I would like to think that if slam a few cell doors closed on some CEO types it would help to curb some greed. But I think not.

Remember folks, vote with your dollars!

Saw a great deal on a Toshiba laptop (after rebate which I received pretty promptly) from OD. Bought it with no hassles, and no high pressure to try & sell me an extended warranty (which I didn’t buy; my credit card gives me a 1-year warranty extension. Plus I’ve heard that ODs extended warranties are lousy).

BTW, I have a friend who worked at some of the more popular NY/NJ electronic dealers and he’d always regale me with all of the bait and switch tactics. But there were too many products being “killed”, because someone would come into his store with an ad from another store and the friend would insist that there was no way he’d get the product from the other store at that price. True, but customers were rarely convinced and once they traveled to the other place planning to buy, they’d rarely walk out without something. The friend’s store finally figured that they’d make more money doing volume without upselling; they are now highly rated on resellerratings.com and are making money hand over fist.

BOTTOM LINE: An educated consumer should never have anything to fear.

Another scam used by many retailers with the manufacturers assistance is the “refund the difference +x%” scam. I learned of it from a Best Buy employee.

The retailer says if you find the product advertised somewhere else for less, you’ll get you can get the difference in price back.

The scam: For many of the larger items (e.g. laptops), retailers get their own SKU available only at that retailer. It will be a model ever-so-slightly different from the model at a different retailer. So BB will have XYZ1234-74, while another retailer might have XYZ1234-75. One may have a modem, while another will not, or an extra LED, or an extra USB port.

They are truly different models (I give them credit for that), but they are specifically created to allow this kind of valueless guarantee. It’s just one of many scams involving offering something as if it has great value, while knowing the it is (nearly) valueless.

The real problem: The corporations have brought us to a culture of greed, where lying, cheating, stealing are acceptable to get the glorius dollar. Same thing that’s killing the financial system. We need to root this out, in all it’s forms.

I worked for Office Depot in Eugene, Oregon for a little over a year before walking out due to the unprofessional approach taken by management. Although some of the more extreme sales tactics were not used in my store, I can see how employees could be bullied into turning heads and using unethical sales tactics. Management would say they were not interested in pressure sales, only to turn around and threaten to fire you if you were unable to meet your product protection plan or tech services sales quota. I applied to be a stocker, sales was never in the job description. Bogus competitions were devised to stimulate sales, but after numbers were posted in the break room they felt more like ways for long time employees to shun people who were not as sales oriented. Management would encourage taking advantage of ignorant customers by withholding information, or flat out selling people stuff they had no use for. I can remember one instance when a customer was not buying any attachments with a laptop, the employee helping the customer was told to try to steer them away from buying anything at all, only to save the market basket attachment rating. My first day working for Office Depot I was told that we were a team. I did not realize that I had just joined a team of crooks!

Reading this has been a rather amusing look back at my time with OD. The fact is, this stuff does happen there (and probably at every retailer). Corporate sets goals, and people attempt to achieve them. The problem comes in when certain lowlifes find ways to cheat the system and set the gold standard for others to be measured by. That leads other stores to pull the same crap, or find new ways to do so. Faking the price tags, bundling sale items with attachments, claiming to be out of stock, and a 100 other things happen every day. Just prior to my departure, the current discussion on how to prevent selling laptops without warranties or other attachments, was to open up all the box’s that were in stock. The logic being, that if we couldn’t tell somebody we did not have it to avoid selling it with an 0fer attachment, we could at least tell them “oh I’m sorry, but the only units I have are open boxes”. I will also say that my DM at the time was a fairly honest man, and was by no means proud of things like this. His frustration was clearly evident anytime you spoke to him. But OD wants only salesmen working in their stores, and the only measure of success is add-ons.

This is a classic. Buy the device for the price. Get second one for example say 50% off. BUT now the paper maze starts. You must mail in register receipt, cut UPS code off box( now you cannot return an item within warranty w/o UPS code), fill in a form at bottom of register tape. Now wait 10-12 weeks+. No check! When you call or email, they “say still processing rebate claim”, yours will be along soon. Weeks later still no rebate check. Call again get “Oh we mail that weeks ago”.
Then a check comes that has expired. Send back for reissue and it disappears. Nice scam. The big boys do this Tiger Direct, Office[Max or Depot], Best Buys etc.

I can’t say I’m surprised by the number of OD associates saying that their stores have corrupt management. While management at our store will never admit it, the amount of service dollars needed to keep the white collars of our company happy is quite staggering. I’m kinda glad my store is a little more stable and scam free. We do it all by the books.

I would like to comment on those people who bought laptops/printers and ended up getting upset because their products weren’t returned.

It is YOUR responsibility as a consumer to keep a record of the purchases you make a retail store. Not the retailer’s. Often times the retailers offer services such as receipt retrieval and such in order to cater to those customers that come upon freak accidents where they lose their receipts. That’s all good and well and all of us retailers do it because we want your business and we understand that accidents happen. But it’s not for idiots that toss their receipts haphazardly.

Moreover, while I think that our 14 day return policy can be a bit stringent, you are crazy if you think we are going to take any responsibility for a laptop that is a year old. If it conks out on you, it’s the manufacturer you need to deal with, not us. As mentioned above, we make little to no margin on those high price items, and unless you buy our warranties, we really have no reason to take stake in your purchase. We all love our customers. But we’re not a charity. The price you paid is for the item itself. We can’t take hits like that because if we did, we’d be out of business. We understand your position as well, but unfortunately, we’re not equipped to help you sometimes. That’s just the way it is.

Its been around for at least over 5 years my friend worked there the manager on duty says to not sell it to them unless they buy something else with it on the list of things that increase there sales