Flutterby™! : Sigh 2004-04-23 23:18:02.251222+00

Sigh

2004-04-23 23:18:02.251222+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments

As reported third hand by the person who had to go back to the purchaser and say "uhhhhh... no.", a conversation:

Purchaser: Hi, I'd like to buy this server class machine with Windows 2003 Server, a $500 additional option.
Dell Salesdroid:Great. But that configuration only has an 8 meg video card. Would you like a 64 meg one for not much more?
P: Sure!
DS: Okay, but that card doesn't work with Windows 2003 Server, so we'll put Windows XP Professional on the machine.

Upselling the video card in a server machine? Sure, whatever, that's the way salesweasels get bigger commissions. Nearly talking their potential customer out of the half-a-k bit of essential software for a few tens of dollars in a video card? That's one fucked up commission structure and one dweeb who needs a good trout slapping.

It seems likely that Dell's incentive structure is based on what items are currently clogging the inventory, like the 64 meg video cards. But I also wonder what the markup is on the Windows Server 2003 that they can ignore a $500 bump? Or then again, their sales training stinks. If the sales foreman is screaming, "Sell more cards, dammit!!" but not pointing out the difference between $500 and $50, he needs to be retrained.

Or on the third hand maybe that jerk intern from the TV ads finally got on the phones.....