Oh Intel...

[Conky]

Why do the nerds that work at Best Buy feel the need to force their favorite brands down everyone's throats to the point of being fired? I think that's the real question here.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: PaulNEPats
They probably send in secret shoppers and give them a bunch of questions to fill out. Lots of companies do this.

Do you realize the absurdity of Intel threatening to punish employees at a generic retail location based on how much they push products for which they supply one or two components?

 

[boyRacer]

I saw an ATI representative do something similar to a Fry's employee... lol.

 

[shoRunner]

Originally posted by: PaulNEPats

They probably send in secret shoppers and give them a bunch of questions to fill out. Lots of companies do this.

intel does have sales reps at stores, as well as AMD, epson, lexmark, hp, and almost every major player, but in no way can these reps dictate policy for the store or tell the store employees what to do...they just there to answer questions and promote their product.

 

[xgsound]

Intel (or any other manufacturer) can cosponsor AD campaigns with alot of strings attached. One of the strings would certainly be to treat thier products with respect and probably include talking up thier products. This can involve lots of money, and non-compliance could mean you don't get this quarters agreed upon payment or discount or rebate.

How legal this is depends upon how far they take it. Best Buy already didn't meet quarterly expectations, so not getting some money they were counting on for any reason would be especially painful.


Jim

 

[blakeatwork]

BS...

FutureSlop has a high inventory on intel boxen that they can't seem to get rif of... Where did the message come from on nigh?

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Aimster
If Microsoft can get sued for being a monopoly and hurting the competition
..
why can't AMD sue Intel for this and win?

they weren't sued for being a monopoly they were sued for monopolizing

 

[Horus]

Originally posted by: Scouzer
I was recently informed by my coworkers that Intel has heard our Futureshop (Best Buy) location plugs AMD computers far too much.

So Intel will from now on be periodically be sending in 'undercover' reps to test us if we push AMD products. I am from now on only allowed to say 'I have an AMD in my computer'. I can't talk about how AMD is faster, cheaper, etc.

If I'm caught plugging AMD I can be fired and Intel will 'punish' my store. What punishment means, I don't know, but I can tell you I hate Intel more than ever.

Umm, tell the intel rep to go shove it. As a FS PE, it's your job to sell what the customer needs, not what intel wants you to sell

Besides, I tell all my customers that AMDs are better, and the intel rep even admitted that the Dual-core P4s were rushed.

How can they punish you? Ban you from buying Pentiums? Good riddance!

Lemme just say, that currently, ALL of my open-box inventory is Pentium. We have not gotten ONE AMD64-powered system returned, and those HP media centers with the AMD dual-cores are very, very popular.

 

[woowoo]

Originally posted by: Crazyfool
Why do the nerds that work at Best Buy feel the need to force their favorite brands down everyone's throats to the point of being fired? I think that's the real question here.

Agreed
And who would listen to a sales droid antway....

 

[Spineshank]

I have already seen Intel reps in my local best buy trying to tell consumers to buy intel computers instead of amd.

 

[Zebo]

Typical! Intel been blackmailing thier own customers since 1995... better beleive when the lawsuit hits the fan the Compaq's NEC's Best buys of the world will be very interested in giving accurate tesimony and even more interested in selling AMD product once a judge smacks intel in the jaw.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Typical! Intel been blackmailing thier own customers since 1995... better beleive when the lawsuit hits the fan the Compaq's NEC's Best buys of the world will be very interested in giving accurate tesimony and even more interested in selling AMD product once a judge smacks intel in the jaw.

:roll: Retail stores like to sell Intel because computers with Intel Inside stickers generally have higher margins than AMD ones. They really don't care what processor you end up with, all they care about is their bottom line.

 

[BooGiMaN]

ask each potential customer if they are infact an undercover intel person if they lie and say no ..when brought up on 'charges' then say you lied as well when you pushed AMD..tit for tat

 

[imported_Mike]

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Zebo
Typical! Intel been blackmailing thier own customers since 1995... better beleive when the lawsuit hits the fan the Compaq's NEC's Best buys of the world will be very interested in giving accurate tesimony and even more interested in selling AMD product once a judge smacks intel in the jaw.

:roll: Retail stores like to sell Intel because computers with Intel Inside stickers generally have higher margins than AMD ones. They really don't care what processor you end up with, all they care about is their bottom line.

Exactly. It also comes down to what customers know. People don't like the unfamiliar, they don't like change. People know intel, alot more than they know AMD. You think his customers know what GHz ever are? All they think is the more GHz the better the computer. They don't know what ram is or even what a processor is sometimes.

If you have ever worked retail people come in asking for "computer brains" when they are looking for a tower. Some people even think Intel makes the entire tower. The majority of retail consumers are ignorant...that is why they are buying a $600 celeron system in the first place.

 

[pontifex]

does best buy also sell AMD products? if so i can't see how they can do that.

 

[imported_Mike]

Originally posted by: pontifex
does best buy also sell AMD products? if so i can't see how they can do that.

...it is Canada

 

[Mrfrog840]

tell them if you want me to sell your intel crap, make it better

 

[Crescent13]

that's fscking crazy. Intel is becoming so controlling. Tell AMD about it and maybe they can sue?

 

[Zim Hosein]

Originally posted by: CheapArse

Originally posted by: pontifex
does best buy also sell AMD products? if so i can't see how they can do that.

...it is Canada

Zing!

 

[Sphexi]

If they have an exclusive contract of some sort with your retail chain, then you're darned right they can come in and find out if you're supporting their products or not.

At RS we carried both Sprint and Verizon for years, up where I live it was 10 Vzn phones sold for every Sprint phone sold, simply because Vzn's signal was 10x better, their customer service was better, their prices were better, everything. Sprint didn't think we were fairly presenting them, so they complained to the company, and we got told that we could no longer say "You want Verizon, you don't want Sprint", we could simply present the facts of each system and let customers decide. Since we had contracts with both companies we had to be fair. If a customer said they needed as close to 100% coverage as they could get, then we could present Verizon, but if their requirements matched both systems we basically couldn't push one over the other.

 

[Agnostos Insania]

Originally posted by: Crazyfool
Why do the nerds that work at Best Buy feel the need to force their favorite brands down everyone's throats to the point of being fired? I think that's the real question here.

Damn those people for educating customers about what they're buying!

 

[Rock Hydra]

Damn, that sucks. Too bad many people aren't armed with any research/knowledge before they walk into a computer store.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Anyone able to confirm this?

 

[Kelemvor]

You can't say that AMD is faster and cheaper but can you say that Intel is slower and more expensive? Then you aren't pushing AMD... you're just not pushing Intel.

 

[SilentZero]

I'm sorry, but that sounds highly illegal.