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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."
Apparently the rogue salesman wasn't impressed with my wanting a "cheap Linux laptop" and told me there were none left. Never mind I checked the website half an hour earlier before coming in and there were about 270 in stock at that store. So I went up front to customer service. They checked for stock and had two people help me. One to go back and fire the salesman and the other to get my laptop. That store appears to have stopped the practice of giving salesmen credit for purchases soon after. The salesmen no longer act like vultures. Customers do the store and community great service by reporting the problem.
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.
But surely their sex lives are perfectly fair game for a bit of bragging?
Oh no... it's the future.
"LAPTOP" is not a universally known group, even among geeks. You need to explain who they are. That's just good journalism.
Haven't you ever hung around a person who said "Hey, man, so did you hear about the thing?" and you just look at them dumbfounded because you have no idea what he's talking about?
I used to work there. I can see how their employee incentives would lead to these kind of practices. There's something wrong when your focus has to be selling an "attachment" item over the actual product. And no one ever uses their extended warranty (don't tell me a story about a time you used it, you're the exception, not the rule) It's dishonest. Insurance on an item you can afford to replace is always a bad deal.
This type of behavior is all to do with the profit margins. They have to cut their profit margins wafer thin on the products themselves due to competition, but extended warranties are mostly pure profit. Most people who buy an extended warranty on any product (not just PCs) won't need to claim against it within the time covered, and even if they do, no doubt the small print will have something which exempts that particular issue so they'll never have to actually pay out on it. The small minority who do have to claim and have the warranty pay out often find that one claim pays for the warranty.
The thing that many people don't take into account at the time of purchase, is that if the unit breaks in 4 years, do you want the same thing repaired, or do you want newer technology? If you bought an XBOX which needed repairing 3 years later, wouldn't you rather use that same warranty cash (in part) for an XBOX 360?
I used to work for an electrical retailer in the UK, and the pressure on sales staff to get a certain percentage of their sales figures in extended warranties and instore credit cards (where the compound interest rates were horrendous) was immense. They'd rather you had a little sale with a large percentage of the total price being a warranty, than a large value sale which was all product. They even tried to bully us into visiting the area manager to explain our lack of target achievement.....needless to say, I'm not there anymore. As a customer, it is handy to be able to cut the sales staff off with "I used to sell these things, I know the deal, forget it" when the "would you be interested in....." line comes up.
We got told we could offer discounts ONLY if an extended warranty was being bought at the same time, or they were opening an instore credit card. We were encouraged to just tick the "payment protection" box because it saves time explaining what it is, and it's more profit. I insisted in explaining to the customer as I felt like I was cheating them if I decided for them.
This type of behavior does go further than my ex-employers would go (at the time I worked there at least). It's gonna be interesting how many complaints / lawsuits they get from disgruntled customers who never realized something was fishy at the time but suddenly the penny drops that it happened to them. If this does get through courtrooms / inquiry where the allegations are proven true and they are punished for it, it'll be a hellava hit on their reputation for a while to come. Right now no companies can afford to lose customers.
Of course selling a tire with a hole in it is good business! Ever tried selling a tire without one?
How about demoing?
I would never buy anything of considerable expense (TV, laptop, etc) without looking at a placeholder model. Is the keyboard too crunched, is the screen shitty? What's it look like sitting next to another model you were thinking about? Stuff like that you can't tell online via reviews. I was deciding between a 901 and 1000HE eeePC, had the dimensions drawn out on a piece of paper, but couldn't decide which I liked more. Physically seeing both models helped me pick.
Maybe at that point I might check back online for a better price, but not without going to a B&M first.
Secondly, you underestimate the power of local support. I'm definitely not waving the Geek Squad flag here, but with some purchases it's better to go with a local vendor for faster support.
Just what would DESKTOP and SERVER think of all this? Let alone how NETBOOK would feel about being left out and poor old MAINFRAME in the corner has been all but forgotten.
Seriously though, I can't help but feel there's something inherently lame about naming your group/publication/whatever after a common peice of hardware then capitalising it.
With the random littering of LAPTOP in capitals throughout the summar it read more like an advert.
...that no one ever uses their extended warranty is just fantasy on your part.
That's assuming you actually can use it. Many times, when you actually try to make a claim, the insurance company that backs the warranty, will not back it up - they'll find something in the fine print of the contract that they'll use as an excuse to tell you to take a hike; which then it becomes a battle. Many times, they don't even have a legitimate reason not to honor the warranty, but they do anyway because they're crooks.
A Consumer advocate's take:
Why extended warranties are a rip
Why extended warranties are no good
There's enough greed to go around, certainly, and I don't support deception--but the consumers love to bitch and moan but they're never willing to accept their own share of the responsibility.
Why is it so important to these companies to push service plans and insurance and batteries, and mark up a cable to $60 and sell you a hot apple pie with that? Because they've slashed their margins on the things you're actually there to buy so low trying to get you in there to buy them. Think about the people you know. If they could choose between Store A which has their product at $300 and Store B that has it at $250 but are going to push as hard as they possibly can to get you to buy their $50 warranty, which are they likely to choose? The majority of people are going to choose Store B and then bitch about the pressure to buy a warranty as if the two things were unrelated.
I don't condone deception or fraud, but it's this prioritization of the lowest price above all else that brings these things about. It's a lot like how people bitch and moan about Wal-Mart strangling out small mom and pop shops that had that friendly atmosphere and great service. They're dead because they weren't willing to pay for that service; they'd rather save a few bucks by going to that Wal-Mart. So be it, it's their right as consumers--but let's not be naive about the choices being made.
I think when you get modded -1 troll your IP should be revealed.
His IP is 127.0.0.1, have fun.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
>>>Big businesses like the one mentioned aren't likely to care about a few disgruntled customers
Perhaps that's why Sears almost went bankrupt in 2003, and again this year, while customer-oriented JCPenney is booming (relatively speaking). You screw the customer and soon the customer will shop somewhere else.
Another annoying practice Sears had was to offer "rebates" that had to redeemed from the central Chicago office. So customers come-in expected a sale, but instead they pay full price, and have to go through the hassle of mailing stuff to Chicago to get their refund. I had a LOT of customer come-in and complain they never received the check in the mail. At first we simply refunded the money out of the drawer, but then the stores stopped doing that.
Now you have a pissed-off customer who will go-around the local area "poisoning" the market with stories of how Sears screwed them. It's so short-sighted and stupid. I prefer the Penneys philosophy, which is to follow the golden rule, even if that means a short-term loss. Treat the customer the same way YOU would want to be treated, and keep the customer happy so they'll come back next month & remain a loyal income source.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Why am i not shocked?
I'm growing to hate money and all who seek it at the cost of being fair, honest, and humane. Greed is a disgusting thing.
I'm all for public hangings of guilty CEO and politicians.
I work at Office Depot currently, and I can assure you this is not standard practice where I work, and certainly wouldn't be allowed by any of the managers or corporate. With regards to the issue about people lying about laptops being out of stock, yes, there were some salespeople who were doing that. As soon as it was found out, the practice was halted and everyone was informed that under no circumstances was it to be allowed. (And logically, even selling a laptop without the extended warranty is better than not selling it at all.) I so know that if any of this happened at the place I work, the employee responsible would be fired with no hesitation.
It is true that Office Depot does tend to push for these warranties, add-ons, etc, but you'll find that just about every other store, from Best Buy to Fry's does the same. Like it or not, that's how the business is run.
As a customer, it's annoying, but you just have to put up with it and move on in life, just as you put up with club cards, coupons, mailers, and all the other little annoyances that just about every store dumps on you these days.
As an employee, it can be stressful, but it's unlikely that you'll get fired if you don't contribute to the "quota." (And remember, this is retail. Working in retail sucks in general.)
And just as a final word, I'm not a manager, or corporate, or any higher up at OD. I'm just a lowly employee working there to pay for my textbooks because the hours are flexible enough to accommodate for my classes. I don't particularly have much company loyalty, but it does tick me off that people are spreading what is essentially tabloid journalism without giving any thought as to whether it's a widespread practice, or just some individuals who are giving the company a poor image.
And it's how I am thriving in this economy and others are not.
I have been pissed at how customers have been treated for a while now. I vowed to give top notch customer service and it is paying off. I still get jobs for photography in this really tough economic climate. When a corporation weighs paying you $1500.00 a day to do photography for them or have kenny in accounting who is handy with a camera do it on the clock, you had better bring to the table something that they remember.
Circuit City died because their business motto was "screw the customer" we will see a whole lot more businesses die in the water this year simply because they have the same attitude.
Honestly, good riddance, the world is better off without companies like that.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Your confusing issues here. These stores are lying to their customers - that is wrong, period. In your example, a good sales person will say "we are $50 more expensive then the other guy but here you get a warranty, there you have to pay an extra $50 for it" So the customer can decide if they want the product with or without a warranty. Show why your product is better, or if the products are the same then show why your stores services are better. If you are honest you will get repeat business. If you are dishonest you will get irate customers who will bitch to you, your manager and worse for the store...their friends.
hard sell tactics are one thing...lying is another especially when you hit fraud which is against the law.
I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
Clearly he meant literal in the figurative sense. Seriously (by which I mean I'm not serious).
Yeah right it is the customer. What about Christmas sales, or more correctly after Christmas sales? Companies hate that consumers will try to wait until after Christmas when companies make huge discounts on products to clear out their inventory. So why should the customer pay full price when next week it will be 25% off? Oh yeah, the bean counters say that it costs more to store product that is out of season, because they bought it on credit, than to hold onto it. So on clearance it goes!
Companies love to bitch and moan about customers to, but business taught the consumer everything they know. So I guess businesses are their own worst enemy!
Screwing the customer pays off now. Treating them excellently will pay off for decades.
But most brain-dead execs and investors are too impatient, and too focused on quarterly results. If you want a really good business, focus on results four years from now instead of four months from now.
Question everything