Sears: Creating Promoters. But are they "giving away the store"?

Here is an interesting Promoter story I ran across on Facebook last year.  It is real, and the person is truly one of my friends. 

August 2009 Facebook story(The guy who posted it gave me permission to write this.  Nevertheless, I've protected his identity, that of the salesperson involved, and of those who commented. I wouldn't want my own comments on friends' Facebook pages showing up on some random blog, so I won't do that to others.)

Some questions this example should raise:

• If you were part of the Sears management team, would you applaud the actions of this salesperson?  Or be angry about the lost revenue?
• What motivated the salesperson to take this initiative?
• Is this a powerful way to create Promoters?
• What was it worth to Sears to have done this?  How would you know?
• Is this an example of a "Frugal Wow"?  Or is it way too expensive?
• Should a salesperson and his manager be able to do this?  Or should there be a policy preventing it?

What do you think?

Comments

[Ryan]

This would have turned me into a customer for life!