this just in...

[sakbarzad]

sony style in palo alto we just got bdp-s300 and i just sold 2 in the first hour and i got 3 left giving u guys the heads up

[Merrick]

I both pity you guys and am very annoyed - even though what I'm annoyed about you have little control over (yes, I know, it's irrational).

When the BDP-S300 went on sale on the Sony Style site (for immediate delivery) and the Circuit City site (for shipment on June 20) I immediately got on the phone to my local Sony Style store to find out when I could get it from them. Not only were they clueless about when they were going to get it, they were clueless that Circuit City was taking orders and were also clueless that the Sony Style online site was taking orders and shipping. [As a side note, if I worked for Sony Style and got sales commissions I'd be HOPPIN mad about that. Even if you don't work for commission this undercuts your sales, which undercuts you profitability, which undercuts your employability, raises, etc.]
I even waited another day just to see if my local Sony Style could get a clue and either find something out by accident or get in touch with someone at Sony to find something out. Waste of time. So I didn't order my unit until Friday and it didn't ship until Saturday, so I won't see it until Thursday. If I find out I could have picked it up at my Sony Style store today I really am going to be hacked off. However, I'm in the DC area, so I wouldn't be surprised of they still haven't seen them like you guys in California.

That having been said, I'd lodge a complaint with the company if I were you. I went through this when I tried to get my Sony Style store to sell me an FWD-50PX2 last year also. Their response: "Sony isn't selling plasma TVs anymore - sorry." Funny how I can still order brand new Sony plasmas online at any number of sites (like I did). You guys are really getting hosed - especially if you work on commission.

[sakbarzad]

we dont work on commission, but i dont know how they work out there but the system that sony style uses shows what items are being expected for the next 2 weeks... my store knew that we were getting them this week and so did anybody that asked about the player but we thought we would get them like on wed. but we were suprised to see them today

[nhaase]

Merrick, your last paragraph has me perplexed. Why should they lodge a complaint after selling two in an hour? Is it because they only got 5?

When I read the original post I took it as this person telling the site that after having just received their stock, 40% of them sold extremely fast.

Maybe I missed something here.

[Merrick]

nhaase,

The point was that:

a) they were for sale online long before they were for sale in the stores. That undercuts sales in the stores. I agree with you that 2 sales in an hour may not be bad.

b) the stores were kept clueless about this. That's also something that I would complain about as an employee (and I AM complaining about as a customer). Now, according to sakbarzad, he had much more information than my local Sony Style store was either aware of or willing to tell me. Although he does admit to being surprised that they arrived on Monday and not on Wednesday. That's the direction in which you'd like the surprise to go (instead of arriving on Friday when you expect them Wednesday) but that's still a whole week they were shipping them out of the warehouse directly to customers before the stores got their crack at it.

c) did you miss the discussion about the plasma TV? Those can STILL be bought online, but the stores haven't been able to sell them for over a year. Sure, Sony's pushing LCD - but there's a lot of people out there who still prefer the plasma and can't get them in the stores - sorry Sony Style employees.

Now, it appears as though my opinion may be partially skewed by the people at my local Sony Style store who are either clueless by nature or are deceitful for some reason that alludes me. If they'd told me that they were expecting to receive players on Wednesday then I'd have reconsidered waiting to buy it from them. And, just to be clear, there are two Sony Style stores in my area, one in Tyson's Corner and one at the Pentagon. I called them both and got the same clueless response from both. I guess it's possible I just have a couple of Sony Style stores staffed by incompetent people.

Sorry to any Sony Style employees from the DC area who are reading this - but you might want to take it as a wake-up call. If sakbarzad got this info from a website you all have access to and you're too lazy to go look at it so that you can give informed answers to your customers, then you deserve disgruntled customers. If you do look at the website and are withholding information from customers then you DOUBLY deserve disgruntled customers!

[Merrick]

Update...

OK. I'll admit this is a bit on the side of obsession, but just to set the record straight.

From the Sony Style website at 10:30EDT:
The product you requested is in the process of being shipped to our retail partners. Please visit sonystyle.com or a Sony Style store near you to pre-order or purchase this product now.

So I called the store at Pentagon City:
"Do you have the new Blu-ray player?" [I didn't feel the need to specify brand since this is a Sony store].
"Do you have a model number on that?"
""Yes. It's BDP-S300."
"Just a minute." sounds of computer keys clicking.
"Did you say BDP dash 300?"
"dash S 300." more clicking.
"Oh. We aren't selling that. You have to go online to get that."
"You mean you aren't ever going to sell it?"
"Eventually we will."
"Can you give me an idea when that might be?"
"We will, but it probably won't be until the end of the month. You can call us back later if you'd like"

Then I called the Tyson's Corner store:
"Do you have the new Blu-ray player?"
"No, not yet. We were supposed to get it yesterday, but it didn't come. Maybe it will come tomorrow - give us a call back."

1) Do you see what I mean by clueless re: the Pentagon City store?
2) That's finally a straight answer from the Tyson's Corner store, but when I talked to them on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday last week I got exactly the same response I got this morning from the Pentagon City store (including apparently being unable to accurately identify the new Blu-ray player being released from Sony).
3) If someone from the Tyson's Corner store is telling me that they were *supposed* to get it on Monday, when were they told to expect it? Sunday? No, that's not reasonable. They got a call Monday saying, "you were supposed to get players today, but they're apparently late?" No, that doesn't seem reasonable either. A call today saying, "you were supposed to get them yesterday, but apparently you won't get them until tomorrow?" Yeah, that seems unlikely also. So what conclusion am I supposed to draw about being told on Saturday that they don't have any idea when they're coming (in words almost identical to those I got from the Pentagon City store today) yet I'm told today that they were expecting them on Monday? And what conclusion am I supposed to draw from the truthfulness of what the Pentagon City store told me today? In fairness, all the computer typing and inability to recognize the BDP-S300 model number *suggests* simple cluelessness... but what am I to infer about apparently feigned cluelessness at Tyson's Corner followed by information which now jives with what sakbarzad says?

[sakbarzad]

like i said i dont know how they are there i can only speak for myself and the system that sony uses shows whats coming in the next 2 weeks... but the system does NOT give an exact date that we would be recieving the product... from past shipments of other products we usualy see things like the bdps300 and other major products mid week... now as far as the plasmas go sony doesnt make consumer level plasmas... they are classified as business monitors... and on a side not we sold out of the bdps300 today and we are getting 3 more from san francisco on wed or thurs but our district manager called the blu-ray buyer for atleast 10 more