Pushy Verizon Sales

[melloelky]

it's such bs,i wish i could get rid of my phone but it's become a necessary evil.that and everything that goes along with it.

 

[Onehit]

I'm not permitted to make negative comments due to the Code of Conduct.

..........Mums

 

[Wraith]

I'm not permitted to make negative comments due to the Code of Conduct.
I have AT&T for my cell service.

ATT here too, been with them since 2000, but have had very few run-in's with their customer service monkeys.

 

[joesregalproject]

I've been with Verizon for over 10 years, and prior to that I was on my mother's plan and she has been with Verizon since before it was Verizon, it was still called Bell Atlantic. I would be all for a flip phone, but my phone serves as a phone, a computer and a camera for me. If I got a flip phone, I'd have to buy a camera and a computer. Its unfortunately a necessary evil. I doubt that AT&T, T Mobile, or Sprint would be any better. I think they are all evil, its 6 of one or half dozen of the other.

 

[pagrunt]

Again, I'll quote myself: "TracFone baby!" I'll spend about $40 a month (and it triples my minutes everytime I buy them), don't really care for email/internet on my phone, doesn't track/spy on me, won't lock me in on a user agrement, can drop any them time (even if my service will expire after I will), the phones are way cheaper. I've had the current one for 5 years now. Been with them for about 12 years.

 

[ssn696]

I said, "I told you I didn't want the tablet". Again he gives me his sales speech about how wonderful it is and how I need it, etc, etc. And again I told him I don't want it. Then he says "At what price would you consider buying (the tablet)?" I said "Free, I don't want it." I finally paid for my phone and before I left the same salesman started showing me some other device, I'm not sure what it was, I wasn't paying attention at this as I was so irritated, and he says how it doesn't cost anything for the device, and the service plan for it is very inexpensive. I was beyond pissed at this point and said in a pretty offensive tone "I'm not buying any more sh*t, give it a rest."

That tablet will really run up your data plan. It's like a fuel pump for their monthly profit. Good 'call'.

 

[Opie Knievel]

If anyone here has ever been to a Verizon wireless store, this story may sound familiar.

So my old Motorola Droid finally died last week which meant I was going to have to take a trip to the Verizon store. Personally I'd rather have a root canal than walk into the Verizon Wireless store. So i got to the store, explained that my phone was old, and just stopped working. I wanted to get a newer version of the same phone. So they showed me the Motorola Droids and I picked the cheapest one of the bunch. I sat down while the salesman went back to get my new phone, and 10 minutes later the salesman comes out with my phone and a Samsung Tablet. Before he takes my phone out of the box, he shows me this tablet and tells me how great it is and how I could use it, and how it will make my life better, and how it's on special 70% off retail. I replied "That's nice, but I just want the phone." Salesman said "Ok" and proceeded to set up my phone. Once the phone was set up, and we started talking about data plans, he pulls out a piece of paper and adds up my out the-door-price and my monthly payment. I look carefully at it and notice the monthly payment went up significantly and the out the door price was almost $200 more than the price of the phone. Then I notice he added in the cost of the tablet without telling me. I said, "I told you I didn't want the tablet". Again he gives me his sales speech about how wonderful it is and how I need it, etc, etc. And again I told him I don't want it. Then he says "At what price would you consider buying (the tablet)?" I said "Free, I don't want it." I finally paid for my phone and before I left the same salesman started showing me some other device, I'm not sure what it was, I wasn't paying attention at this as I was so irritated, and he says how it doesn't cost anything for the device, and the service plan for it is very inexpensive. I was beyond pissed at this point and said in a pretty offensive tone "I'm not buying any more sh*t, give it a rest." After which I was finally able to leave.

I considered this sales practice extremely pushy and confusing if not deceptive. If I hadn't been paying close enough attention, they could have easily slipped that tablet in there without me knowing I was paying for it. I understand he is a salesman and he's just doing his job, but this was over the top. I was clearly not interested in what he was selling, and he was relentless in trying to sell me. And when he couldn't sell me on one thing I didn't want, he tried to sell me on something else I didn't want.

I told a few other people this story, some who are Verizon customers who told me similar stories of salesman trying to slip in items they didn't come in the store for, and a couple admitted to falling for it.

I'm not trying to defend the salesman because I agree that what he tried to do was sneaky and underhanded but if he wasn't motivated by trying to make a commission for himself there is another possibility that I can think of that would explain why he was trying so hard to get you to buy the tablet that you didn't want.

My wife recently got promoted to management at a national chain restaurant. It's a corporate setup with a main office that dictates how things are supposed to work in every store. She was telling me about how they just put in some kind of fancy coffee machines at every store. The new corporate orders are that every store has to sell a certain amount of these new coffees. It doesn't matter if you offer every customer who comes in one of these things and they all tell you "no", they're expected to sell a certain amount no matter what. I asked her "What if nobody wants them?" She told me it doesn't matter, corporate expects them to sell that certain amount anyways. I thought that was pretty stupid. You can't make someone buy something that they don't want. If the store doesn't make it's sales quota then they have to have a conference call with headquarters so the ones in charge can tell them how horrible they are at their job. After a few times of not meeting your sales goals there's some sort of "punishment". Common sense would tell you that if people don't want to buy something then that's it, what can you do? She said that her store was the only one in her district that was legitimately making their sales. Some of the managers at other stores were paying for these coffees out of their own pockets just to meet their goals and avoid getting in trouble with corporate.

Maybe Verizon has some of the same kind of ridiculous policies. Either you move X amount of tablets or you get in trouble for not meeting your sales goals. Like I said, I'm not trying to stick up for the salesman. Trying to slide in a $200 purchase under your nose is a dick move and I don't think I would have talked to him nearly as civilly as you did.

These corporations are motivated by greed and common sense has no bearing on their decisions. I can't stand a pushy salesman and a lot of them are just doing what their bosses are telling them to. Maybe if every time we encountered one of these situations we called their corporate "complaint" line and told them we're sick of their pushy sales tactics it would make a difference if enough people complained. Probably not but that's the best idea I've got right now.

Personally, I've had AT&T for about 4 years now and I haven't had too much trouble out of them.

 

[Bonnewagon]

I'm with pagrunt! I love my stupid phone. Ten cents a minute and double minutes for life. But I have Verizon only for the FIOS interweb service. FIOS is great but Verizon sucks big time. Every time the try to raise my rates I threaten to quit them and they make me a deal.

 

[Onehit]

These corporations are motivated by greed and common sense has no bearing on their decisions.

"We make dollars Not sense"