Cellular Sales

_JOE_

~SPONSOR~
May 10, 2007
4,697
3
So I went into my local AT&T to renew my contract and upgrade my phone. I've been a customer with them for about 10 years now and I've been pretty happy all in all. So I pull up see a huddle of salespeople break up and act like they're doing something. I walk in and am greeted warmly by a young fella. We check my account to make sure I'm elegable for a new phone and he "wants to make sure I have the right plan". So he says it looks pretty good and I go to look at a phone(which I had already looked at online but didn't really feel like doing it that way). I find the one I was looking at online, which was 10 bucks with a plan. He starts the sales pitch about how great the phone was and it's really a good deal at 140 bucks. :yikes: Whoa buddy, it's 10 bucks online I said. He says oh, yeah, that's if you upgrade to the 15 dollar a month texting plan. It says that online in the fine print he tells me. He also points out that there's a 50 dollar mail in rebate and graciously offers to go ahead and send that in for me, as long as I buy 50 dollars worth of accesories. :whoa: So let me get this straight, I have to spend 15 bucks a month more on my plan and spend 50 bucks on accessories to get this phone? Yup, he says, and the 18 dollar renewal fee. :yell:

So I'm a bit miffed now and take off. I decide to check it out online again. I get all the way to checkout with no need to upgrade service and bam, there's that 18 dollar fee. Now I've never been charged to extend my service in 10 years with them so I call the customer service line. I wait on hold for about 5 minutes and finally this lady answers the phone. I explain my issues at the store and where I was at trying to renew my line and get a phone. She very politely tells me she would be glad to waive the 18 dollar fee and thanked me for my patronage. She then offered to waive the shipping fee, which was already free but was still a nice gesture.

Now, I don't get it. This lady works in a call center, she certainly isn't making a commision off my purchase and she was super nice. But the kid at the store, who is a salesperson, surely must be an incentive based worker right? Why in the heck would he not want to make the deal? It baffles me. :think:
 

Patman

Pantless Wonder
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Dec 26, 1999
19,765
1
Greed. I'm sure he figured you be back some time because you just had to have that phone. I had AT&T for years and got the same scheme thrown to me. I ended up switching to Sprint. The guy we got our phones from was really helpful and waived some costs since I was getting 3 phones. He remembered us a year later when my son took his phone for a swim in a friends pool one night and during that trip he optimized our plan to where it actually cost less than we had been spending (lots of text messages). So come renewal time we go in and he's the manager, a girl starts helping us and trys the add-on scheme and I am pretty polite when I say no just give us what we'd like please. She presses a bit and I tell her to please get Tim for me. He comes over and it's like old times, he sets us up with the phones we want, makes the adjustments to the plan, waives some stupid fees and sends in the rebats for us ann in one fell swoop. The little girl was there the whole time and looked a little puzzled. Once we were all done I thanks him and told her that customer service like that is what keeps people like me coming back. I'm sure she was quite happy to take the partial comossion because we bought 3 high end phones with a data plan so my bill for the trip was about $800 but it could have been $0 if she had tried her way.

I really don't understand the serious lack of customer service these days. Maybe I'm just a grumpy old man.
 

_JOE_

~SPONSOR~
May 10, 2007
4,697
3
I'm sure if I would have asked for the manager and took it up with them I may have gotten somewhere, but I wasn't in the mood. I'll chuckle to myself when I see him at the furniture store selling couches, then at best buy selling tv's, then when shows up at my door some nice summer day to try and sell me windows. People like him will bounce from job to job blaming the employer for thier lack of success. It's just astonishing.
 

oldguy

Always Broken
Dec 26, 1999
9,411
0
When we were renewing our plan last summer and upgrading phones I got a chance to see true salesmanship at it's worst. A guy came in while we were waiting for our phones to get programmed and was greeted by a very bored sales girl. She really looked put off that he was asking questions about the phones and plans when her personal phone started singing to all of us. Instead of making us listen to her choice of music she was polite enough to answer the phone and talk to the caller about their plans for the night when she got off work. The customer she was helping stood there absolutely astounded by this and asked another employee if he could get the manager for him to talk to. This employee very politely informed the guy as soon as she was finished on the phone he would tell her and motioned to the salesgirl that was helping him. He looked at me shook his head and walked out. Now how ingrate full could he be? She was after all demonstrating how useful it was to have the cell service that her company could provide.
I honestly hope he was there to buy phones and service for an entire sales fleet and she lost a huge commission but I doubt it. I also would have walked away in support of him had I not already completed the purchase from what I considered a very polite and qualified sales person.

And Pat does not drive a chick car he just sits in it and thinks it makes him look cool
 

2-Strokes 4-ever

~SPONSOR~
Feb 9, 2005
1,842
4
Missouri
Verizon "family plan" here. All our contracts were up and I got caught on the job site in a pouring down rain... ruined my phone. Got a phone for free (after rebate.) A few months later my wife was looking to upgrade, but because I'm the "head of the account" and she's an extra line, the free phone offer didn't apply... just a discount. After some talking with Verizon's sales people, I said "we won't renew her contract then, her phone's still fine." We got the phone for free. Perhaps they make a commision on both phone sales AND new contract signing? I've found them flexible with their offers when facing contract signage.
 

Patman

Pantless Wonder
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Dec 26, 1999
19,765
1
You guys are gona' make me cry, I'll have to retreat to the KDX forum where all my friends are. They love me for who I am no matter what.
 

_JOE_

~SPONSOR~
May 10, 2007
4,697
3
Patman said:
You guys are gona' make me cry, I'll have to retreat to the KDX forum where all my friends are. They love me for who I am no matter what.
Lol, I know. It was gettin' a bit too emotional over there for me so I started my own thread. :boss:
 

Patman

Pantless Wonder
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Dec 26, 1999
19,765
1
It's not easy being green.
 

Rich Rohrich

Moderator / BioHazard
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jul 27, 1999
22,839
16,904
Chicago
Follow me, I found a place where they have used chains for a great price. :whoa:

Luddite.jpg
 

Patman

Pantless Wonder
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Dec 26, 1999
19,765
1
:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
 

FruDaddy

Member
Aug 21, 2005
2,854
0
2-Strokes 4-ever said:
Verizon "family plan" here. All our contracts were up and I got caught on the job site in a pouring down rain... ruined my phone. Got a phone for free (after rebate.) A few months later my wife was looking to upgrade, but because I'm the "head of the account" and she's an extra line, the free phone offer didn't apply... just a discount. After some talking with Verizon's sales people, I said "we won't renew her contract then, her phone's still fine." We got the phone for free. Perhaps they make a commision on both phone sales AND new contract signing? I've found them flexible with their offers when facing contract signage.
Last time I upgraded my phone w/Verizon my wife found one that she liked as well. With absolutely zero hassle, they gave me a buy one get one free deal. My phone cost me $55 that day (OTD) and I got a $50 mail in rebate. One thing that I learned that day is to always got to an actual Verizon store. I had already been to a franchise store that couldn't even pretend to match that deal, so I walked away.
 

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