By 
As a former HTC rep for Best Buy Mobile stores, I can tell you first-hand all the wacky n’ zany things I’ve heard from both customers and employees. Unfortunately, the last person you’d probably want to turn to for advice on your next smartphone purchase is a customer service rep in a carrier retail store. It’s no secret that most are ignorant to the plethora of devices they are selling, with only the limited knowledge of what was provided in their employee training packet.
If you thought misinformation given to customers from employees was just an occasional occurrence, you’d be wrong. Dead wrong. Take this first hand account of a Reddit user who overheard a few flabbergasting conversations after spending his day at a local AT&T retail store. Warning: extreme nerd rage may result.
Customer: “Hi, I’d like to look at the Galaxy S3.” Employee answers with, “Why?” in a patronizing tone.AT&T employee: “Android is less secure than iPhones because my 14 year old nephew can program Android apps. Apple is pickier about who can make apps.”
AT&T employee: “Well, Apple won the lawsuit, so clearly it’s the better phone maker.”AT&T employee: “Because [the Galaxy S3] violates Apple’s patents, we can’t guarantee we can support this phone after you buy it.”
Okay, before you fly off the handle, this post wasn’t merely to incite anger in the Android faithful, but to remind users of what sometimes goes on in carrier stores. Now, I’m not saying all customer service reps are this ignorant — I’ve worked with many a good man and woman who, not only knew their sh*t, but were able to help customers without imposing their own biases. I’m simply pointing out yet another story of carrier CSR’s gone wrong. Have a similar experience that made your jaw drop like this one? Sound off below so the rest of us can join in on the fun.
That awkward moment when you’re more informed about the phone and services than the Customer Service Rep is..
That turns into a lot of awkward moments..
everytime I buy a phone. I always make the mistake and think since that is what these people do for a living they should know their sh**. I usually try to start a convorsation with them over tech, but end up finding out most don’t know sh**.
Haha I do the same thing!!
I work for att and purposely go into cor stores to troll…. I think this makes me a bad person but My jimmies swell when I get an iDiot red in the face.
lol yup everytime i go to the store for a phone the rep starts talking and then i realize they have no idea what they are saying and have no idea how to compare phones and facts.
That is why you just order devices online.
That is a good alternative, the online store should give you then a rebate because they don’t have to pay commission to a sales rep. But if course that will never happen.
commision isn’t that much lol Plus we get graded on customer service so unless the guy was a complete jerk be nice on the customer satisfaction surveys you get lol
Honestly I work in a retailer store and I have to say that 50% of my customer complaint workload comes from online purchases. Refurbed or out of date phones sell online a lot and unless you know what exactly you want, there will be problems. Also if you have a problem I have to have you call customer service and I really can’t do anything for you. I have several customers each month that return phones purchased online and then come and upgrade/activate new service with me.
erm, i think he meant online stores such as optus, telstra, et al.
It’s sad that I still ask them questions just to see if they can tell me something I don’t know.
I ask questions I already know to see if they’ll lie to me. It’s a good way to weed out the non-hackers.
Kinda makes you wonder if you should take their job and/or how they got it in the first place…
It isn’t just phones… a Best Buy rep once told me a camcorder with a physical spindle drive can store higher quality movies than one with a flash drive… I quickly admonished her and demanded she tell me who told her that. At least talking to these useless reps yields some form of entertainment.
Oh yes it does, especially when the sales rep is very nice and trying hard, I don’t mind it so much if I already see the dollar signs in the sales reps eyes and they want to sell you something fast and get you out of the store fast.
I quit talking to most sales reps, I’m tired of the dumbfounded look they give me, when I know more about it than they do.
Wow! That is all.
I dont’ know how many times I have told people not to listen what the reps say. They are sales reps, most of them are going to tell you what you want to hear to sell you a phone. In this case, the rep was clearly an ifanboy..
Excuse me, but the correct term is iSheep :P
This is very true. Another problem is that if you sell a certain device your commission will be higher than when you sell another device.
That must be a carrier thing, I know that’s not true with Sprint. You get more on New vs upgrade, but the phone didn’t matter.
Weird. Every time I need to go into the Verizon store they’re happy to try to sell up any phone I look at. And often will let you know what you can expect from the experience, letting me choose.
This is the case times 10000. Went into at&t store here in my local town. Wanted to buy a htc x one for a friend. They tried everything under the sun to sell us an iphone. They told me stuff like android phones get major viruses and are returned all the time. I had to fight with them to stfu and sell us htc onex. I started putting them in there place in a mean ass tone by the end of the visit. Every time they would say something that was not true or a lie. I just said that is a lie and to tell that to people you are lieing to them. Haha I guarantee they hated me.
Sounds like you just wasted an awful lot of time upsetting yourself. Order the exact same phone online… and for less money. It quickly comes right to your door without any hassle at all.
Yes and I bet AT&T reps get a higher commission paid when they sell an iPhone than an HTC One X
AT&T isn’t exactly known for its high quality customer service…
i agree 100%. I work for an indirect re-seller (vzw), i’m not a dev or n e thing but i can show you a thing or two. With that said, i’ll go into a corp store and test the salesmen knowledge. more than half wouldn’t know the what there talking about. they just throw #’s at you. i had a rep tell me i couldn’t activate a galaxy nexus unless i was in a 4g lte area. that got me pissed lol. only tech thing they know is hard reset lol. i have had some that will show me a thing or two though and that makes my day :)
that’s my 2cents
I would like to troll this person in real life…. Can I get the name and location of this person who said all these things about android?
I think it’s like Obama’s girlfriend… an aggregate.
Oh yes, like the CSR at Orange Dominican Rep that told me Galaxy S2 is the iPhone version of Samsung, then I asked, so is the same software on both? He answered: Yes, you won’t notice the difference! Are the blogs forbidden for these guys?
That guy’s 14 year old nephew is smarter than he is.
More informed, perhaps, but maybe not smarter. After all, smartness gets a lot from experience.
“smartness gets a lot from experience”
exactly.
Why do I have a feeling this never actually happened and it was just some guy claiming something on an internet forum?
Trust me, this happens. My sister works at a VZW store (came from tech so is one of the few that knows her stuff) and she tells me all the time about reps saying crazy stuff that is totally wrong. It definitely happens, and the worst part is the carriers would wish it was the other way around! They hate iphones!
No they don’t. It’s more loss up front, but costs less to maintain and troubleshoot. Apple servers provide all updates and there are only a few things to try for TS until it is deemed a defect.
Why can’t I have a good phone conversation with sales reps anymore? They don’t know what they’re talking about.
Only time I visit carrier stores is to play with whatever new phone that has dropped. I am always tuning in to the conversations. Most of the time, to my surprise, they are not spewing BS. But on a few occasions I have heard conversations similar to that.
I guess I’m lucky that the local BesyBuy reps I’ve dealt with always seemed to know their stuff. I may have to go into the other stores and test them.
I’ve heard a Best Buy boy (Wearing a nano for a watch of course) tell a customer that the iPad would be fine, and that flash ran fine on it… When I pressed him on it he said something about jailbreaking it… I looked at the customer and asked him how he liked being flat out lied to.
I was at a sprint store almost a year ago and stood there listening to the reps trying to sell a iPhone 4 to a customer, after awhile they asked me which phone i would get between the the evo shift 4g and another android device, i gave them my honest opinion and they bought one of the Android devices, all while the reps were watching. Side note: im only 16 and am researching all devices so i can do just the thing that reps dont like customers to do, do their job.
I tried to do what you’re doing.
Unfortunately, if there’s some bimbo girl, with perky breasts, that walks in and applies near the time you do… she’ll get the job sand you’ll get a phone call saying, “Ossry. You just aren’t what we’re looking for.”
Happened to me after applying to the big 3 stores in Tallahassee. Sprint picked up dumbo brunette girl who’s only asset was her…. -err herm-
Verizon grabbed some 28 year old blond with double D’s.
T-Mobile must have looked for employees off of Jersey Shore, because the girl there had to have been straight from the cast. Cluele
ss, and just wore yoga pants hiked so far up you could see everything through them.
After going through that…. (I’m not bad looking, and wasn’t back then) I have 0 interest in working at or managing a store for mobile retail.
yesss…. let the hate flow through you!
more like mrburns85
I think everyone here now wants to go to Tallahassee just to check the…um phones. Yeah! The phones. Of course.
I think it is the phone geek working there who want to hire the people with the assets you list. Face it, if you were in the hiring position, I doubt you’d hire the know-it-all geek over the hot thing.
inform yourself before you go, then when you go you can pick the phone you really want AND have something good to look at.
noticing more and more reps only sell what they are told to and now what they should. THey all have these stupid little contests so they can push certain phones and they really do NOT care about what the consumer wants but most money they can make off these dumb little contests.
That is true, I used to work as a rep for in a corporate store for a Canadian provider, and we could win per paid visa cards when we sold a certain amount of BlackBerries in a week. So everyone was pushing BlackBerries on customers like mad.
It’s a good thing I use t-mobile so I don’t have to put up with this crap!
I was at a Walmart just the other day and over heard a older guy talking to a customer rep about looking at a gs3 his grandson had one and he was really impressed with it the customer rep started how much better the iPhone 4s was almost immediately saying it was faster and more secure well the older guy started to get alittle upset with the guy he wouldn’t even show him the phone so he agreed to look at the iPhone and I was kinda perturbed at this point so I walked over well the guy was in the middle of showing the phone off and told the guy he shouldn’t even look at the phone that the gs3 was a way better phone and the guy had to be getting some kinda of bonus for trying to push the iPhone so much at this point the customer rep looked pissed then the old guy told the rep he was done looking at the iPhone and just wanted the gs3 or nothing and he thanked me blah blah blah
Nice!
my brain just melted trying to read that abortion of a paragraph. Couldn’t you use a little punctuation?
How did this get so many down votes? Seriously, how about a period once in a while?
He actually aborted all his sentences into a pile. cwutididthere?
I was at a Walmart just the other day and over heard a older guy talking to a customer rep about looking at a gs3. His grandson had one and he was really impressed with it. The customer rep started how much better the iPhone 4s was almost immediately saying it was faster and more secure. Well, the older guy started to get a little upset with the guy. He wouldn’t even show him the phone so he agreed to look at the iPhone and I was kinda perturbed at this point so I walked over well the guy was in the middle of showing the phone off and told the guy he shouldn’t even look at the phone, that the gs3 was a way better phone, and the guy had to be getting some kinda of bonus for trying to push the iPhone so much. At this point the customer rep looked pissed then the old guy told the rep he was done looking at the iPhone and just wanted the gs3 or nothing and he thanked me blah blah blah…
Maybe you were using voice to text, which tends to not give punctuation, but it’s really not that hard to add it in. Anyways, you’re welcome.
If you say “period or comma” voice to text adds it in, and at least with SwiftKey it also compensates for capitals.
Last year my wife and me are at Best Buy Mobile she is just looking at phones, sales guy Ask us what phones do we have. I say We both have Nexus S phones.. He says I never heard of that one. I look at him then look at my girl . ( She is hold the phone that was right next to the Nexus S phone).. Then I look at him again and say.. sorry then you can’t help us.. And we walked out.
I have personally gone into a store to buy a phone and when I asked for it the sales person looked at me like I was crazy. I had to tell them to just go check in the back and you will find it( it was a new phone). They came out of the back with the phone and said they had no idea they were getting new devices in. So then being the informed customer……. I had to show him and tell him about the phone. Hope it helped him sale more after I left.
Oh and every time I get a new phone (Att) they always try to put me on crapple. I have to inform them that apple is for those who don’t know anything about technology. I know what I’m getting before I go in. Android all the way.
When I went to upgrade my OG Evo to the Evo LTE, the sales rep at Sprint was surprisingly open and knowledgeable. Not a word about the iPhone was mentioned. I asked for the Evo LTE and he informed me that the GS3 was also available to look at. He also noticed that I rooted my phone after turning it on… but he used the term “jailbreak”. Not a big deal.
well this guy is an idiot, I don’t think this knows why the lawsuit was for. Apple is taking baby step, while android phone makers are using the latest technology especially the galaxy s3
AT&T probably wants to slap that rep. The iPhone is killing the carriers’ margins and here is this rep saying anything they can to sell iphones…..
I have been to a best buy and was looking at the tablets killing time. There was a nice older couple looking at them talking with the rep. I can honestly say they did not know much and I stepped in filling in all the blanks that they did not know. About 30 minutes went buy and sold them two android tablets. The manager and sales reps were asking me to start working for them. I told them no thanks just helping your sales reps get informed.
In a mobile location I always get I don’t know about them phones and have not heard anything yet or don’t do this but go buy at a Walmart or customer service over the phone you will get better pricing.
I can honestly say with the places I have been the employees are informed enough to say I don’t know or let me find the answer for you instead of making some crap up. I would love to get in front of that rep and tear him a new one. I love to argue with people who are dead wrong
In my years of dealing with Sprint and Best Buy I’ve never had a rep question my phone choice. I’ve had them ask why I picked a certain phone as they were making chit-chat during activation but I’ve never been second guessed. I wish they would! Haha
I am led to believe that this is a false article. My sister is a very knowledgeable rep at her att store and she always tells me how the managers push them to sell android phones because att makes no money off of the iphones. Android phones bring them much more revenue. Unless this sales rep is stubbornly going against the higher-up’s orders, this cannot be true.
It takes something like 9 months for the carrier (I’m talking about VZW, don’t know specifics on others) to start making money off the average 2 year android phone contract and all the way to 16 months for the iPhone. Yet sadly the article is probably true, a lot of reps just don’t know.
But it is true….
Just trifling!
This has got to be an at&t saying this stuff lol idk I work at Sprint and used to work at a verizon indirect and at both we pushed android a lot more
Went into the Sprint store a few weeks ago for issues my girlfriend had been having with her SG2. The rep was trying to get her to replace it under warranty with a refurb original EVO stating it is a “solid” phone. She looked at him and said “that phone is two years behind the SG2. I ALREADY had the EVO then an EVO 3D then the SG2..Why the hell would I go back two years to a single core phone that will never run ICS???” The guy was such a moron. I was seriously pissed he tried to pull something like that on her.
Back when I had an Eris that had just gotten upgraded to 2.1, I headed into a corporate store. A common problem with the update involved a silent call bug, which I had. I explained this to the rep and asked for a new phone as mine was still under warranty. I had to literally fight with him to get a new one. I was given a ton of reasons as to why they didnt think it qualified for a replacement.
1) I didnt have advance task killer installed
2) There were too many widgets on the home screen
3) I wasnt using the stock browser
Keep in mind that this was a call going silent issue. I finally convinced them (in hindsight I don’t recall how) to give me my new Eris, which I promptly rooted and installed CM on. Lesson learned, never go to a store unless you absolutely have to.
I would like to point out, however, that the phone CSRs aren’t nearly as bad. Thanks to the determination of one, I was able to get my new Galaxy Nexus for 100$ on launch day.
Someone *please* get his name. I want this guy fired.
On the other side of all the comments, the guys at my local At&t store are really helpful. On one hand, they’ve known me since I was 11, but I never see them being pushy or lie. When the GS3 came out, I went to the store to get my mom a One X. I asked which phone I should get, (between the GS3 and One X) and the guy said the One X would be totally fine. I’m sure he would have gotten a bonus for selling the GS3, but he made a legitimate recommendation which my mom could not be happier with. Not all employees are bad, but most are. I’m just lucky to have such great people at my local store.
In the UK I would regularly visit t-mobile to see the most new phone arrivals, most never saw or heard of the first galaxy nexus only carrier who ever stocked it was Vodafone , same with carphone warehouse, all of them would promote apple phones, in the ensuing months and years I could literally see the effects, people could not afford apple prices and the carriers started losing business, oh! They would only try and sell the low end android phones, they were slow to realise which side their bread was actually buttered and now after so long and such loss to their business T-mobile is finally waking up as for carphone warehouse, well what can I say walk into a shop and see for yourself.
I should be a sales rep >.> although i would prob tell everyone i was out of the iPhone and they should pick the much nicer galaxy s3
Yes i work for a indirect vzw and i know my stuff also thank god :) As a avid dev and helper of making roms for sg3 now and once for the org. droid. I hate selling iphone but there comes a place and time when its right for someone. Otherwise ive talked to reps from every company and everyone says iphone is better and they push it and its quiet funny really haha I ask reps why iphone is better they throw numbers at me and sh!t but that doesnt bother me at all. This bothers me. “the iphone is better because its a iphone”. I nearly slap the person(s) who say this. I then talk about nerdy things and see if they know. 18 outta the 22 i talked to didnt know crap. Its really sad and corp stores treat ppl like crap. Your a number in there head. Indirect are usually friendlier and will make deals with you. At least i try to. Sorry for this rant just pisses me off these idiotic reps sometimes. Long live android and its freedom
No doubt it’s common to see misinformed sales reps but it’s best if people look at each sales interaction for what it is without any preconceived notions and an open mind… at least at first.
The reverse of this is just as bad, just imagine if you were a sales rep and every customer of yours came across like they knew better than you.
The point is, people should take in views without prejudice and make an informed decision with all information present.
i shall go to an ATT store and do some trolling !
I sold phones for Best Buy for almost 3 yrs, and I knew my stuff. I would say that about 85% of the ppl I worked with were adequately knowledgeable. The weird stories that would walk in from my local corp stores was normally along the lines of this article. Due to the fact that we were non commission, we had no personal incentive to push anything in particular, but if I knew someone was just interested in the iPhone because it was the iPhone, I would do the right thing and show them all of their choices. (Complete with real world demo’s) If they still wanted the iPhone, so be it, but 70% of the time, Android won out.
i feel ya man. i worked in best buy mobile for two years before moving on. i constantly had customers tell me that i was very knowledgeable. (not sure if your store did this but i had 2 silver stars lol). i always gave honest advice. the best part was allowing the customers to demo phones to get a feel for them. the best part was all of our reps had different kinds of phones. palm pre, iphone, blackberry, and android. all i had to do was show them some features that they didnt know about (for me was showing them street view in the maps app and being able to look around with the gyroscope) and that usually wowed them into getting an android.
I had a gold star in 16 months! People got Android based on me some, but around here it is apparently about being just like everyone else and they would return it when their friends or kids told them it wasn’t an iPhone.
Unless you’re in a Costco. Most especially, at my kiosk. However, I acknowledge that there are far too many out there who do not care enough about their jobs to stay up on the game or are too lazy to provide actual customer service. Nerdrage:
I remember when I bought my unlocked Galaxy Nexus and I wanted to add AT&T’s service on it, so I walked into the store immediately and the head Manager started 2 cell the idea of multiple phones and he pushed the iPhone the most 2 me. Then I took out my galaxy Nexus and showed him that I just wanted to add AT&T service to it . As a powered it on and showed my device to this guy, he was absolutely amazed by the phone and wanted to know where he can get it!!!! he was beyond shocked to hear that I can buy it from Google itself!!! And that it was so darn affortable! His exact words were “this is the best phone that I’ve ever seen!” haha, I love the sweet freedom I enjoy being off the isheep grid! Long live Phandroid!!!!
Was in ATT store around the time Galaxy Nexus came out, not looking for a new phone but checking out what they have. A salesman came up and started talking to me and I asked him if they might eventually get the Nexus (I was/am up for an upgrade and they haven’t had anything I want to use it on). He just sneered at me and said ‘we would never carry a phone like THAT” Needless to say I was done talking to him and he knew it and just walked away. Sending this on my Galaxy Nexus I bought from Google directly and still off contract on ATT. Only stay because I still have unlimited data and I use 6-7 GB a month always , sometimes up to 10 GB and they have never throttled me. The day they do I am gone to TMobile and will tell them so. They usually cave as I have been with them since 1991 and have 2 lines. I know they cost a little more but they always end up treating me good ( or well for the grammar police) .
I think Apple devices gives them a juicier commission, if not then suspicion applies: they’re idiots
Okay, yes there are lots of uninformed employees working for these phone stores but not all of them are incompetent, ignorant isheep. I work for att and where I work we have some very informed sales associates.
actually, this is why i left Verizon when android first came out. I had been following what news i could get and trying to stay informed as much as i could and when it hit the wire that andy would be making appearances on more than just the tmobile G1 i began to ask reps about it. even after official announcements the reps not only didn’t know thing 1 about it, but treated me badly for bringing it up ranging from that “you must be a raving lunatic talking about dancing mushrooms again” to the condescending “oh, that’s cute you think you know something about something”.
Sprint finally won me over by not only acknowledging the existence of android, but making sure to call me as soon as they had a working phone in the store that my happy little hands could play with. the hero was my first android, and i’ve been getting unlimited everything ever since.
Rep at a vzw store when comparing galaxy nexus and gs3, “the nexus is the galaxy s2… With the s3 you are guaranteed to receive longer support and quicker upgrades to new software”
When I was buying my Epic Touch, the Sprint store troll said “Are you sure you don’t want to wait a month or so? Something new is coming…”
I replied “Nah, if the Nexus Galaxy is as good as the hype, I’ll use my other upgrade to get it.”
He said “No, I meant the iPhone.”
He looked crestfallen when I laughed at him and said “Who gives a S*($ about THAT piece of junk?”
thats because ATT is trying to push the IP5 now due to LTE.
same thing that VZ was doing too.
Their ignorance sounds like they could have a wonderful career as a replacement ref in the NFL…just saying!
I think a lot of this comes from what they are told from upper management. I remember a friend of mine into a Verizon store and asked about the Iphone 4, at this time Verizon had a big push for 4G, she was basically told that she would be stupid to look at an Iphone when the SG3 did 4G. And he continued to push her away from the Iphone 4.
Ha, I went with my wife a couple of months back to get a new phone at the Chicago-Bucktown ATT store, and all the reps were pretty well informed and all Android aficionados. All of my wife’s friends have iPhones, and she thought she was going to pick up one of those. But, there was an HTC rep at the store that day and he showed us all of the beauty of the HTC One X. After that, just for due diligence, I asked who the iPhone fanboy rep was in order to give us a comparison. All the reps looked around and said they were all Android fans and users, but one could demonstrate the iPhone if needed. They also said that despite the superior technology of Android phones and all of the illuminating information they provided, that the store still sold 70% iPhones to the lemmings. Needless to say, my wife walked out with the HTC One X and is very very happy.
a friend of mine when is an older man and not very tech savvy asked me which phone to get iPhone 4S or Galaxy S3. I said personally the Galaxy S3, but I’m biased, my recommendation was to play with both phones first. Anyway, I was curious why not compare the phones on a more even level iPhone 5 and S3? He then told me he doesn’t want to pay more for a 5 since the sales rep told him its the exact same phone as last year. That’s just BS don’t get me wrong I like the little joke behind it as I’m not the greatest Apple fanatic. But the sad thing is that she wanted to make a quick commission buck by selling an obsolete device and put this on even level with an S3.
The worst reps are the ones that claim that the low end Android phones with a heavy skin are good smartphones.
When I worked in wireless sales, I trained every rep in my store. It was expected to know the product you are selling inside out. Any new devices had a prime assigned who learned all they could and then would act as a go to person for the other reps.
These scenarios are absolutely pathetic. Those reps would be sent home immediately and the paperwork for dismissal submitted minutes later. The job of as *customer service* rep is to meet the clients needs, and represent the company properly.
Absolutely pathetic.
When I went to buy the G-Nexus at a vzw store the rep was pushing the D-Razr on me like his life depended on it. I told him that I went to pick up the G-Nexus and I wasn’t interested on the D-Razr. I pointed out that the G-Nexus came with ICS,that it has a 720p HD display and a removable battery and that the D-Razr didn’t have any of that. When he was setting up the device he ask me if I wanted him to transfer my files from my OG Droid onto the G-Nexus. I thought that he had a device that could transfer the data from one device to the other. I said sure and I let him be and notice that he had the G-Nexus with the battery cover off and he was looking for the microsd card on the G-Nexus. I laughed and told him, you do know that the G-Nexus doesn’t have a microsd card slot right! He tried to play it off and said oh yeah that’s right. Right before he finish setting up the G-Nexus he ask one more time are you sure you don’t want the D-Razr.
I told him no, I came to pick up the G-Nexus and took out the soft shell tpu case for the G-Nexus that I had ordered from amazon.com and I also let him know that I already had the extended battery fully charged at home. He asked me if he could show me how to work the device and I told him that I had already read enough about the device and watched enough videos to know my way around the phone. What annoyed me the most about the transaction was that he said I hope you don’t have to come back to exchange it for the D-Razr. So far I have not had any real issue with the G-Nexus besides not having JB on it, but this will change this weekend when I get AOKP JB B2 on it.
The last time I went into an AT&T store, the only suggestion the rep made was to consider some new Windows phone. This was 1.5-2 years ago when I went in to check out the Atrix 4G. I think he quickly picked up that I was not wondering what phone to get, but whether I should get AT&T (was on Verizon at the time)… I already knew I’d get the Atrix 4G if I went to AT&T then.
And the sales rep was actually using an Android phone. So, he was probably not indoctrinated into the Apple club like the OP’s reps.
My service has been with Verizon for almost a decade, and I have actually been impressed with most of the reps there. But, as a disclaimer, we have a technical college in the area, and many of the reps go to school there–so they are more knowledgeable than your average bear. Verizon also makes their reps use a different phone every three or four months so that they will have actual experience with the phones. When I go in, they realize I have more knowledge than most and they enjoy talking about phones. I had a rooted Samsung Fascinate and the rep was very interested in why a person of “my age” would do that. LOL
sounds right!! Yet those who enjoy cell phones, and the different operating systems could never work for them!! I would love to sell cell phones, if the money is right! However its looked at as a used car salesman!! Its sad!!! I was at att one time and in a small group the guy was bragging on how he got this older lady pay for extra services she will need! Really ticked me off!
Crazy thing is its not just phones. I had to as a customer help a Best Buy rep sell a Galaxy tab 10.1 to a customer over an iPad. I just simply told the buyer that they would be paying a lot more for the apple product when they could get matching performance in the Galaxy tab.
The purposely ignorant get what they ask for, trash.
I learned a long time ago not to listen to sales reps anywhere. They never know anything about the products they sell, and just want you to buy something. Since I started buy things for myself, especially big ticket items (musical equipment, tech, etc.), I research it myself, decide what I want, then just go buy it. Plus, people bother me.
I work at an Authorized Retailer and ACTUALLY TAKE the time to learn my phones..But I occasionally go into the corporate stores disguised as a customer just to see how dumb I can make the reps look xD
C’mon. Lets not generalize about the Phone nerds at the phone purchase centers. There is always a variety. There are some very well informed people (phone nerds) working there. There are also good sale speople who are able to read a customer and make them feel that what ever they choose is the right choice. There are those who have definite brand preferences, some based on real points, and some based on bias, and of course there are some who are clueless about the products and sales/customer service.
Here’s an example of an excellent salesman who knew his product: At one one of my visits to Verizon I heard the rep describing in detail the specs, pros and cons of a variety of Phone models. I listened in for quite a while, and can say he was truly knowledgeable about the products, AND customer service. Then the customer said, the obligatory “so what about the iPhone?” To which he replied, “those are nice too, but really, the iPhone is the smartphone for dummies.” It was brilliant, in his conversation, he had built up the customer’s “smartness” then showed him how several of these “high end smartphones” were just right for him. He then associated the iPhone with “dummies”, and it was interesting to watch how suddenly the customer only had a lackluster interest it. He walked out with an Android phone.
It’s always like this… I get very disappointed when I speak with customer service for any carrier I have ventured to explore. Most are uninformed and happy to stay that way. If only we could reward people for being knowledgable in their field…OH YEAH!! We can, refuse to spend money with those who are not looking out for our best mobile interests. This has little to do with the employees. The carriers should refuse to hire uninformed out-for-blood salesmen/women with no qualifications other than retail sales experience. Buying used phones is the way to go. If you must have the latest and greatest, keep up to date on your phones so the capital is there for you to resell and buy new online (not in contract!)
It’s really quite sad when I can tell the employee more about the phones in their inventory than they have knowledge of. I can tell them when a device came out, or will come out, the specs and OS version on a given device, and I can even say which has a better camera, etc. while they are trying to impress me with “oh well this is the Motorola Droid Razr, it looks pretty”. Um, yeah thanks for that bit of info there…
See I personally love the in store cell phone reps that they have. Because the more angry or illinformed customers the more people that come in to and support Best Buy Mobile. Now don’t get me wrong I am slightly biased in this case but regardless the facts speak for themselves. Why would you go to a carrier’s store where all they want is your money and want to upsale you to an iPhone instead of helping you find whats’s best for you. Since us best buy employees dont make commission we look at it as well if your just looking we can help you browse and say you want to buy tomorrow even though I may not work tomorrow I can still assist you because regardless as long as the department makes the sell then essentially I make the sell to.
LONG LIVE BEST BUY
When I was at Tmo, there was one service rep who actually knew about phones. He knew my G2 was rooted. =.3
But he ain’t care. He had his phone rooted too. And he had employee discount? A mofo was jealous. LoL!!
Let me stop before I get off topic and start ranting.
I have personally been approached by a VZW employee while i was standing at the DROID booth, and he wanted me to take a look at the iPhone 4S. I looked at his hip, he was sporting an HTC Android phone. So i asked him why he was trying to make me buy an iPhone, and he stated his manager told all sales rep’s to push iPhone sales.
not all of us that work at bby mobile lack knowledge ;-) for the time i’ve worked at bby mobile, i’ve only heard employees question wp7 purchases (I have high hopes for wp8). it seems silly for employees to dis android when 3/4 of the store is android haha.
After going through the GS3 preorder clusterfu*k, that AT&T employee’s know just as much and in most cases less than I do about the product they sell is no longer a revelation to me. Best Buy employee’s are even worse, but thanks to their incompetency in the aforementioned GS3 preorder ordeal I was able to get my GS3 from them free of charge ;) Thanks Best Buy!
Rage. I only will rage if those representatives cheated me into buying some think I don’t want/need.
But my happiness doesn’t depend on Android beating Apple, so I really don’t care. Competition is and always will be good.
I preffer a world with 2 (or 3) giant platforms. That way they will keep fighting to be the best. Once one wins everything goes down hill…
*Insert 20 min nerd rage over the ignorance of salesmen here*
seems like they sell based on their personal preference. not actually comparing the functionality and letting the customer decide.