Sony Incentives to Gamestop Employees...

[expletive]

http://www.gamersreports.com/news/5801/sony-offers-gamestop-managers-prizes-for-pushing-ps3-units/

If this is true, and it seems it is, its not a good precedent. You've already got these places littered with associates with their own agendas, this will only make it worse. It doesnt affect me personally because 99% of the time I know exactly what I want when i go into one of these stores, but what about parents or others who are looking for help making an informed decision? This, to me, is similar to a journalist taking a gift from a publisher. Am I missing something here?

 

[hey69]

alot of companys do this including the one I work at.. so?

 

[expletive]

alot of companys do this including the one I work at.. so?

Don't you think it compromises the ability or likelihood that someone is going to get objective buying advice from the employees? If so, "they're all doing it" isn't a good enough excuse for me...for any of them.

 

[Inane_Dork]

If Gamestop actually accepted the offer, that is severely stupid. They should refuse any such deals.

 

[Todd33]

Retail doesn't exist to give you advice, they are trying to sell crap. This kind of stuff happened all the time when I worked retail. Next time you are buying a console don't ask the advice of some 20 year old $7/hour kid, use your brain.

 

[tha_con]

http://www.gamersreports.com/news/5801/sony-offers-gamestop-managers-prizes-for-pushing-ps3-units/

If this is true, and it seems it is, its not a good precedent. You've already got these places littered with associates with their own agendas, this will only make it worse. It doesnt affect me personally because 99% of the time I know exactly what I want when i go into one of these stores, but what about parents or others who are looking for help making an informed decision? This, to me, is similar to a journalist taking a gift from a publisher. Am I missing something here?

Microsoft does it too.

 

[expletive]

Retail doesn't exist to give you advice, they are trying to sell crap. This kind of stuff happened all the time when I worked retail. Next time you are buying a console don't ask the advice of some 20 year old $7/hour kid, use your brain.

They can still sell crap, but at least try and sell the crap that best suits the individual customer. I use MY brain, its not me who something like this impacts, as I stated in the OP.

Microsoft does it too.

And? A few of you seem to be missing the point, its not Sony thats the problem, hey they should go for it. Its Gamestop thats doing wrong by their customers.

 

[Todd33]

They can still sell crap, but at least try and sell the crap that best suits the individual customer. I use MY brain, its not me who something like this impacts, as I stated in the OP.



And? A few of you seem to be missing the point, its not Sony thats the problem, hey they should go for it. Its Gamestop thats doing wrong by their customers.

I didn't mean you, I meant people in general - no offense.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

And that makes it oke? So if someone steals a car, you can steal one too because the other guy also did it?

Its obvious that retail only wants to sell stuff and most stores dont give a shit about what they sell you or have capabel personall to begin with. You should always try to figure out what you want yourself as much as you can (or ask friends/family) however I think a store should also be able to give a decent advice based on what the customer wants and not because company X gave them some money to sell their product.

I guess Sony wants to do whatever they can to push ps3's as they arnt exactly selling like hot cakes.

 

[expletive]

I didn't mean you, I meant people in general - no offense.

Understood, and none taken, but still, you cant say 'use your brain' to someone like, say, my wife. If she wasnt lucky enough to be married to a nerd, she'd be at the mercy of these kids working in these places when she needed buying assistance.

 

[tha_con]

The point of retail is to sell people things they don't really want or need while putting on a front that you're helping them. The best way to get your employee's to do this is to give them incentive, and what better incentive than offering ways to win free games and consoles?

There is nothing wrong with this, if you think there is, never go into a retail store again, and simply purchase online only.

 

[one]

And? A few of you seem to be missing the point, its not Sony thats the problem, hey they should go for it. Its Gamestop thats doing wrong by their customers.

At least Sony is not abusing monopoly by exerting influence over retailers... if incentives are wrong then exclusivity contract is also wrong, console launch incentive is wrong, software licensing business is wrong, console industry is wrong.

 

[Todd33]

Understood, and none taken, but still, you cant say 'use your brain' to someone like, say, my wife. If she wasnt lucky enough to be married to a nerd, she'd be at the mercy of these kids working in these places when she needed buying assistance.

Never ever trust the motivations of a sales person. If they are not injecting their personal bias, they are motivated by quotas or sales competitions. Do your homework from home on the net and just use the store to buy something. You can't blame a company like Sony or MS for this kind of thing, they are trying to make money and if they don't do it their competition will.

 

[rbushner]

Don't you think it compromises the ability or likelihood that someone is going to get objective buying advice from the employees? If so, "they're all doing it" isn't a good enough excuse for me...for any of them.

I agree it's a shoddy practice. It isn't new, but that doesn't make it ok.

Never ever trust the motivations of a sales person. If they are not injecting their personally bias, they are motivated by quotas or sales competitions. Do your homework from home on the net and just use the store to buy something. You can't blame a company like Sony or MS for this kind of thing, they are trying to make money and if they don't do it their competition will.

Nice post.

You can blame Gamestop though.

 

[tha_con]

I agree it's a shoddy practice. It isn't new, but that doesn't make it ok.



Nice post.

You can blame Gamestop though.

Why? For being a business that wants to make money and at the same time give their trained employee's incentive to stay with the company?

Yea, that's a real bad practice

 

[expletive]

At least Sony is not abusing monopoly by exerting influence over retailers... if incentives are wrong then exclusivity contract is also wrong, console launch incentive is wrong, software licensing business is wrong, console industry is wrong.

You're going to have to be more specific here.

Never ever trust the motivations of a sales person. If they are not injecting their personal bias, they are motivated by quotas or sales competitions. Do your homework from home on the net and just use the store to buy something. You can't blame a company like Sony or MS for this kind of thing, they are trying to make money and if they don't do it their competition will.

I'm not, i'm blaming Gamestop. And I disagree, the reason why a lot of electronics stores make note of the fact that their salespeople are 'commission free' is because it adds a comfort level that the associates are providing some level of objective, pressure-free, advice.

Are a lot of these employees already indoctrinated with a particular brand? Maybe. So then does that make it right for gamestop to put the rest of the unbiased ones on commission for selling a particular brand, regardless of the consumer's need?

 

[RobertR1]

http://www.gamersreports.com/news/5801/sony-offers-gamestop-managers-prizes-for-pushing-ps3-units/

If this is true, and it seems it is, its not a good precedent. You've already got these places littered with associates with their own agendas, this will only make it worse. It doesnt affect me personally because 99% of the time I know exactly what I want when i go into one of these stores, but what about parents or others who are looking for help making an informed decision? This, to me, is similar to a journalist taking a gift from a publisher. Am I missing something here?

Desperate times! How low will a company go to reclaim marketshare? If the sales continue to lag, I doubt this is the worst we'll see. I don't support these tactics regardless of the company involved.

 

[Mythos]

Fair game,

Lots of times when I enter these stores I see the employees sporting Xbox t-shirts and have encounter lots of times when an older lady or someone unsure what to purchase asks the employees what they should buy and lots of them would say to stay away from the PS3. Lots of these guys have an agenda to push and they do push...

 

[Todd33]

Are a lot of these employees already indoctrinated with a particular brand? Maybe. So then does that make it right for gamestop to put the rest of the unbiased ones on commission for selling a particular brand, regardless of the consumer's need?

No it's not right. Gamestop should say no, but everyone is in bed together to take our money. It's the same at a car dealership, Gamestop or Walmart - welcome to capitalism. If it's not outright illegal then it's done.

 

[rounin]

A thread about something that is neither right nor wrong, where there is nothing that can really be done about it, and where the thread title seems to purposely insinuate bias...sounds like this thread should be in the Religion, Politics & Socioeconomic Climate section of Beyond3D instead.