Sell 15 Palms, get one free

In another effort designed to move Palm's inventory and spur demand, Palm Inc has launched a new Sell & Win promotion.

The offer extends to brick and mortar retail employees in the US and Canada. Participants must simply sell 15 Palm handhelds by June 24, take a six question online survey & mail in a claim form to win a free Palm m500.

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DESPARADO

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/29/2001 11:26:21 AM #
It's so sad to see Palm clutching at straws like this...

RE: DESPARADO
atrizzah @ 5/29/2001 8:06:23 PM #
They're not clutching for straws, haven't you been listening? They have excess inventory and they're just trying to get rid of it instead of just destroying it all. Their situation isn't even that bad. There are tons of companies out there with inventory problems, and they're not all going to fail. In the PC memory industry, prices dropped below the price of production, but those companies aren't failing.

Peace Out
Alan
RE: DESPARADO
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/29/2001 9:46:25 PM #
Palm is really screwed. They will probably be bought out by Sony in the next few months.

Ohhhhhh...

RoofusPennymore @ 5/29/2001 12:25:00 PM #
You get the chance to win one, you don't actually get one for free. They should just give one away for free rather than a stupid contest. And I agree, they are getting pretty deperate.

RE: Ohhhhhh...
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/29/2001 12:38:52 PM #
You're so stupid - you do to GET one. Read over the info on Palm's web site.


The quiz is SO easy - even a moron like yourself should be able to answer, fill out the form and get back your FREE Palm.

READ!

RE: Ohhhhhh...
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/29/2001 11:26:52 PM #
You are such a troll. You missed my point all together. Palm should just give them away. No stupid contest is required. Go be a troll on SlashDot where you belong.

RE: desparado

Altema @ 5/29/2001 12:51:19 PM #
It's sad, but they'll get over it. But it does make business sense.

Great Idea & Incentive for sales-people, and YOU TOO!! :)

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/29/2001 12:46:26 PM #
Hey, I think Palm has a great idea.

First off, we help Palm sell more Palm Pilots. So what is the big deal with that - they practically sell themselves.

Then we take the quiz online.

Has anyone tried it yet?

It is IMPOSSIBLE to get the quiz WRONG!!!!!

If you do happen to answer the quiz wrong, it tells you which question you got wrong and lets you try again!

Finally, after getting all the questions right, you simply fill out the form, send in the proof of purchases, and have your manager sign it.

I think it is a great idea.

I'm going to tell all sales-people I know everywhere so they can now finally get a product they sell for FREE!!!

Good for them!

Help out your friendly sales-person today by telling them about this great deal - you'll make a friend who will treat you right the next time you come in, and when they're enjoying their Palm Pilot as well, they'll be happy you told them about this and will work to get great deals for you in the future.

This IS really a GREAT IDEA!!!!

Thanks PALM!!! :)

RE: Great Idea & Incentive for sales-people, and YOU TOO!! :)
Karshikinpa @ 5/29/2001 1:46:36 PM #
I guarantee that 99% of the salesmen you talk to will already know about this. I have sold 23 palms so far (12-15 of them from people knowing what they want). I will probably get enough for a second person, unfortunatly Palm doesn't allow a transfer of receipts.

- Joe Horton

Got my free Palm already!!

Edd @ 5/29/2001 1:33:04 PM #
I got my free Palm already (without taking any quizes). It was very easy. You can sell any Palm ranging from M100 to VIIx and when you have sold 15 of them just send in copies of the receipts and the serial no. This promotion reminded me of the time when Handspring were giving away free Visor Deluxe to any sales associate who sold like 10 Visors (has to be the Deluxe). I also waiting for a free Visor Egde from them (I've sold like 25 Visor Deluxe for them) which is another promo.

Nothing New

Karshikinpa @ 5/29/2001 1:29:43 PM #
Palm is not the first PDA company to do something like this. I work for CompUSA, and this is the 4th free PDA offer made to us.

First was Handspring, a little before Christmas (maybe a month before) they made an offer of Sell 5 Visor Deluxes, get a refurbished one free.

Next Handspring offered us to sell 25 Visor Deluxes and get a New Visor Edge Free.

Third was HP, sell any 5 Jornada's and get a Jornada 525 Free.

Now palm, who has been going on for over a month, is with sell any 15 Palm brand devices and get a m500 Free.

With HP, there was nothing that took place online. With HandSpring, go to http://www.thedemolounge.com/

There you will find a number of other offers, based on sell x of an item, get 1 free.

As many people that say this is sad should really look think about what this does. HandSpring had a great Christmas season for 1 reason: everywhere a customer went, they were told to buy HandSpring instead of Palm. Palm saw what HandSpring did, and decided to follow once again. (such as with finally adding USB and expansion support to the m50x line).

If you go to a brick and mortar store, you will see more people carrying a Visor Deluxe while pushing a Palm instead, telling of thier newfound love and pushing people to buy a Palm. It is truly sad for the customer to be pushed towards a product only because the salesman gets something extra out of it, but it happens anywhere you go.

- Joe Horton

btw, Sony will be starting a program like this with the new Clie from what I hear as well. That leaves Compaq and Casio as the only other high-end companies not to give away product to sell more.

Congradulations JOE!
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/29/2001 2:04:32 PM #
Hey Joe,

I think the deal is great for sales-people like yourself(?), and you guys (and girls?) deserve these freebies from such companies.

RE: Nothing New
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/29/2001 8:53:17 PM #
I work at a Staples in IL and I got a visor Dx, edge, and thinmodem all for free! I would have to say that what these companies do really does sway what I point my customers to.

RE: Nothing New
Karshikinpa @ 5/29/2001 9:59:03 PM #
I fail to see how we deserve such things for selling thier products. Don't get me wrong, I love getting them for free, but I don't see why we deserve it. As the Staples employee said, it really does sway what he sells to the customer. I have worked with people before that when given an incentive to sell one product over the other, the one product (Palm in this case) is "the best damned PDA ever made."

The reason I disagree with all of this is that it screws the customer. The salesman will sell the customer whatever he will benefit the most from, even if the customer is getting a worse product overall. I admit that I am guilty of it; I found myself telling someone to get a Palm over HandSpring the other day when given no other reason.

Do I refuse to take the free product? No, I will get most of it without pushing one product over another, just from normal sales. Will I complain if all of the sudden the companies say: "Sorry, we decided to stop the promotion." I'll bitch some from the time I put into getting copies of the receipts and all necessary documentation. But although I'll be disappointed, I'll wholeheartedly agree with it, and in a way be glad. I hate it when I see a customer buy an inferior product just because whoever is helping them gets something extra to sell it.

Disclaimer: I am not saying that Palm, HandSpring, or any other company offering incentives are better or worse than any other company, just that it sucks to see inferior products sold that otherwise wouldn't have been.

- Joe Horton

The REASON you guys (and girls) deserve the Freebies! (duh!)
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/30/2001 12:33:16 PM #
Joe -

The REASON I feel you guys (and girls) deserve these freebies is because you guys (and girls) who work for Staples, Fry's, retail stores in general, blah..blah..blah.....

IS because you're only making between $5 and $8 per hour.

You really can't afford to go out and buy these toys when you have all your other expenses to worry about (rent, food, utilities, car payments, car insurance, gas, etc...). Its the economics of the whole deal. You need your "extra" money for the "needful" things in life. Having a freebie at retail is not a "needful" thing - its nice to have, but not REALLY needed.

Do you see now why I think you deserve these freebies?????

Secondly, you mentioned about pointing the customer to the Palm PDA just to "earn" your freebie - you think you're doing the customer a "disfavor"?

NO! Not at all! These customers are looking for you to guide them in your purchase. These customers "want" something for them. You're to help them find this thing they "need". If you didn't point them to these, then they might pester you all day looking for something to fill their "need" for something. I know - it happens to me all the time in Fry's when I'm shopping there - I don't work there!, but people are always asking me for help them decide which Palm is right for them. Since I don't work for Fry's I usually help them a bit and then give them the addresses to this web page and other great Palm sites on the web so the can decide for themselves. You could do the same thing. Tell them that this model (the one that you're going to get the freebie on) and then tell them to go home and do some research on it before they buy the one that you're going to get the freebie on!

RE: Nothing New
Karshikinpa @ 5/30/2001 1:04:05 PM #
I see your reasoning on why we deserve the Palm's. I have no good reason to disagree with your point there, so it is easily arguable that we deserve the free stuff.

On the other hand, by pointing the customer to a PDA to "earn" a freebie is a disservice to them. The customers will not be pestering me to help them find a PDA. What should happen is that the salesman helps the customer find the best PDA for the themselves, by asking what they plan on using it for, any PDA background they may have, and explaining benefits and features of getting a better model.

Unfortuantly what happens is the salesman will leave out some of the better features of one they don't get rewarded for selling (at least until the customer asks about them). I have seen it happen many times. But I digress...

Suggesting an inferior product to a customer over another IS doing a disservice to the customer, no matter how well the salesman gets rewarded for doing so, or how deserving the salesman is of the reward.

- Joe Horton

Now I understand why the sale associate jumped on my receipt

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/29/2001 2:09:58 PM #
He was so happy I bought an M505 he took my receipt for a few minutes and photocopied it. Said it was for a contest. I understand now ;-)

Insane

oldtimer @ 5/29/2001 9:36:11 PM #
I'm a longtime technophile and find these deals to be good in the busines sense, but poor for the enduser. Why? Well, take the average person for instance, they know they want a PDA but don't know which one they should get. That's where the sales-dorks come in, joe blow depends on that greedy sales guy who really only cares about the comission he\she gets on the sale and any other perks that are tossed their way and not what may be better or more suited. Now this sounds harsh on sales ppl, but I ask you, how many times do you walk into a store and the clerk hounds you with real brains? If he\she had real brains, they wouldn't be working there for a shit paycheck now would they...

my 2¢ worth.

written with pen on my Palm IIIxe

to the 5% who 'have' brains but are forced to work retail, my apologies.

-oldtimer

RE: Insane
Karshikinpa @ 5/29/2001 10:24:00 PM #
Thank you, I am glad to see that someone agrees with me. Yes, I work retail, but it is until I graduate from college. If only some other people on here would realize how much the customer gets screwed. I wouldn't be surprised if most or all of the anon. postings about how good this is are by other retail salesmen.

Not new

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/29/2001 9:58:56 PM #
This is not new, Palm and other companies do this all the time. Palm has done it for years especially with new products.

It's about time!

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/30/2001 4:00:24 PM #
Palm simply needed to do this. How many times had I stood in Micro Center, listening to a sales associate badmouth ALL Palm products to get them to buy PocketPC's! I once heard a customer come in and ask: "I want a small PDA for organization & planning, really good battery life, I want to be able to upgrade the memory in the future, but I'll only be using it for keeping track of my clients & calendar. I don't need a color screen, but I would not mind one."

Sounds like the perfect customer for a Palm M500 / M505? Well, that's what he seemed to want, but the salesman spent about 40 painful minutes (to me) bashing Palm to get him to buy a $600.00 PocketPC. The HP Jornada in fact.

This is really ridiculous. PDA's should be no-hassle. Handspring should have worked on LOWERING the price of the VDX than giving out free promos, but nonetheless, this is how you compete.

whare did this come from???

buddy @ 5/30/2001 4:41:36 PM #
i don't get it. i mean, you loose more than you spend! comon, think!!! If 15 palm pilots cost you 1000.00 dollors, than you get back palm worth a lot less! I don't know anaybody that has 15 palm pilots in the famaly!!!
And another thing, you may not even win the m505!!!

I got one

Scott @ 5/31/2001 12:56:42 PM #
I thought it was a joke but I sold 15 and palm sent me a free m500. This is one of their best offers yet. Try to win one for yourself.

Wish I could participate!

C.J. Allebach @ 6/1/2001 11:55:08 AM #
I think that Palm should do this for everyone. After having a m505 I know that I could persuade 15 people to get one! Wouldn't that be sweet to get a free m500 for each 15 you sold. Take this idea to Palm! ;-)

Get a life PDA geeks!

Palm user @ 6/2/2001 7:34:05 AM #
It is really annoying to have to listen to such scrutiny over every little palm related action that takes place. The majority of the public actually uses hand held devices to compliment their already busy lives. Yet there seems to be a sub-culture of people being very busy on just trying to find the power button on any given pda. It's like putting the cart before the horse. Over all any Palm, Handspring, or Sony pda is going to suit most peoples practical needs. Including pocket PCs. I guess some people seem hell bent on letting pda's make their lives more busy in just deciding which one to use and which ones to bash ! That is if they ever really end up *using* one at all.
RE: Get a life PDA geeks!
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/3/2001 11:57:09 AM #
I always laugh when I see a post from someone who says "I just read 25 pointless messages on a topic I'm not interested in". If you think this discussion is pointless, go somewhere else. No one forced you to be here. Its a (generally) free country.

You guys don't get it

GWJ2000 @ 6/5/2001 12:52:38 PM #
The reason why Palm, Handspring and anybody else gives their product to the retail guys is so they can talk about it first-hand to a customer. I have gotten everything from digital cables to a $1600 Sony surround system from sales contests. I haven't paid for satellite tv service for 2 years. It pays to be a salesperson!
Sure makes up for that $5/hour you get paid too.
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/5/2001 1:05:26 PM #
nt

RE: NT
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/5/2001 1:13:14 PM #
Yo, Mr. No Text, do you have a hobby besides hanging out on this site insulting people and making pointless comments? I suggest you call the Get a Life Foundation. They can help you get the Life you badly need. If you don't get a Life from them, please get a Life from somewhere. Buy a Life, rent a life, check a Life out of the library.

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