A coworker of mine told us yesterday about LG's promotion at a local mall where they're promoting their new smartphone at half the price. They were going to have the promotion for only one hour, between 2 and 3 pm. So, of course, some of us were really thrilled, myself included, at the opportunity of getting a good phone at half the price. I didn't even think twice; I've been wanting to have a phone that had WiFi and a camera , but never really made it a priority.
So three of us took a cab to the mall and headed for the event. It didn't take long when we found the place. It was already 2 pm, but there wasn't the expected activity. Their booth was cordoned off, with about a crowd right inside (probably early prospective buyers), and a bunch of onlookers beyond the cordon. After asking around, we learned from one that there was a fairly long queue, stretching even to the ground floor (we were on the fourth). When we tried tracing the line, we overheard someone on the line speaking to one of the officers in charge that stubs were given to 100 customers who had been here early, and that only 100 units will be sold off. We heard enough, so my coworker and I decided to give up and go our own ways.
We were the lucky ones fortunate enough to walk away easily because we didn't invest a lot of time and effort in trying to get a discounted phone. But there were hundreds who waited on the line, and I'm sure there were some who asserted their rights to be serviced. There was even one lady carrying a toddler on the line! I mentioned this to my coworker, but she said that even if we told them, they wouldn't believe us. I couldn't agree more.
This site posted a few sensible tips that other cellular promoters might want to take a page off of.
EDIT - It seems that there were even less units sold, 20 to 30 instead of the 100 posted. Oh, this is not gonna go down well. LG is a really good brand, and their phones are doing well. This kind of bad rep will really have a huge backlash...
