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AHAHAHAHA! About time. One of my first tech jobs was with Office Depot, where I was hired on as the technology lead, thinking that I was going to be sharing my
by _cerv 8y ago
AHAHAHAHA!
About time. One of my first tech jobs was with Office Depot, where I was hired on as the technology lead, thinking that I was going to be sharing my 2008 era knowledge. I still remember feeling excited and sharing with the store my first laptop sale, explaining how I was able to sell a Windows Vista Basic machine with a copy of Windows XP and a stick of memory. My boss was quick to tell me that they don't make any money on that stuff and selling high end items with the amount of time that I spent doing that sale was actually hurting the store. So I could either lose my job or sell extended warranties and services, and earn 5-10 dollars a sale. I was 20 years old, wanted a new iPhone, and was living with my parents, so my path was pretty clear.
At Office Depot, we had two kinds of warranties, either a "Kit" or a stand alone warranties. With services, we had the "make your computer faster" and "so you just bought this pos, lets make it faster". With warranties, I went straight for the scare tactics, such as your printer ink cartridges could leak all over over or the new chair you bought could have a castor leak grease, both of these were not covered under the normal warranty, but for 25-100 dollars, you could be protected from the unpredictable. With services, we just put your new computer on a cabinet where we ran a flash program that showed "vulnerabilities", and for 100 dollars, we could patch up this machine that would have been hacked to shreds by the Chinese if it were not for us brave souls.
I made two grand that month and was given an award by the Office Depot district manager. I felt like shit too. I was able to get my conscience back after helping people under the table when they bought one of our bullshit comfort blankets and wouldn't anything other than the shredder kit - which included a bottle of literal synthetic snake oil.
- DoofusOfDeath 8y agoThanks for sharing that story. Although I'm a little surprised that you eased your conscience by (IIUC) committing tax fraud.
- _cerv 8y agoIt was all for free.
- DoofusOfDeath 8y ago> It was all for free. Awesome. You used the term "under the table", which I've always understood to mean a cash transaction that won't be reported in tax filings.
- jacquesm 8y ago'Under the table' means 'out of sight'. It is used to indicate money changing hands but that's not the only use.
- cabaalis 8y agoEvery single time I've heard "under the table" it means "without documentation" and is used in the sense of not paying taxes.
- wccrawford 8y agoI've never heard anyone use the phrase "under the table" unless there was money being exchanged for services without going through the proper channels. Your understanding was spot on. This was a bad use of a very old phrase.
- zerkten 8y ago> This was a bad use of a very old phrase. This seems like a bit of a stretch. Just because you haven't heard a term used in different contexts doesn't mean it's invalid. On review of the same text I may have rephrased it, but while imperfect, it's still understandable in the context.
- NikolaNovak 8y agoI believe "Under the table" in this case means the management was unaware and customer was not billed. It's the only scenario I can think of that would in this context be on the positive side of most ethical frameworks. Happens a lot, in many types of companies and policies, that helping the customer has to be "under the table" / "off the books" :-/
- AnaniasAnanas 8y agoYou talk as if trying to avoid taxes is unethical.
- Zarath 8y agoBut at least you got that iPhone!
- robk 8y agoEnjoy your time in hell for this
- Graham24 8y agobloke I knew worked in Tiny Computers in the UK in the late 90s. at xmas they were so busy the staff would just ignore any customer who did not want to buy an Extended Warrenty as they were not worth the time. And people wonder why the High Street is failing?