When you work for a computer store part of your job will often be trying to upsell customers on various products, some of which might not really be needed.

What would you do if you were selling a laptop to the parents of a young lady that didn’t have much money, so you explained to them in their native tongue that the add on products that another person was trying to sell them was a bad deal?

That is what the guy in this story was doing, but then the daughter who was getting the laptop freaked out and told his manager that he told them not to buy the install package, which got him fired. His manager said that he was fired for not pushing the sales, which is technically true, but they never would have known if the daughter didn’t make a scene.

I’m sorry I saved your parents $300, got fired.

I used to work at an electronics store and this Asian family was buying a laptop for their daughter (she just got into a prestigious high school).

Families will do all they can to help their kids get what they need.

I could tell the family wasn’t well off financially, and gave everything they could to the daughter. My co-worker was handling the sale, but because the parents couldn’t speak English, I was there to translate.

From the conversation, I could tell buying her this laptop is big purchase for them, we compared prices and I tried to ensure the family got the best laptop for their budget.

These ‘extras’ are really not needed at all.

Then comes the mandatory sales pitch from my co-worker about “setting up the computer” and purchasing Microsoft Office.

Now this is the biggest rip-off and how we earn money at the store, the set-up fee (which is just filling in your name, etc. when you get a new laptop) is $100, the customer has to pay $150 for MS Office plus a $50 installation fee because we do it for you.

She is putting the customer first, which is usually the best policy.

It’s no surprise the parents was shocked at the price, but they thought it was necessary because they don’t know much about computers. The daughter insisted on how much she “needed it”.

In Mandarin, I kindly warned them against the purchase and explained why, trying to save them some money since you can easily do the set-up and pirate MS Office or even buy it for cheaper online.

Does she not understand how this works?

The parents were really grateful for the information but… the daughter starts CRYING, like bawling her eyes out. Needless to say, my white co-worker was confused as to why she is crying.

She starts wailing about how I told her parents not to buy this for her, the computer won’t run without the setup, it’s not the Microsoft won’t be the same unless she buys it, etc. Her parents are obviously telling her to stop, but she already caused the scene.

Wow, the daughter really put this person in a tough situation. He was just trying to do the right thing.

My manager comes out, sorts the situation out. The parents thanked and apologized to me as they left, but the daughter ratted me out to my manager since she can speak English. So the not so secret ending is…

My manager was mad that I lost income for the store, the sales guy was mad I lost him additional commission. I was fired.

This would be really disappointing. They were just trying to help the customer and keep them from wasting money, but the daughter had to make a scene. I assume she must have been confused about what is going on, but that is just awful.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who was facing serious accusations before retirement, but luckily had security footage that proved his innocence.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

This person loves the story and hates commission based sales.

I agree with this commenter. Recommending pirated software is out of line.

This person says that the daughter was out of line.

The daughter could have done the translating.

I would agree if it weren’t for him saying to pirate the software.

The daughter is a little snitch, but honestly he should be fired for what he did. Telling a customer to pirate software could lose that store the right to sell many types of equipment. The manager had to fire him to protect the business.