[ale] Tiger Direct going Rogue?

[Robert Reese~]

> Robert Reese~ wrote:
>> I have an incidental client that needs memory for an older Dell,
>> and thankfully she's a little more experienced than the average
>> user.  A little, at least enough to add the memory herself.
>>
>> Instead of contacting Kingston or Crucial directly like I
>> recommended, since her memory is so cheap with them anyway, she
>> chose to call Tiger Direct.  According to her, the sales weasel
>> told her she HAD to purchase Pitstop Optimize 2.0 for $30
>> otherwise the new memory would wipe out her information!
>>
>> Anyone else have, or your clients have, any experience such as
>> this?  Obviously most (if not all) of us are not going to have
>> this encounter since it is typically obvious that we are tech
>> professionals and know better.  In fact, it's probably rare that
>> we use the phone; on the other hand if something like this is in
>> an email, that would be particularly interesting.
>>
> It is possible.
>
> I do not know how Tiger Direct operates but maybe it operates as a
> "bank".  Like Tech Data.   It is customary for vendors to pay the
> sales floor spiffs on product.  In this case maybe the makers of
> Pitstop Optimize was running a spiff for each copy sold.  The sales
> rep now has the motivation to get that extra cash.  not only do
> they get comish off that, they get a few dollars on the top.

Still completely unethical, particularly when approached in the manner described to me.

If true, TD has seen the last order from me, and as many clients as I can tell.

~:(

Cheers,
Robert~