Undercover Sales Consultants? 26
An Anonymous Coward asks: "I was speaking to a friend of mine who recently got a job for a major computer printer company. I asked him was his job was and was very suprised with his answer. The main function of his job was to work at one of the major US computer/electronic stores in the printer aisle. His company pays this retail chain to let him do this. He dresses in the same outfit the regular employees do, and spends all his time trying to convince people to buy printers made by his company. My question is, how common is this? Has this been going on for a while now, or is this something new? And am I the only one who thinks this is sleazy?" The only sleazy part is the fact that they are undercover. I would be really impressed with the company that would actually put some of their own people in sales chains and had them identified as such. Thoughts?
Sleazy! (Score:3)
Being able to ask a true live printer sales rep wouldn't be half-bad.
On the other hand, having these undercover sales reps is totally wrong. If I'm asking an employee of one of these chains a question about this printer or this printer by another company, etc. I would expect unbiased opinions and facts. (as much as you could expect to be unbiased)
However, with these undercover sales reps, it's biased, and you the consumer has no idea that it is. The undercover guy is pushing his product and you don't know that he is, and of course the main reason that this is wrong, is that the product he pushing you towards may not be the best and/or suit your needs properly as some other companies'.
I guess all we can say is Cavet Emptor.
Re:Sleazy! (Score:1)
Ah, but you've seen this before! (Score:2)
Guess what, those people don't usually work for the supermarket, but for the product being sold. Same idea, different venue.
I found this out when I accidentally asked one of them where I could find a product, and she sheepishly explained she didn't work at the store itself, and didn't have a clue.
This instance at the computer store is a very sleezy, but understandable extension of that very same practice.
OfficeMAx (Score:1)
They used to sell alot of different kinds of computers, and now there a minie-Gateway Country.
Kind of makes me mad, as I know from personal experience, Gateway sucks.
I'm using one right now, and I swear the Next computer, I'm building from scratch.
Very common practice, business as usual (Score:1)
Sounds unfair for the retail chain. (Score:3)
As an example, picture this : Say your local pizza shack gets a Coca-Cola consultant "donated" to their business, who then takes orders on the phone. That guy will naturally sell much more Coke than Pepsi (or other Pepsi-brand drinks). The result is that for those who actually tell the Coke guy to fsck off and get their Pepsi, it will be a very flat Pepsi since it's been on the shelves for much longer than the other drinks. Still, the pizza shack doesn't sell many more drinks in total. Sure, Coca-Cola would be bribing them, but that probably doesn't make much of a difference.
I used to be a Canon guy when I was in College (Score:1)
We mainly spent our day bullshitting with salespeople so that they would hock Canon printers (with ink) to their customers (netting me incentives) in turn I would help them hock extended warranties.
There were other vendor reps, (HP, Epson, Wordperfect, Microsoft) none of whom were dressed in CompUSA uniforms. Most vendor reps wore company golf shirts, a minority wore shirts & ties with big 'Epson' or 'HP' nametags. No CompUSA manager would allow a vendor rep to borrow a redshirt, employees had to pay $25 for their red polo & nametag!
Believe it or not, store management did not like us!! Although we moved product out of the store at $0 cost to them, we were not in the store to push warranties and phoney 'service', and were routinely harrased by the management.
Re:Sounds unfair for the retail chain. (Score:1)
Re:OfficeMAx (Score:1)
More Like Stupid (Score:2)
These people are easy to spot, and easy to ditch. I just tell them EXACTLY what I am looking for, then they have to go and call the company for whatever product their flogging to get definitions and instructions. Gives me time to leave the store without making a purchase.
Sleazy, stupid, underhanded and annoying. That sort of behavior does make me walk out of the store, and go next door to Circuit City, who, although involved with the Divx crap, has never whored themselves to me like this.
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Sounds Like Micro Center (Score:1)
Re:Undercover Sales Consultants? (Score:2)
Re:Sounds unfair for the retail chain. (Score:1)
They do! (Score:2)
Back in my days as a lowly CompUSA employee, we usually had an HP rep on the sales floor, in an HP shirt, selling the HP products. Nice folks, and not sleezy idiots like my other co-workers.
Re:Sounds unfair for the retail chain. (Score:2)
I don't understand why a retail establishment would allow this sort of practice
That's an easy one... the printer company offers the store a higher margin in exchange for the dude talking up the printers. There is no down side for the store.
The store gets a free employee who actually knows something about the product he is attempting to sell. The store might get 10% of the selling price instead of 7%. The printer company doesn't have to worry that the store's poorly trained sales staff is costing them customer. By selling more units, the increased margin and FTE is more than worth the cost.
As another noted, this has been going on in stores (from food to automotive to hardware) for decades if not longer. All told, I don't have a problem with the practice. I'll take a sharp comporate shill over a brain dead computer stock boy any day of the week.
InitZero
Re:Sounds unfair for the retail chain. (Score:1)
I've seen a Handspring rep at Fry's (Score:1)
Re:Sounds Like Micro Center (Score:1)
Re:I've seen a Handspring rep at Fry's (Score:1)
My company would never let us mis-represent ourselves. It is completely unethical. It is also unfair business practices.
Cowputers (Score:1)
Seems strangley fitting for some reason...
If you don't get it you obviously haven't seen the boxes their computers come in....
Re:Sounds unfair for the retail chain. (Score:1)
Re:Sounds unfair for the retail chain. (Score:1)
Re:Sleazy! Not really, it's the next step... (Score:1)
Which is why I've given up trying to get help from the vast majority of store employees. Go to any mega store, and what do you find? Low prices. that's it. Working in these places isn't a career, it's something to do while getting your career started. Forget about getting useful information. There's a hardware store in my town, the kind with squeaky wooden floors, and a real old guy who knows exactly how many #2 washers they've got on hand, and probably remembers when they were invented. That's the kind of store I shop in.
So what's so new about $PrinterCompany putting people on-site to push their product? I remember a friend of mine telling me (15 years ago) that $PrinterCompany2 was paying money direct to the sales people in his store for each $PrinterCompany2 printer they sold. The only difference now, is that $PrinterCompany recognizes that $SuperStore's sales staff are pitifully trained, and that if they want to move product, it has to be through properly trained sales people. It's a logical extension of what's been going on for years.
Re:Sleazy! (Score:1)
However, this is the level of service I'm used to recieved at frys (bastards!).
Re:Sounds unfair for the retail chain. (Score:2)
Nope - Pepsi sold off KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut a couple years ago because they figured it was hurting their ability to get into competing restaurants.
Re:Sounds unfair for the retail chain. (Score:1)