Lousy Salespeople

Subsequent to by my Treo 650 last week, I have since learned that Sprint was offering online a free 128 Meg SD card and $100 worth of free Palm software from online retailer Handango. Neither of these offers was mentioned as an inducement to get me to buy the item nor were they mentioned after I bought as a "thank you." The salespeople were "shoveling coal" as I like to refer to people mindlessly churning through whatever task they are involved.

I did notice the number of people that came into the Sprint store while I was there , it was a lot. I asked the salesperson about this and the reply was that 95% of the walkins are just there to pay their bills. After watching for awhile, I'd agree with that estimate. Interesting that most of the people were paying with cash at an ATM-like machine in the store lobby.

My sister had a session in a graduate education class regarding differences in socio-economic levels. For example the lower s-e group had a question such as, "Do you know where the nearest bailbondsmen is located?" Middle s-e group Q, "Do you know how to register your child for Little League?" Upper s-e group Q, "Can you order your meal in three different languages?" The Sis's joke answer to the last question is, "Yes. Beer, cerveza, biero."