Worst Sales Pitch: Dell’s “Daily Deals”

During LAPTOP’s annual Tech Support Showdown, we made three calls to Dell's tech support line and got more than we bargained for. During the calls, Dell pushed premium warranties on us, saying we had won a daily drawing that would allow us to buy a $500 four-year extended warranty for just $317.

Lucky us — we were chosen to spend even more money on something we didn’t need! When we resisted, the representative rushed us through the call, barely attempting to answer our question, but routinely haranguing us to buy the warranty, because otherwise the next caller would get our "prize."

According to Dell, using "drawings" as a sales tactic is against company policy. However, aggressively pushing extended warranties and hardware purchases is not, as we experienced on two other calls where support reps seemed more interested in making a commission than solving our problems.

3.“最糟糕的推销用语”奖：戴尔的“每日优惠”

在《LAPTOP》杂志的年度“技术支持评选”活动时，我们曾三次致电戴尔公司的技术支持热线，并得到了“意外惊喜”。通话期间，戴尔公司向我们推销保险担保服务，并称我们在每日抽奖活动中中奖，只需花317美元就可以购买价值500美元的4年延保服务。

我们真幸运，我们被选中花更多的钱购买不必要的服务！当我们拒绝时，销售代表开始在电话中应付我们，不愿回答我们的问题，但还是滔滔不绝地推销他们的保险，因为如果我们放弃，下一位打进电话的用户就会“中大奖”了。

据戴尔介绍，使用“抽奖”作为销售策略违背了公司政策。但强硬地向消费者推销延保服务和硬件却不违反政策。我们在另外两次致电戴尔时，技术支持代表对赚钱更感兴趣，而不是解决我们的问题。