $2500 from the local PC dealer, but you could make it yourself from mail order parts for a little over $1000.
When companies figured out that each PC they bought was overpriced from $1500 to $2500, purchasing was centralized and these overpriced shops went out of business. I know of at least one large defense contractor that started up a miniature PC factory just for their own needs. Workers would build PCs from commodity parts and the IT department would deploy them. Today, it's hard to buy a PC unfit for business use (assuming you can avoid Vista). Meanwhile, the DIY incentive is almost non-existant. Prices are very competitive.
We like to think our IT department is getting the best price and/or quantity discounts. But unless you are a Fortune 500 company, quantity discounts seldom beat the loss leaders (either locally or online) available to the general public. Software is the same story: Most of Microsoft's volume purchase agreements are packed with "management tools" instead of discounts. At best, the IT people get a few perks from the vendors and the "economies of scale" fantasy is kept intact.
We are afraid of overpaying if we decentralize the function. But today's problem is the cost of our own internal red tape. It would probably be cheaper to give each new employee an allowance for a new computer and have them make the purchase directly.
The extended warranties and service plans would be FAR easier to sell if *those* things were honest in the first place!
Honestly, I tend to *like* the service plans, in theory, on many of the things I'd buy at a store like Office Depot. My resistance to them comes from being screwed over on multiple occasions when I went to actually USE one of them!
As one example, years ago, I purchased the 2 year extended plan for an HP inkjet printer I got for my work. I knew that out in the shop where it was used, they had a track record of breaking or wearing out the things on about a 1 1/2 year basis, so I figured it was a good gamble we'd use the plan. Sure enough, it broke down - so I called the ext. warranty toll-free number and tried to make a claim. Turns out the company went bankrupt and all warranties were transferred to a different firm. When I called THAT firm, they had "no record" of my warranty - and told me I needed to go to Office Depot and have them look it up in their file, and fax over proof.
I went through that whole fiasco, only to have the place refuse to pay to replace the printer with a comparable unit. Instead, they said all they were willing to do was mail me a check for the cost of the extended warranty and wash their hands of it!
As another example? I paid about $100 for a furniture warranty on a new sectional I bought at "Weekends Only". The microfiber started tearing in a corner, so I called to make a warranty claim. The place was *impossible* to work with though! They kept putting me on hold for 30 minutes or more and hanging up on me, or insisting the person handling the "Weekends Only" warranties was out of the office, and to "leave a voicemail". After leaving numerous messages, I got them to return my call a total of 2 times, both at odd hours (like late evenings, at my work number, when I was already long since back at home), so they left me messages simply saying they "tried to reach me" and to "give them a call back at my convenience". Never was able to get any service before the warranty expired, and I *still* have holes in my sectional!
Here's a prime example of how people get f---ed at the stores.
http://f---you.com/2008/12/55-for-one-f-in-usb-cable.html