Last week we wrote about a Circuit City customer who was charged $40 without warning for “repairs” to a brand new computer. We received several explanations from Circuit City insiders, both in the comments and through email, that the repair was mandatory—Acer and Circuit City had agreed that instead of pulling the PCs, the retailer’s Firedog techs would flash the BIOS in-store upon purchase. What was unclear was how or why this would fall under the Firedog “Quickstart” service, which is optional and includes things like removing shortcuts from your desktop and setting up your background. (Seriously, check it out here.) Yesterday we received the following interesting email from Circuit City HQ.
salesmen
Circuit City Firedog Charges $40 To 'Fix' Computer You Just Bought
By 8.22.08
Update: Circuit City says the repair should have been free. Here’s their response. Travis writes that a friend of his just bought a new computer from Circuit City, and after turning down all of the Firedog’s “it won’t work unless you also buy this” offers, he noticed a $40 fee on his receipt. Turns out the associate claims he had to flash the computer’s BIOS or Vista wouldn’t work. Travis writes, “Regardless of the fact that Vista booted up just fine with out the update, he was more disturbed with the fact that Circuit City would sell him a computer that they knew didn’t work, or so they say.” So does Circuit City sell computers that don’t work without a preliminary repair, or do they lie in order to generate extra fees?
Maybe GM Can't Sell Cars Because Its Dealerships Won't Sell Them
By 8.21.08
Consumerist reader Chris decided to take advantage of GM’s please-buy-a-car Employee Discount sale that we wrote about yesterday, so he headed off to two different dealerships in the NY/NJ area. What he found were deserted showrooms with salesmen who ignored him or argued with him over the existence of specific models he’d looked at online. He adds, “tonight I’m off to Toyota for some hard numbers on a Corolla and Camry.”
UPDATE: Consumer Takes Sleazy Prius Salesman To Court
By 7.7.08
23 months after we first posted her story, Angela Weigold writes in with the latest update about a Prius salesmen who left multiple harassing phone messages daily, calling Anela a “whore” and put her phone number on online escort websites.
This HP Customer Service Rep Thinks He's A Genteel Salesman
By 6.17.08
A Consumerist reader called HP to ask whether they could help him with a broken computer. They couldn’t, of course, but that didn’t stop the CSR from trying to ever-so-politely upsell a brand new HP computer at a low, low price. Thanks for calling HP Total Care for Desktops! What can we do to put you in a new computer today?
Discover's Speed-Reading Sales Technique Means You Can Get To "No" Faster
By 6.5.08
A zealous Discover rep tried to get Richard to sign up for a “protection program” by speeding through the details of the agreement as fast as possible—you know, the fine print part that makes it clear you’re agreeing to a paid service. When Richard made it clear that he wanted to hear the details again and that no, he hadn’t agreed to anything, the rep hung up on him. Discover, maybe you want to have a talk with your reps about their sales techniques.
Another Story About IDT Energy's Door-To-Door Scams
By 5.29.08
Here’s another report of IDT Energy using the old “We need to make sure you got a discount on your last energy bill, just sign here” tactic to trick people into switching to IDT Energy. In this post written by Amanda, a blogger in the Adirondacks, she describes how a guy with a badge and clipboard showed up at her door, saying he was checking to make sure she got a discount off her last bill. He had her go get her latest bill, then,
IDT Energy Still Scamming New York Residents
By 5.28.08
It looks like IDT Energy sales reps are back to their old tricks of getting customers to switch from ConEd by posing as ConEd workers and using misleading sales tactics. S.J. in Brooklyn has the report…
K2 Auto Group In Minneapolis Uses The "I Hate You, Get Out" Sales Method
By 5.20.08
Jesse sent us a copy of the letter he recently sent to CarSoup.com about the treatment his mother received at the K2 Auto Group car lot in Bloomington, Minneapolis.The salesmen who “greeted” them employed a novel sales technique whereby you treat the customer like she’s not rich or smart enough to even own a car, much less one of your beauties. Oddly, it didn’t work, and they left without buying anything. Read on for the salesman’s amazing technique in action.
Company Sued For Waterboarding Salesman
By 4.15.08
“We’re not the mean waterboarding company that people think we are,” says the general counsel for Prosper Inc., a company that sells “coaching packages” over the telephone. They’re being sued by a former employee who says he was held down as his boss emptied a gallon jug of water into his mouth and nose as part of a team-building exercise. Our tipster Rachael writes that it’s like “an episode of The Office gone horribly wrong.”
Dateline Investigates Shady Annuity Salesmen Targeting Seniors
By 4.15.08
Dateline did a hidden camera investigation into the world of shady annuity salesmen targeting seniors and playing on their emotions to lock their life savings away in funds they may never live to receive the benefit from, or pay stiff penalties, not disclosed in the sales pitch, for early withdrawal. In this clip, Dateline producers attended “Annuity University,” a two-day session run by Tyrone Clark to teach them how to sell to elders. He settled with the state of Massachusetts after he published a sales pamphlet that told salespeople to treat seniors “like they were selling to a twelve year old” and to hit their “fear, anger, and greed buttons” to make the sale. He also sells questionable self-promotional tools and services. In one of them, a fake radio guy will call up the salesperson and interview them like they’re a financial expert on the radio. The session is recorded and the salesman gets CDs to pass out, so they can pass themselves off as legitimate financial advisers. Video, inside…
Redzee Won't Stop Trying To Scam Charlie's Boss
By 4.10.08
Charlie has had it with the sleazy hard sell from a Redzee sales guy—after bugging her daily for a month, he started urging her to log in to “her account” on Redzee so she could see the amazingly valuable traffic he was generating for her site. “He kept saying that he had clients waiting out the door for the opportunity that he was offering us, and I quite bluntly told him that he should then answer their calls and accept their business because I was not interested.” So what the heck is Redzee?
Top 10 Complaints Keeping Shoppers From Returning (It's The Sales Staff)
By 3.17.08
Smartypants at the Wharton School of Business surveyed shoppers to find out what pissed them off most about the in-store experience, and it turns out it’s mainly the sales staff. Here’s the top 10 problems that shoppers said bothered them to the point that they wouldn’t go back to the store.
Traveling Gas Sellers Rip Off Homeowners In Michigan
By 2.27.08
Universal Gas & Electric, a Canadian company, sends out door-to-door salesmen who lie to homeowners about the imaginary “savings” they’ll enjoy if they switch gas suppliers, when in reality Universal is currently about 50% higher than the default supplier. One former Universal employee says, “I’d have people ask, ‘What am I paying now?’ and they’d look at the bill and it’s right there in front of them and they don’t know where to look and I would avoid telling them that.”
7 Lies You'll Hear From Salesmen At Electronics Stores
By 2.13.08
Future Shop is a Canadian consumer electronics retail chain. Charlie used to work there, and has now passed along the 7 most common lies he heard salesmen use on unsuspecting customers. Whether you have a Future Shop in your area or not, you’ll find these lies familiar.
3 Negotiation Techniques For Scoring Better Deals
By 7.25.07
Moneycrashers shares three methods for getting better deals in sales situations:
UPDATE: RCN Sales Harasser Actually A Known Rapist?
By 6.2.07
UPDATE: We just called the Lakeview PD and they said that this story, “wasn’t true. If it was, we would’ve heard about it.”
How To Avoid The Upsell
By 5.14.07
But we don’t have to take it. These companies take our valuable time and energy trying to get us to buy one more thing. Instead of simply grinning and bearing it, here’s some advice to help us avoid the upsell:
