Groupon Fires Sales Rep Who Threatened Bad Reviews for Business Owner

http://allthingsd.com/20130819/groupon-fires-sales-rep-who-threatened-negative-yelp-reviews-for-restaurant-owner/?mod=tweet

by antr • 13 years ago

108 30 13 years ago

allthingsd.com

Oculus2• 13 years ago

That sales rep. more than deserved it though I'm surprised Groupon's training didn't even prepare him for the hang ups. Shows poorly on both of them.

greenyoda• 13 years ago

If he's a sales rep who cold calls people, he's probably experienced dozens of hang ups a day in the year he's been at that job. Something must have pushed him over the edge that day. Either that, or he's done this to many other people, but this is the first time someone called him out on it.

Oculus2• 13 years ago

My guess is the latter.

001sky• 13 years ago

Either that, or he's done this to many other people...

--seems more likely. dude comes off as a bully.

mathattack2• 13 years ago

Nothing can prepare you for hang ups. But how you react to it shows your character. And if you can't handle it, find a job that doesn't require cold calling.

bdcravens3• 13 years ago

He could have been well-prepared. That doesn't give him the emotional maturity to deal with it. An employer's role isn't to turn a child into an adult. I can be taught about the reality of being rejected when I ask a romantic interest for a date, but in the end, my response when rejected boils down to character.

pchristensen• 13 years ago

Looking forward to people writing about how this is indicative of corruption to the core, Groupon is a scam, this is a face-saving coverup, etc.

kevin_rubyhouse• 13 years ago

Are you suggesting that Groupon is a scam, or suggesting that people will demonize Groupon because of this one sales rep? If you do think it's a scam, then why?

nolok2• 13 years ago

He's making a generalization about people making generalizations. Dog chasing his own tail and all.

brymaster• 13 years ago

If you do think it's a scam, then why?

https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=grouponzi&star...

ececconi• 13 years ago

He's also deleted his linkedin, twitter, and instagram. This guy had no ability for recourse after this story broke. Let's hope that he doesn't have this kind of lapse of judgement in the future.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andy-johnston/41/81/119

beedogs• 13 years ago

Something tells me he won't be working in an Internet-related field in the future, at least as long as this story sits around the top of a Google search for his name.

a5seo• 13 years ago

Given that he listed SEO as a skill on Linkedin, perhaps he'll have an easier time than most at "managing his online reputation," as a certain NPR sponsor likes to describe the practice.

orillian• 13 years ago

Is Groupon still a thing? I could have swore people all agreed years ago that it was a business model that ate it's own tail.

As for the rep, getting caught being a jerk has consequences regardless whether Groupon is just trying to save face.

jtreminio• 13 years ago

I've been mostly on the sidelines for Groupon, and realize most companies that sign up don't realize that it will most likely end up being a negative for their income.

However, I do know a few places that have made very good use of groupons. One example is our local eat-in movie theater. Tickets usually go for $9. Groupon ticket is $5. Customer saves $4, but movie theater makes up for it by selling overpriced (crappy) food and alcohol.

lingben• 13 years ago

There is apparently enough retailers that simply don't know any better.

rorrr2• 13 years ago

Groupon is a 6.5 Billion dollar company, and it's doing pretty well financially. The stock is growing.

https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&...

joelrunyon• 13 years ago

"Stock is growing" & revenue numbers are different than actual profit of a company.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/groupons-growth-problem-sal...

liquidcool• 13 years ago

"Threatened?" If you read the comments in the original HN story, you'll see he made good on his threats and kept reposting bad reviews after they were taken down. He was pretty vindictive about it.

djim• 13 years ago

yea AllThingsD didn't really get the whole story.

fnordfnordfnord• 13 years ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6229410

spdy• 13 years ago

Sounds plausible to get more deals, all those sales persons are only accounted for deals per day/week/month. And if you are not performing as needed you can look for another job elsewhere.[1]

Getting payed minimum wage + extra on deal volume (which is not that high anymore) you encourage people to use shady moves like this.

[1] http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/08/working-gr...

nolok2• 13 years ago

I agree with your point, but sadly I would like to add that this is the case for a large amount of companies hiring sales people for similar jobs, it's not restricted to groupon.

Having worked in the "mass web site production for soulless company" at one point in the past, this is also why you can end up with terrible un-doable projects with ridiculous timelines that the sales department sold, they're not dumb, they get their commission and now it's your problem if it fails. If they did not sale, then it was their problem for failing a sale.

Didn't realize how terrible of a job it was until I left. Yippee

bdcravens3• 13 years ago

As it went down, even the bad reviews really don't reward the sales process. He received very firm no - he didn't say he'd post bad reviews if he didn't receive a sale, but retaliated after the fact. Additionally, it doesn't seem that he used bad reviews priorly posted with future leads ("don't let this happen to you ...") All in all, his actions were those of a bratty punk, and didn't directly come out of the base + commission model.

You see this model everywhere: hire young kid who'd be lucky to work in a mailroom or as a waiter, and give them opportunity to earn big $$$ via results. In Houston it may be oil-related; Florida vacation properties; SF, Internet companies. Some achieve success through thick skin and tenacity. Immature response, especially when it has nothing to do with achieving sales objectives, is not a foregone conclusion.

afriesh123• 13 years ago

google cached his linkedin profile.

sigh.

i feel bad for the guy, you just can't escape a bad move made in a consumer-facing market like this.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:X821DtR...

i challenge the comment above - that this reflects groupon hiring people who are "lucky to work in a mailroom or as a waiter".

if anything, they are over-hiring for their roles - this guy is a UC Berkeley grad, which implies a certain level of intelligence. making sales like this could easily be done by a boiler room in manilla.

mathattack2• 13 years ago

They were very quick to determine that it was an isolated incident. I'd be interested to see if any more of this surfaces. Of course I'm sure being stupid enough to put extortion into email is isolated.

npguy• 13 years ago

What we need, is a Groupon model without Groupon in the middle. The idea is explained here:

http://firespotting.com/item?id=2320

jacquesm• 13 years ago

The sales rep is bad, but groupon is bad too. After all this guy worked there and was not supervised properly, he should have never had the chance to behave the way he did.

Groupon would need to show that they properly supervised this guy and that they instruct their new hires on what is and is not permitted to get a company across the dotted line.

Firing the guy is just an easy way to distance themselves from him and his behavior, hopefully it does send a message to the rest of the groupon sales force.

Groupon Fires Sales Rep Who Threatened Bad Reviews for Business Owner

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