This is going to be a pretty obscure inside joke to all but a few of you.
I just got an email from the territory rep for a manufacturer of A/V accessories, furniture, and remote controls. He wanted to announce that they were having a sales contest for participating dealers of their remote controls.
People who know me will know that this brand released a line of programmable remote controls last year, intending to take a crack at Logitech's Harmony line of remotes.
Long story short, the remotes of the brand-who-will-not-be-named were not ready for Prime Time, and were foisted off on the dealers when they should never have left Beta testing. We installed a half-dozen systems with them before the extent of the bugs were apparent, and it was a colossal hassle, not to mention a waste of resources to fix them.
The territory rep for the brand has assured us repeatedly that the problems are fixed, but we're not exactly on fire to give them another shot.
Anyway, back to the contests, the rep is famous for spamming his dealer network with announcements for all his lines, regardless of a dealer's interest. Here's the deal on the remote control sales contest:
Sell three, get one free for yourself.
Wow, guys. Way to really set the bar.
I envision a massive warehouse full of these remotes, gathering dust. Brand-that-shall-not-be-named would rather write off 25% of them as a promotional cost than look at all that stale inventory.
Discretion prevents me from naming names, but there's nothing stopping any of you from making an educated guess in the comments section.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Blind Item: Name That Sales Contest!
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1 comment:
Let's see - sell three things you'd never own yourself and wouldn't wish on your worst enemy and you get to have one too! This is a real-life Dilbert strip.
This is also a reminder for everyone why so often the staff in big box and chain electronics retail stores appear to be lemmings who have lost their will to live. If the local store management has swallowed the rep's promo line then the sales staff will be constantly pressured by their bosses to move that "crap".
Imagine being turned into an unwilling participant in a con game. This scenario is one of the most potent arguments for why independent specialty electronics retailers are your best option. Sure, from time to time they may get involved with a product that has problems but they will always be in the position to drop it quickly. Not so the chain store that has to deal with central buyers who look at a promotion in terms of profit margin and book a huge order so the stores can chase a big return on investment.
If I was in a store that chose to participate in this promo my first question would be, "Do refunds count?" But hey, I'm experienced (read: cynical, jaded) .
'Nuff said!
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