6 ms·

Stop Offering Me Amazon Gift Cards

20 points by trevoragilbert 2y ago

Suppafly 2y ago
I get these offers all the time, but work for a company that would fire me if they thought I'd accepted any of them.
- silverquiet 2y ago
  I've gotten them on occasion and I never even really thought about the ethical implications; I'm not sure it would be that bad? That said, I always suspect phishing whether it's real or a test and do not respond to them.
  - Suppafly 2y ago
    It really depends upon your industry and the cultural norms. My company doesn't even let vendors pay to cater the food when they visit. When I worked for a big for profit company, I loved when we'd have vendors pitch us stuff because they always catered lunch.
- smegsicle 2y ago
  how about you send me yours, and i'll send mine to you no conflict of interest to connect them criss cross
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
josefritzishere 2y ago
Agreed. Gifts and cash are forbidden in most corporte vendor management policies. Even the appearance of impropriety can get people fired. That's not worth a $5 gift card. If they even offer it I know I'm not intersted in them.
percivalPep 2y ago
I worked for a company that sent out remote controlled cars to their top 300 global targets, with the message “if you take the meeting you’ll get the remote”. Needless to say about 280 were returned, and the remaining 20 didn’t take meetings (I assume the cars look good on office bookshelves).
- blessedwhiskers 2y ago
  ...I wonder how many reverse-engineered the protocol or just bought a remote from the manufacturer.
- SkyPuncher 2y ago
  I would never do business with a company like that. Such a terrible way to get someone’s attention.
- kevinventullo 2y ago
  Should’ve sent a mystery lockbox and offered the key in exchange for a meeting. Let their imagination go wild.
  - extraduder_ire 2y ago
    "Ooh, brushing! Let me get a crowbar."
- trevoragilbert 2y ago
  Follow up: sign the deal and we’ll also send you batteries.
dmart 2y ago
One of the first things anyone should set up on a new corporate email account is a filter that sends messages containing “Sales Engineer” straight to spam.
neilv 2y ago
> 2: Gift cards as an incentive aren't always bad. It's when they're confusing your personal vs. professional roles. For example, if a company reaches out offering a gift card in exchange for a personal G2 review or as part of a research initiative, I don't see a conflict there. Even the "personal" outreaches, such as market research to poll you as a subject matter expert, no mention of your employer... might actually be to try to milk you for information about your employer. It could be on behalf of competitors of the company, and it could also be on behalf of prospective investors in the company. Just say no to anyone offering to pay you for a call like that. However, they can be even more evil, and harder to weed out: rather than some market research pretext, they can pretend to approach you as a recruiter.
delichon 2y ago
A retail company offered me a $20 gift card for an interview about a product I bought. First and last time that ever happened. It was Raven, who made document scanners with a built in tablet. I accepted and tried to give them their money's worth. And then they went bankrupt. I can't help guessing that was related to their largesse.
shalmanese 2y ago
Curious for people who think this is unethical how they think about swag at conference booths? The range of practices I’ve seen go from just come up to the booth to get some trinket to put in your email address to get something a bit more valuable to listen to our 5m spiel and you can pull something out of a claw machine. Is there a line there that you personally wouldn’t cross? A line that’s prohibited by your company policy? A line that you believe makes a company unethical and should be prohibited? Curious where everyone falls on this.
- cafard 2y ago
  Some years ago I declined an iPod offered me for answering survey questions, since accepting it was against organization policy. At a recent AWS Summit, I picked up a pair of socks from a company with a name that was homonym of an acquaintance's, and a rubber sumo from Sumo Logic. Both got my email address. These strike me as being under the threshold of concern.
  - shalmanese 2y ago
    As in you took the survey but declined the iPod or you didn't take the survey because they offered an iPod?
runamok 2y ago
Pretty great that this random engineer has superior ethics to a member of SCOTUS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas#Nondisclosure_of_finances https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas#Nondisclosure_... .

Suppafly 2y ago

I get these offers all the time, but work for a company that would fire me if they thought I'd accepted any of them.

silverquiet 2y ago
I've gotten them on occasion and I never even really thought about the ethical implications; I'm not sure it would be that bad? That said, I always suspect phishing whether it's real or a test and do not respond to them.
- Suppafly 2y ago
  It really depends upon your industry and the cultural norms. My company doesn't even let vendors pay to cater the food when they visit. When I worked for a big for profit company, I loved when we'd have vendors pitch us stuff because they always catered lunch.
smegsicle 2y ago
how about you send me yours, and i'll send mine to you no conflict of interest to connect them criss cross

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

josefritzishere 2y ago

Agreed. Gifts and cash are forbidden in most corporte vendor management policies. Even the appearance of impropriety can get people fired. That's not worth a $5 gift card. If they even offer it I know I'm not intersted in them.

percivalPep 2y ago

I worked for a company that sent out remote controlled cars to their top 300 global targets, with the message “if you take the meeting you’ll get the remote”. Needless to say about 280 were returned, and the remaining 20 didn’t take meetings (I assume the cars look good on office bookshelves).

blessedwhiskers 2y ago
...I wonder how many reverse-engineered the protocol or just bought a remote from the manufacturer.
SkyPuncher 2y ago
I would never do business with a company like that. Such a terrible way to get someone’s attention.
kevinventullo 2y ago
Should’ve sent a mystery lockbox and offered the key in exchange for a meeting. Let their imagination go wild.
- extraduder_ire 2y ago
  "Ooh, brushing! Let me get a crowbar."
trevoragilbert 2y ago
Follow up: sign the deal and we’ll also send you batteries.

dmart 2y ago

One of the first things anyone should set up on a new corporate email account is a filter that sends messages containing “Sales Engineer” straight to spam.

neilv 2y ago

> 2: Gift cards as an incentive aren't always bad. It's when they're confusing your personal vs. professional roles. For example, if a company reaches out offering a gift card in exchange for a personal G2 review or as part of a research initiative, I don't see a conflict there. Even the "personal" outreaches, such as market research to poll you as a subject matter expert, no mention of your employer... might actually be to try to milk you for information about your employer. It could be on behalf of competitors of the company, and it could also be on behalf of prospective investors in the company. Just say no to anyone offering to pay you for a call like that. However, they can be even more evil, and harder to weed out: rather than some market research pretext, they can pretend to approach you as a recruiter.

delichon 2y ago

A retail company offered me a $20 gift card for an interview about a product I bought. First and last time that ever happened. It was Raven, who made document scanners with a built in tablet. I accepted and tried to give them their money's worth. And then they went bankrupt. I can't help guessing that was related to their largesse.

shalmanese 2y ago

Curious for people who think this is unethical how they think about swag at conference booths? The range of practices I’ve seen go from just come up to the booth to get some trinket to put in your email address to get something a bit more valuable to listen to our 5m spiel and you can pull something out of a claw machine. Is there a line there that you personally wouldn’t cross? A line that’s prohibited by your company policy? A line that you believe makes a company unethical and should be prohibited? Curious where everyone falls on this.

cafard 2y ago
Some years ago I declined an iPod offered me for answering survey questions, since accepting it was against organization policy. At a recent AWS Summit, I picked up a pair of socks from a company with a name that was homonym of an acquaintance's, and a rubber sumo from Sumo Logic. Both got my email address. These strike me as being under the threshold of concern.
- shalmanese 2y ago
  As in you took the survey but declined the iPod or you didn't take the survey because they offered an iPod?

runamok 2y ago

Pretty great that this random engineer has superior ethics to a member of SCOTUS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas#Nondisclosure_of_finances https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas#Nondisclosure_... .