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In March of 2007 our civil suit attorney contacted Dan Wolf. Dan Wolf owns Toyota of Naperville and other dealerships in the chicagoland area. Dan Wolf immediately fired Mr. James V Gentile in March 2007.... Toyota of Naperville has been served in November of 2007. Mr. James V Gentile aka Jim was hard to serve. Finally April of 2008 he got his papers...

Update on the criminal case... The states attorney has counted 19 blocked phone calls going to my cell phone from his home phone and his cell phone! Starting December 2005 and ending April 2006. Some how the jerk is having his attorney ( James Moore office of Rockford,IL) to pull off getting the case continued. The latest stunt they pulled was this... Court date in April was continued to June 12th because his attorney told the states attorney that he will take the plea. I was happy and I thought maybe there is some good in this man. But no, I get a call from the states attorney on June 12th to come down to the court house to testify! I could not believe it! So I went down to the court house and met with the States Attorney only to be told it will be continued due to the judge assigned to the case is on Vacation! The next court date is set for August 7th, but I am not going to count on it!

To the dealerships out in the Chicagoland area, if you have him as an employee, watch out, he maybe doing this to your customers! To the public, if he is your salesman, please beware of what kind of person he is!

The wheels of consumer justice grind slowly, and they grind exceedingly small.*

Read previous updates to this thread here.

(Photo: Beth and Christian)

* with hat tip to Friedrich von Logau(with hat tip to Friedrich von Logau

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It's amazing how psychically cleansing it is to get rid of things you don't want or anymore.

The absurdly hypocritical claims were made to weasel out of a British tax on potato crisps and other potato-based foods. London Justice Nicholas Warren ruled that Pringles were made, not of potatoes, but out of good 'ole fashioned American chemicals.

Potato chips "give a sharply crunchy sensation under the tooth and have to be broken down into jagged pieces when chewed," the Cincinnati-based company's lawyers argued. "It is totally different with a Pringle, indeed a Pringle is designed to melt down on the tongue."

Warren agreed. Pringles aren't "made from the potato" for the purposes of the tax office's exemption, he said. He didn't say what Pringles are, other than that they're tax-exempt.

What's that old adage about a duck?

Pringles are not potato chips, judge says in British tax case [L.A. Times]

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Five-piece set includes headboard, footboard, wood rails/slats, dresser and mirror.

That's right, the bed is actually three pieces. That nightstand and other dresser must have wandered onto the set accidentally.

Scott, who tipped us to this, writes, "So to Value City, a bed = 3 pieces? Sheesh! Why not consider each side rail a piece and call it a 6 piece set!?!" Great idea! We think we've discovered a whole new way to increase profits without raising prices: segmentation. Why, that dresser can be listed as a 7 piece storage system by itself, a pizza with twelve pepperoni slices on it is suddenly a 12-topping pizza, and KFC's 2-piece chicken meal immediately doubles to a 4-piecer if you count the bones as individual units.

The important thing to remember is to use misleading photographs, though, or else your customers might not take the bait.

"Classic Cherry Queen 5-PC Bedroom Package" [Value City Furniture] (Thanks to Scott!)

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Highlights From Bargainist

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"This is a quarter of steady progress," CEO Philip J. Schoonover said in a conference call with investors. "We still have a long way to go, but I'm encouraged by what we've been able to accomplish."

Accomplish? Does anyone want to tell Phil that he's supposed to be selling electronics? No. That would be cruel.

Meanwhile, there's been no word on Blockbuster's plan to buy the troubled retailer. Presumably, they're still thinking it over.

Circuit City loss increases; next quarter may be worse [Star-Tribune]
Circuit City Posts a Wider Loss as Sales Fall [NYT]
(Photo: cmorran123 )

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I received a call from a Discover card rep today offering some information about some new program they're offering regarding being able to freeze your account, saying that they'd be mailing me an info packet. This rep was speaking so quickly, he was making the disclaimers on car dealer ads on the radio sound drawn out. I had to ask him twice to slow down and repeat what he'd just said.

The second time was after reading what he called a "30-second" spiel about the conditions of the mailing where I heard the words "payment protection" mentioned. Nothing had been said about this previously, so I asked him to repeat the end of his spiel. He said, "We'll be mailing you the information in three to five business days for your review. This constitutes your approval for enrollment in payment protection. I said, "I absolutely did not approve anything to be done to this account," and he HUNG UP!

Richard called Discover and made sure they had a clear understanding that he hadn't agreed to anything, but he shouldn't have to do that on an unsolicited telemarketing call. And as Richard points out, there will be impatient customers who end the call at the wrong time or with the wrong phrase who will end up being signed up against their will:

What galls me is that I'm positive the fast reading of that statement was designed to disguise the bit about "your approval for enrollment in payment protection," so that some impatient or less-attentive customer would just say, "Yeah, fine" simply to end the call and end up enrolled in something it wasn't made clear they were enrolling for.

When you start wishing you could sign up for a program to protect yourself from the credit card company, you know they've pushed their sales techniques too far.

(Photo: Getty)

Ford says it plans to sell F-Series trucks "at employee-discount prices this month," according to Bloomberg, but that's too late to help Ford return to profitability this year.

Declining pickup sales contributed to Ford's announcement last month that it would abandon a target of returning to profit by next year. The company had combined losses of $15.3 billion in 2006 and 2007, mostly because of its North American unit.

The automaker is slashing North American production for the rest of 2008 in response to the lower truck sales.

GM, the largest U.S. automaker, said today that it will close four truck plants, build more small cars, and may drop its Hummer brand of large sport-utility vehicles. The company's May sales fell 28 percent, including a 37 percent plunge for pickups, SUVs and vans.

Here are the top five spots for May sales, from the Kicking Tires blog:

• Honda Civic: 53,229 (including hybrid)
• Toyota Corolla: 52,826
• Toyota Camry: 51,291 (including hybrid)
• Honda Accord: 43,728 (including hybrid and coupe)
• Ford F-Series: 42,973

"Honda, Toyota Cars Outsell Ford's F-Series Pickups" [Bloomberg]
"Honda Civic Best-Selling Car in the Country" [Kicking Tires]
(Photo: Kevitivity)

I wanted to share a recent annoyance at 2 Home Depot locations. The first occurrence I was actually a little surprised when an HD associate approached me, I assumed with would be the usual "Finding everything". But it was an attempt to interest me in the special promotion for home owners they're running. Apparently its some service with Trane to inspect your home air conditioning. Fortunately there was a sucker beside of me who spoke up and I moved along. A few minutes later and a few asile away who do i see coming but the promotion guy. Again I get the "did you hear about our new promotion". Wow, yes and still not interested. Even though I was quite annoyed I didn't think that much about it until at a second store a few days later same sales pitch. That's enough for me, I'm not going to shop where I'm going to be bothered with these pitches.

Submitted to HD's customer support form:
Over the last week I've had the occasion to be in 2 different stores in the Charlotte area several times(Steele Creek #3662 and S Boulevard Charlotte #3646). At each location while I was trying to find my items and continue with my daily life I was approached by an HD representative who wanted to tell me bout the special promotion for Home Owners. Apparently this is some attempt to sale AC services with Trane. I have to say how annoying this is that I can't simply shop at your stores in peace, I'm going to be accosted for hard sales of services. This is not acceptable to me and will make me hesitant to return to a Home Depot store in the future. Regards.

We suspect that stores like Home Depot underestimate how annoying these sales pitches can be. Has a store ever lost your business because their sales force pestered you to sign up for membership cards, credit cards, or special promotions too often? Who are the worst offenders? Let us know in the comments and we'll round up the best stories in another post.

(Photo: Den-Mod )

From the WSJ:

Sold in corner groceries, vending machines and other outlets since the early 1990s, soft drinks in 20-ounce plastic bottles revitalized U.S. sales for Coca-Cola and PepsiCo Inc. by getting Americans to drink larger servings. Because they are often sold at prices similar to a two-liter bottle, they have also been highly profitable for the companies' bottlers.

Now, health concerns, aging baby boomers' waning thirst for giant-size sodas and the softening economy are taking the fizz out of the 20-ounce bottle. While U.S. soda sales in major retail channels overall declined 3.5% in the first quarter, convenience-store sales dropped 4.2%, according to Beverage Digest, an industry publication. The 20-ounce bottle accounts for most convenience-store soda sales.

To win back sales, several Coca-Cola and Pepsi bottlers are conducting pilot tests on a variety of bottle sizes they hope will appeal to consumers put off by the 20-ounce bottle or looking for a cheaper option to cushion the blow of high food and energy prices.

Why have you stopped buying 20 oz Cokes? The WSJ says that Pepsi is testing a 16 oz model. Will you buy that?

20-oz Sales Lose Fizz [WSJ]
(Photo: Ben Popken )

When husbands, boyfriends, and sons go shopping for womanly gifts, it's like shooting fish in a barrel for store clerks—these guys usually want to get in and out of the store as quickly as possible, and either they'll decide in a snap what to buy or they'll happily take your advice on what makes for the best gift. Either way, it's easy money with little hassle. Somehow, though, Kohl's jewelry counter clerks missed this bit of retail advice—here's how they lost a $300 sale from a guy who was ready to buy and bolt earlier this week.

I usually don't bother to go ahead and Google for an email address, however after leaving your store on Powers Blvd tonight with $500.00 still in my pocket I felt like Kohl's was missing the boat on their male shoppers in general.

I'm 35, in sales, two kids, wife etc, and am basically the kind of male that goes into a store if its a holiday, potential disaster, or I'll be leaving with some electronics or golf gear.

Tonight I was going into your store with the thought in mind that I can pick up a nice set of earrings or something between 200-400 dollars for this Sunday. As I walked in at about 6:40 or so, I made the quick right, walked around the counter and decided that we're going to end up spending about 300 on a pair of earring that I thought the wife would enjoy. Now I don't know about you, but for me this kind of decision takes about 2 minutes (Please don't let my wife know this, as she would misinterpret my ability to quickly choose something for her as not caring enough)

So I looked up and around to locate the counter person so that way I could make the purchase, and quickly exit the store before I got caught between a crowd and a sale (This did happen to me the time I brought my daughter into your store to get a new coat because she lost her old one. I accidentally was standing in the aisle waiting to pay when had to push my kids to safety because a restocking of some items was going on in the ladies dept.)

Anyway, back to the jewelry/earrings - I am watching the counter person empty out and count up her drawer (It's about 6:55) and it turns out she can't hear me, or the other two gentlemen at the counter at that time. Now I am all for hiring people w/ handicaps but I do not believe this counter person was deaf, however I am unable to prove that due to her not flinching as the gentleman next to me was surely heard by someone 50 ft away.

After this, I just left.

Now, I have ran a dollar store for two years out of school for my family, I even worked for Lord and Taylors before they turned into just another store, and I can't help but feel that if employees where trained or reminded before holidays like xmas or mothers day that people like myself would be coming into the store, usually they will have the $$ to spend and where just to come right up and say something like "Hi, do you need some help finding what your wife wants?" that you'd be doing your shareholders a favor.

A 35 yr old male who doesn't enjoy shopping has the attention span of a 3-year-old when he is buying something that he normally wouldn't. If you could somehow capture them as they walked though the door or wandered the aisles you'd do even better. If there is a store that does that for you that's reasonable please let me know, I still have my $$ in my pocket tonight.

(Photo: net_efekt)

I tried to order Verizon FIOS this evening. Their salesman came to my door and spent 1 1/2 hours convincing me that it was a good idea. He did a great job, and I decided to do it. I was to sign a contract for ONE Verizon phone line, in addition to internet and television. We called the Virginia call center, and told them that I have a Verizon phone line, a Cablevision phone line and a Vonage phone line. I told them that I intend to keep the Vonage line. I was told that unless I switched all three lines to Verizon, they could not do it! I then asked to speak with the supervisor, who told me that the rules could not be bent, and that all phone lines must be transferred to Verizon. I said to him: "you spend millions on advertising; every day I receive multi-color mailings from you trying to convince me to order FIOS; and then you tell me that because only 2 of my 3 phone lines will be with Verizon, you refuse my business! The supervisor told me that it didn't matter to him whether or not I sign up because he gets a salary whether or not I sign up, and he gets no bonus! In other words, he has no incentive to please the customer, and he couldn't care less if I walk away. Then, to add insult to injury, he got on the phone with my salesman and told him that if I call the NY business office, they could sign me up, but that the salesman would get no compensation... after he did all the work to convince me to do it!

I have decided that if I call the New York office, and they refuse to compensate the salesman, David [redacted], then I will go so far as to do without television, if necessary, before I ever sign with Verizon. I will also move my existing Verizon line to another carrier.

This is symptomatic of why this country is going to hell in a handbasket.
I don't give a damn what Verizon does at this point. This has made me sick to my stomach!

Stuart

(Photo:JohnMarino92)

"Another $50 million will come from requiring online retailers like Amazon that do not have a physical presence in New York to collect sales taxes on purchases made by New Yorkers and remit them to the state.

Oddly, until now New York residents have been asked to voluntarily provide their total sum of online purchases on their state tax forms in order to estimate a tax payment, but InternetNews wrly notes it "evidently has fallen short" of the expected revenue goals set by the state.

Although there's likely to be a legal challenge to the law, it's also possible that other states will use it as a model to levy their own sales taxes whenever there's an affiliate presence in-state. In the near future, at least, it looks like New Yorkers will soon have to start paying sales tax on Amazon purchases.

"Legislators Back Spending Rise in State's Budget" [New York Times] (Thanks to Andres!)
"'Amazon Tax' Lands in New York" [InternetNews]

RELATED
"Amazon Doesn't Love New York Tax Plan" [InternetNews]
(Cat: izarbeltza)

I saw this today at the Toy"R"Us store in Elizabeth, New Jersey and though you folks would be interested. This Lego kit (the Exo Force Sentai Fortress Battle Set) has a sign that indicates its original price was $19.99 and that it is on sale for $69.98. The sign helpfully indicates that this is a savings of negative $49.

CSRs who work for Verizon say that they are pressured by managers to make calls as short as possible and to spend most of the time trying to sell Verizon products. CSRs who refuse to pressure customers into purchasing more services are disciplined. Even people who work at Verizon have to spend their free time calling the company to complain about their own inaccurate bills.

Dawn Livingston, a shop steward with the IBEW local union at Verizon, said she has won trips, including one to the Mall of America near Minneapolis. "It was very cool," she said. "Verizon got us a hotel room right there so we could drop off our shopping bags and rest."

"But that stuff is only for people who get great sales," not for fixing customer problems, she said. "I could have 15 customers in a row say 'She's doing a great job,' and not get a trip anywhere."

The company is also clear about disciplining workers who don't sell enough.

For example, employees said customer calls are timed and count toward an employee's average call handling time, regardless of the customer's issues. Employees said they need to average no more than 11 minutes with a customer. Managers dispatch "coaches" to stand behind poor-selling workers and issue disciplinary "Work Sheets."

Girit said managers disciplined him 13 times in 7 months for not trying to sell a long list of Verizon products.

"I once got written up for not trying to sell TV to an 80-something-year-old woman who called to change her phone number," Girit said. "And she was in a nursing home, moving from one room to another, and couldn't even get our TV. I'm not going to offer something like that."

Even more frustrating, he said, is that he can't get his own Verizon bill fixed. "I'm a FiOS customer myself, and I have to call every month because the bill is wrong. I'm on the phone with these people for an hour every time I call - and I am 'these people.'"

Frank Leonetti, an 8-month employee at Verizon, said that "even if people are calling, trying to lower their bills, I get in trouble for not trying to sell them more things and make their bill higher. People call me crying with problems they couldn't get fixed in six, seven months. ... Then managers will sit down next to you, plug into your line to listen, and say, 'Why aren't you offering them this, that?'"

Kevin Bailey, a two-year call center employee, said, "Even if people call with a $1,500 messed-up bill trying to cancel, I have to try selling them more things. If I don't, I can get fired."

Verizon Workers Caught Between Sales, Service [Tampa Tribune](Thanks, David!)
(Photo:Ben Popken)

I lie. I lie to people a lot about their home safety. And I don't feel particularly good about it, but when my iPhone buzzes in my pocket, I forget the lies I've told and think of the MacBook Air that just shipped to my house.

I sell home security systems for a living and I only work the three summer months of the year, and maybe four or five weeks the rest of the year. What I fail to mention is that my bank account regularly has 6 digits. All because I lie to people for a living....

1: "I am a marketing Rep from (insert alarm company here) and am just doing some marketing in your neighborhood today."

Don't believe a word of what I am saying. I am a high pressure sales rep that is focused on making as much money off of your insecurities as I can. Granted, I don't tell myself that every morning while shaving, but when the chips are down, thats what I will tell you. I use the marketing line to come off as inexperienced and even non-intrusive. People find the word sales as dirty, so I don't use it. I use softer words to assure people that I am not taking their money and I don't even really care if they help me. But inside I know that if someone lets their guard down for even just a second, I will make the sale and have another commission.

2: "I'm just in the neighborhood talking to a couple of particular families in the area, seeing if they will help (alarm company) market their new product line thats just come out."

I don't believe you are smart enough to figure it out, so I keep feeding you what you want. I'm not interested in two or three families on your street. I am interested in getting every person in a 50 mile radius to buy my product, because I like money. I'm not looking at special cases that will help market my product. I am interested in forcibly getting you to sign a contract that binds you for three to five years and pays my bills for a while. And the product isn't so new and improved. Its been on the market for years now. Don't let me tell you that this stuff just came out and we are trying to get a couple of families to use it and try it out because we just want to push product. Simple as that.

3: "What we do is give families this free equipment to put in their home, and all we ask is they put our little sign out in front of their yard. Thats it. That way, our sales department can have some product in the area to point to as examples. We are willing to take the hit, if you are willing to help us out."

Sure you don't pay for any equipment put into your home, but really do you think we would just give you this stuff for free? I have all the placards to show you how each piece of equipment is close to two hundred dollars, and that is cost we as a company are willing to swallow. What I don't tell you is I pay minimum manufacturing price for each piece of equipment I sell. So really, all those things I say we are willing to "take the hit" for, don't cost anything. I am just telling you this to make you feel like you are beating the system. And you suckers think you are getting a deal, yet you never really do.

4: "All this equipment will cover your home and give you an extra sense of security in this area. Now, this area isn't a bad area at all, but there have been a few reports in the news of some home invasions recently."

Doesn't "invasion" make you think of the Germans storming into Poland? I love using the word "invasion" and watching people light up with emotion. And these two or three articles that I am showing you? Just random articles with a bit of Photoshop work and you are all of a sudden suffering from major home invasions in Podunk, Iowa. I change the name of the city, paper, and maybe other small details and that is it. You are starting to believe me, aren't you? Now, I've got you emotionally charged up and I give your home the walkthrough.

5: "These windows here in the back of your house are big security threats because of (insert general safety tip). In fact, in this recent break in, the article cited the back windows as the point of entry for the prowler."

I am working you into an emotional frenzy. I went directly to the back windows and doors without you even asking me to come in. Don't ever let me do that again. You don't even know me, yet you are willing to let me into your house and all the way to the back door? And the back windows aren't that big of a deal. You have no idea how people break into houses, but you are willing to believe me, because hey, its my job right? Actually I don't know any more than you do. I just sound a bit more knowledgeable than others, and have this great system just waiting to be inserted into your house.

6: "So let's sit down here and go through the equipment you selected to cover your less secure areas. Now all we need to get this equipment released to you is to make sure you are the homeowner. We have had problems with (random lie concerning equipment and ebay). I will just call this in and we can get this taken care of."

I am running a credit check. Right now because you have given me your birthday and or social security number, I have the power to check your credit and see if you are eligible to make the monthly payments. I don't tell you this because you don't know who I am calling, giving all this information to, you don't know who I am, checking your credit, you don't know me at all. Don't give me your information like we are long lost brothers just making sure we found each other. I am praying to the credit gods that you are worthy to be swindled. And in two seconds, presto. You are.

7: "In the event your security system ever really does go off or even needs to be serviced, we ask that you have a personal password that we can verify with you. That and some emergency contacts if we can't reach you. Just fill these out right here and we can release the equipment to you."

I am diverting your attention so I can fill out the contract. Or "terms of agreement," as I will call it in a second. Its the age old trick of diverting someone's attention from the important so they won't be shocked by it. And you are doing it!!! I'm filling out terms and conditions, signing everything now, so when I give you this paper and the pen, you will skim it, not really care, and sign. Because its important.

8: "Now that we have that emergency contact information, lets go over the terms of our agreement. You remember I said earlier that all you needed to do was to put the sign out in your front yard and you could be given the equipment? Well that's all this says. You are qualified and willing to meet these terms to have the sign in your yard and have the equipment in your house."

It's just the terms of the agreement. Just like I said. If you start to look at the monthly costs of this alarm system I will go directly back to lies number 4 and 5 and work you into your emotional state again. After that, the monthly costs don't look so bad now do they? Yes, they do. It's still money out of your pocket. YOU ARE NOT GETTING THIS STUFF FOR FREE!!!! You are going to give me your credit card number in a second so that I can process this transaction and start you down the path of constant payments.

9: "I am just going to make one phone call to our corporate office so that we can get this all set up. (At a certain point in the phone call, Corporate asks how the customer is going to pay for the initial transaction, which is taken out immediately. I look up from the phone and politely say) They are asking for a credit card number to be placed on file so we can have a record of me being here and completing this agreement. What card were you going to use for that?"

Yeah, I knew about this part earlier. You don't want me to hang up with busy corporate though, do you? They are right here on the phone, it's really easy to just give them the number over the phone. If you are really hung up on it, I will talk you into your emotional frenzy again and then maybe even become a bit combative as I accuse you of breaking our trust that we had just moments ago. Hopefully it won't get to the point where I have to tell you, don't worry about the cost, its not even a price that is established by us. Some mysterious company decides the prices for every neighborhood. That's completely false and misleading, yet still works 85 percent of the time.

10: "We have technicians in the area that are following us around and at no extra charge to you, installing each home security system we give away. Its a service from our company that lets you guys get to know the technicians in your area a bit more and you can know your system is being properly installed."

These guys are just college kids like myself, with minimal training by some country bumpkin who once ran his own phone lines in his house, so he is qualified to train on home security. Hopefully they can put your alarm system in today, so that when you start to get buyers remorse, you will already have the holes in your walls. Holes in walls can squash any thoughts of remorse real quickly. And hey, you don't have to pay for these guys to come in and professionally install it, so its not that big of a deal! Just watch out when they take four or five hours to install this system and then have to come back to fix it because they just wanted to leave.

The ten lies I tell people, preying on their fear, and insecurities. And I feel no remorse.

(photo: dyanna)

10. Sales Associate (SA) A ignored you - did not say hello, smile, make eye contact 21
9. SA didn't listen when explaining what you wanted 22
8. Product/item was out of stock 22
7. SA not very polite, courteous 24
6. SA not interested in helping you find what looking for 27
5. SA insensitive to long check-out lines 27
4. SA acted like you were intruding on their time/conversations 29
3. SA followed, pestered when you wanted to browse on own 30
2. Could not find anyone when needed help 31
1. SA had 'that's not my department' attitude 32

Does this hold true for you? What most turns you off when you go out shopping?

Shopper Research Pinpoints Loyalty, Problems [ifoAppleStore] (Thanks to Jgodsey!)
What Customers Expect Sales Associates To Contribute Toward The In-Store Experience (Powerpoint)
(Photo: Getty)

Saw your GoPhone post. I work with AT&T Corporate Communications, and wanted to clarify our policy related to this.

There is no activation fee with GoPhone. Customers can buy the GoPhone and activate but they cannot use service until they add airtime to their account. Customers can buy airtime for as little as $15 in over 200K locations. We do offer a promotion where if you buy $25 worth of airtime to start we will give you $10 in bonus airtime.

Customers also have an option if they are looking for a replacement device for postpaid to buy a Nokia 2610 for $39.99 in COR and not sign a contract extension. That program launched in mid-January.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Brad

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