I was standing in line this morning at the Waterloo Future Shop with 80% of the customers in line working for RIM (skipping work I should say as the store didn't open until 10AM and most of us had to wait another hour just to pay). All and all there was about 120 of us waiting for a Playbook. They all got the mass email while waiting in line. They were so ****** off they couldn't get there Playbooks for $100. Give me a break! Your company is heading for a major downfall and job losses all you can ***** about is how you can't get a $100 Playbook? None of these 20 somethings had any grasp on reality or how a business makes a profit. There opinion was RIM should have given all the employees (5000 people in K-W alone!) a free Playbook to show off how cool they were to their friends. I didn't want to tell them that all the Executives did receive one and were showing them off a year ago, but their sense of entitlement was so strong and I just wanted to punch each one of them in the face. Bottom line is the Playbook was over priced to start with and should have been selling at $350 for the 16GB version and all this wouldn't have been necessary.
Reasons why RIM was stupid to recall the $100 rebate:
1) Crushed moral among their staff already nervous of layoffs and a recession
2) The least they could do as a gift to all their employees coming up on Christmas, considering how Google, and Apple treat their employees
3) When hype is crashing all around, the last place you want to crash the hype is within your own camp...the very people (if you keep them on salary) are going to be required to knuckle down and up productivity and creativity to haul their company out of the dulldrums.
4) When half of Kitchener gets the emails, drops their heads and steps out of line....how can that be good for anyone else in the line?!?! All it looks like is a panic fire sale, that even the own employees don't believe in anymore!!!! Even their own employees wouldn't pay $200 for a PB!!!
5) That email should have been issued last week so BB employees forwarn their contacts and don't embarrass the company publicly. All BB staff should have been instructed to notify their peers, colleagues and networks that "the $100 rebate is open to the public for a limited time, so spread the word that RIM is offering a further price reduction, normally resevred for RIM staff. No cap...simply head over to X retailer and get a PB for $200...no rebate hastle, simple". The fact that they didn't utilize their own employees as word of mouth marketing agents and actually tanked their moral while in the ****ING line is a sign of how lame and behind the curv RIM is!
Just heard from my RIM buddy, a bunch of employees got caught out, having bought their quota of 5 PBs, only to get the email afterwards!!!! That's some people out $500. Holy chumped by your own Company! Man RIM F'ed up AGAIN!!!
