Sprint Fires Employee for Revealing Evo 4G Sales
Sprint does not take kindly to leaks. No sir, it does not.
You might remember a couple of weeks back when the EVO 4G launched there was a little bit of confusion about sales figures. Sprint initially claimed that the number of EVO 4Gs sold on launch day was three times the number of Samsung Instincts and Palm Pres sold in their first three days combined. However, a day later the company apologized and posted a correction; the number EVO 4Gs sold on launch was in line with the number of Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre devices sold over their first three days on the market combined."
Samsung didn't say how the mistake had been made, other than admitting it had, "erred in its calculations," and to be honest, we didn't think anymore about it. One phone, in one day of sales, matching two phones and their three days of sales is still pretty great, right? It was a mistake, it could happen to anyone.
However, it would appear the story is a little bit more interesting than just a case of human error. MobileCrunch reports that on June 6, a Sprint employee posting to XDA Developers revealed (post removed) that he had used the company inventory system to work out how many of the devices had been sold.
"according to sprint we as a [company] have sold 66,483 theres a whole bunch of stores though that dont have any more inventory i dont think any major city sprint does"
This number likely only includes Sprint stores and not third party channels like Radio Shack and Walmart. Sprint HQ got wind of the post (before anyone else) and traced it back to the Floridian employee in question. MobileCrunch's trusted source says an internal security task force member was immediately flown from Kansas to Florida and the employee was terminated on the spot.
Sprint has yet to comment on the matter.
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old news tom.
Owned
Sounds good. With the possible exception of whistle-blowing on wrongdoing (if you wish to do so), you do NOT release internal company data and expect to keep your job.
old news tom.
Then if you already knew, why read it and post a comment?
Second paragraph, I think Jane meant Sprint, not Samsung.
Well, that'll seal the deal, i'll never purchase anything from Sprint again...because an employee told the truth, based a REAL FACTS (not PR "facts" which are far from true) he/she gets canned. I dont buy into a company that treats their employees like that...fire the entire I.T. staff for even allowing the employee access to such information.
No good deed goes unpunished.
"an internal security task force member was immediately flown from Kansas to Florida and the employee was terminated on the spot"
Sounds like he got double tapped in his apartment
Really? That made your decision Antilycus . . . sounds like someone makes quick factless based decisions. You must have voted for Obama. See what happens to you if you release NDA information publicly without actually having access to ALL SOURCES of sales data as opposed to just one source and claiming those were the sales totals leaving a negative impact on the company's reputation. He deserved to be fired and guess what? HE WON'T BE HIRED BY ANY COMPANY THAT VALUES CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION!!!!
"Let me tell you something, lowly Sprint Employee. Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it's because they sat there that they were able to do it."
When I was working for Sprint last year, I posted corporate store sales numbers for the Pre and I specifically mentioned it was only for corporate Sprint stores, not 3rd party retailers, 3rd party Sprint branded stores or web/telesales. Anyway, I wasn't fired or talked to about it but was it because I just wasn't caught or because I made sure to mention the numbers were only for corporate owned stores? Anyway, the poor grammar and punctuation of the original post goes to show the individual was obviously not that bright and should have been more specific about the sales numbers. The are super, super easy to see right in the inventory system, but again it's only for corporate owned Sprint stores. There are TONS of 3rd party retailers (Radio Shack, Walmart, Best Buy), 3rd party owned Sprint branded stores (they look/dress just like sprint but often sell off-brand accessories) and web/phone sales that aren't included. But after working there for nearly 5 years and seeing how they moved 66k just in corporate stores, 300k+ in total is definitely not out of the question.
Damnit I thumbed up TheRealist before I read "You must have voted for Obama."
WTF does that have to do with anything? Leave US politics to US political sites, jackass.
Damnit I thumbed up TheRealist before I read "You must have voted for Obama."WTF does that have to do with anything? Leave US politics to US political sites, jackass.
People seem to have a huge problem with that anywhere online. For some reason, Tom's is particularly bad.
I can only assume that the first word of the second paragraph should be "sprint" not "samsung".
"For some reason, Tom's is particularly bad."
I thought so too at first... then I visited DailyTech.
The guy released sensitive business information. Yeah his employers got it wrong. So? Shouldn't he have gone to his boss about it instead of posting it on a forum?
He deserved to be fired
internal security task force member = T600!
There is a good chance that the pre-sales figures were a intentional lie to try to draw more consumers to the phone and perhaps even appease share holders. If this is the case then its no wonder why he was fired because he just revealed what they did. (not that the truth should get someone fired)
For those who think he deserved to get fired for "leaking" such information should have their brain looked at. All he did was reveal sales data without any privacy concerns. Also the "data" (a error or lie) was already released so the company showed that it was willing to display such numbers.
The fact that he was fired certainly leans towards the previous figures were a intentional lie that he exposed. Even if we were to look at this in a capitalist viewpoint he still did the right thing as a companies first priority is to serve the investors and the investors can make much better decisions with the truth than a lie. He did the right thing even if it wasn't too big of a deal.
Honesty is the best policy.
But white lies can either get you promoted or in this case...FIRED!
Jane's articles always have the best comments haha.
bull
i knew there was a reason why i don't like Sprint.
Well, that'll seal the deal, i'll never purchase anything from Sprint again...because an employee told the truth, based a REAL FACTS (not PR "facts" which are far from true) he/she gets canned. I dont buy into a company that treats their employees like that...fire the entire I.T. staff for even allowing the employee access to such information.
If I were to release the specs of the ion thruster I've done some work on over the past several years then I would be held liable for all the damages. Why? Because that information is proprietary to the company that is designing the thruster. Same with the sales numbers for this phone. Do I think what Sprint did is fair? Not really. Did they have a right to do it? Absolutely.
Then if you already knew, why read it and post a comment?
Because perhaps (like me) the poster thought there might be some more info about it, rather than just old news regurgitated once again. Seems like Toms now has a really bad rep for doing just that.
If I were to release the specs of the ion thruster I've done some work on over the past several years then I would be held liable for all the damages. Why? Because that information is proprietary to the company that is designing the thruster. Same with the sales numbers for this phone. Do I think what Sprint did is fair? Not really. Did they have a right to do it? Absolutely.
Absolutly this guy needed to be fired and their IT department needs to review who has access to that sort of info to keep this from happening again.
The lesson here is: Don't post sensitive company data from your own machine and create a new account using a new email address. You can't be fired if they can't catch you.
Every time I see someone quote this stuff I imagine the poster to be have a bug-eyed goofy expression, chewing on a bit of straw whilst wearing dungarees, sat on a sofa placed outside on his porch, reminiscing about days gone past where they could wear white hoods and burn crosses at weekend, whilst looking forward to the monster truck show and playing "Oh Suzanna" on the banjo.Racist, inbred, white trash, redneck hillbillies - you are not welcome - if Obama was white he would get anywhere near as much abuse, and if he did it would just be flat aimed at Democrats as a whole instead of him specifically.
Only marked down -4? Shame, I though there would be a lot more racist, inbred, white trash, redneck hillbillies that would have taken offence.[/citation]
Please don't feed the trolls.
Please don't blame Obama for it raining last Thursday, missing the last bus home, losing your car keys, getting fired from Sprint or any of the other million things that apparently is now the fault of the President.I'll stop when they stop, deal?
That's the problem though, they're just looking for attention and any attention (especially negative) just encourages them.
Thank you for explaining trolls to me. I am so glad there is a responsible forum member who can guide us all through the myriad pitfalls of everyday forum faux-pax.BTW, since when was numbers of handset sales classified or protected company information, don't they have to disclose that kind of stuff anyway?
Sometimes it makes sense for them to keep it a secret from the public. Bad sales figures might suggest that the product is bad, and discourage people from buying it. Good sales figures, on the other hand, suggest that the product is good or at least popular, and might convince people that they want the product.
I'm not sure, though, if companies are required to disclose their sales information to the public. Regardless, though, this employee did release the numbers without Sprint's consent, so they had a right to fire him. As I said before, I don't think it's fair, but it's something a company is allowed to do.