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Thursday, November 18, 2010

An Epic Fail: LG Optimus One Sale

LG's leaflet for the promo
 LG sure made history by putting up a 50% off with their Optimus One android phone. The event was a big hit basically because they were able make the line reach the basement coming from the 4th floor of SM Megamall. (I'm not sure about the other malls, but I've heard that the scenario was almost the same.)


My friends and I were lucky by being able to get into the mall without having to outrun others from the entrance door going to LG's booth. We were able to get in at around 9:00am I believe. How? We used our Fitness First ID. Yep that was our key to getting into the mall even if it's closed. And yes, most of the people that was able to get the phone used their FF ID's as well. Some were friends or relatives of SM employees I believe.


At exactly 10:00am, the walls of SM began to shake. People were literally running to get in line. I thought that I'd be seeing that kind of scene in a shopaholic movie only. But no, it's really happening and I was scared that there could be a stampede. Thank God it didn't happen.

So there that's how it started. Let me emphasize some points that I think made this Sale an Epic Fail. (Got the term from my ate by the way.)

  • The guards only started to fix the bar that will be used for the queue when they saw that the crowd was starting to build up.
    • They should've started to prepare at least an hour or several minutes before people could get into the mall.
    •  It seems like they didn't know that people could use their FF ID's to get into the mall even before it opened. Were they able to stop people from going to LG's booth even if it's closed? No.
  • At 10:00am, yes they were able to setup the bars, but then they didn't how to make the people fall in line in an organized manner.
    • People had to actually suggest on how to make the line system work.
    • They had poor crowd control. Even if we were in line there were people arguing on who should go first or someone has cut in their line, etc. etc..




  • They didn't know how many customers they can serve in the 1 hour window.
    • If they did know, they shouldn't have let the line reach the basement floor.
    • They should have provided stubs for 50 people if that was their expected number of customers to be served.
  • Wrong setting of expectations.
    • The sales lady informed the crowd that they have unlimited stocks of the phone so everyone will get to have one. Another is that DTI could decide to extend the 1 hour window to accomodate all the customers. Did this happen? No.
  • Given the fact that less than 50 people got the phone at SM Megamall, did LG apologize? Yes, but it was all scripted and it just made the crowd wilder I should say. Personally, they could have given a more personalized message to all the people there. I mean those people are still LG's customers right? I guess they've chosen to go with bad publicity instead. A sincere apology could've made the crowd listen more and probably still be an LG customer in the future.

Luckily, we were part of the last batch to be accommodated inside LG's booth. They assured us that even if it's past 3:00pm, we will be getting the phone. They also provided us with stubs which is redundant for me since they already assured us.
Last 4 stubs provided by LG
I wasn't that fully happy thinking that I'm assured to have the phone. Why? Because of what happened in the event and seeing the crowd shouting, boo-ing, and even threatening LG.

In the end, we got the phone. Our efforts were not wasted but then this is one experience that I'll never forget. I hope LG will do better next time since I've also informed their sales lady and cashier about my opinion.

The man on the microphone said, "See you on the next One day, One hour, One Chance..." with the crowd boo-ing even louder... My response... Naaah.. I don't think so. If that is how LG treats their customers then definitely, no I will not patronize their products. This could be my first and last LG phone.

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