Testimonial #80: Employee gets ratted out by peers
Hey-
DSubs:
Netflix, Entertainment Weekly/Sports Illustrated, Rhapsody, all those ISPs...
-Did you know that Best Buy gets a huge share in the profits for these subscriptions? For example, they make $12 every time a customer signs up for an 8 week free trial of Entertainment Weekly or Sports Illustrated... In my position, I am required to sell 5 "EW/SI" Subscriptions a day. With any of these digital subscriptions, there is an electronic contract which clearly details everything. For example, the EW/SI Magazine contract is kinda like this: "Yes I would like to sign up for a risk free 8 week trial of Entertanment Weelky/Sports Illustrated. I undertand that this includes automatic renewal benefits and that my credit card will be charged the cost of a subscription..." and then there is the signature line. Well, the cashiers have been trained to pull it off without the customer knowing that their credit card information was collected. They dont usually think twice when the cashier says "can you please swipe your card again, it didnt read it the first time."
The Best Buy Card
Take this scenario: a customer comes in to apply for a Best Buy card, and fills out the application. Once completed, this application is a gold mine of information for the sales rep to "tailor the presentation." It details everything about the customer's residential status, their income, what kind of banking accounts they have, wht they plan to buy... So a young guy applies, has a rather low income and the sales rep is trained to mention that Account Shield will cancel debt if you were unemployed...
Guess what, declined or not, a sign up for Account shield is $65 pure profit to best buy.
Theres also another mastercard that is offered in addition to the best buy card. Just by looking at an application, I can take a good guess at what someone's credit is like. And employees are trained to press people that likely have bad credit to get the mastercard, because "You get a $25 gift card, absolutely free." You have bad credit, you sign up, you pay the annual fee of $69.
Its simple - people with good credit know to stay away from unnecessary credit cards - so employees are trained not to bother with them.
Thats all I have for today
I am a Best Buy employee (Cashier, Rep1/rep2) and obviously, I hate my job. I'm writing this email to familiarize you with some of Best Buy's "Power Ranking" items: (besides PRP/PSP plans, specifically to the Operations Department)
The Best Buy card is issued through Household Bank. Household Bank in turn pays Best Buy for selling account benefits.
Ill most likely be writing some time soon...
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