I went to pick up my 928 yesterday and the reps were really enthusiastic about it. The one rep had one on order, getting rid of his note. They were excited about its features. Just thought I'd let everyone know good news instead of bad!
I've been monitoring Verizon's website every day since the 928 launched. The homepage cycles between 5 featured phones, one of them was the 928 until today: now the 5 rotating phones are pretty much just Android devices.
I had a similar experience the other day in a Verizon store. I came in and said I wanted to look at the Lumia 928. The rep didn't even know where the display was. I found it before she did. Then, she knew nothing about the phone and told me how great her Galaxy Note was and that I should come back the next day because the Galaxy S4 was launching. Pathetic, really.Hate to rain on the parade, but the official Verizon reseller didn't even know what a "Luma" was, even though they had black ones in stock. Drove to the nearest official store and the sales lady immediately questioned my decision and tried to sell me an Android phone. She was very nice about it and backed off as soon as she realized I knew what I wanted, but it was still a bit of a bummer.
Well, if you had been looking more often, you would have seen that same thing happening at least three times already. It goes away and withing few hours to 24h it comes back.
it's back now...
The problem with Windows Phone 8 is not the lack of knowledge for the product by Verizon ( Authorized Retailers are on there own as far as researching phones unless there rep stops by which is about once every 2 weeks) as every rep has to do trainings on new higher end devices but that there is little to no accessory support for the phone at all. Reps are driven to sell as much accessories with the phone to add to there commission bottom line and when you look at the offerings for accessories that Verizon carries for the 928 its Two silicone cases, The Nokia Wireless Charger, and thats it.
Take away BlueTooth options or other fringe accessories and you will see why reps don't show it.
Where as the Galaxy S4 has a huge presence in store. More opportunity to sell a nice case with a S4 (The Smart Flip Cover is $59.99 while the silicone is $19.99)
Some reps sell with there heart, but most sell with there wallet in mind. I do the same sometimes even though I love my 928. I wish the 928 had the same love the 920 got accessory wise.
That's an interesting point that I hadn't thought of before. Today I went to the Verizon store and, while waiting 30 minutes for a rep to help me, I was observing a couple playing with the Lumia 928. They also waited 30 or so minutes for a rep to help them and were passing time playing with the device. Finally the rep comes over and this is how the conversation went down:
Rep: "So, your husband said you want to buy this Windows Phone...."
Woman: "Yep."
Rep: "Umm, have you played around with it?"
Woman: "Yes...for the past 30 minutes".
Rep: "And you liked the operating system? What we're hearing is that a lot of people hate it."
Woman: "The live tiles? I like them. I was doing some research online and they seem really cool."
Rep: "Oh, okay. Great, great. I guess a lot of people either love it or hate it. Anyway, yeah, this [Lumia 928] phone has a pretty good camera. Eight-point something megapixels. Although, if you are after a great camera, the Galaxy S4 is the way to go. It has 13 megapixels."
Woman: "I see. Well, I had an Android for the past 3 years. I liked it, but I kind of was more intrigued with the Windows Phone."
Rep: "Ah, okay. That's great. And, if you don't like it, you have 14 days to return it, no problem."
I was pretty close to intervening and saying, "Don't listen to him. The Lumia 928 is awesome. You'll love it". But, I kept my mouth shut. I thought maybe one more reason they keep pushing people toward Android is because they don't like getting phones returned and they think people who switch will be uncomfortable and return it right away, which causes problems, I'm sure. But this guy was actively encouraging her to return the phone she hadn't even bought yet.
It's not uncommon and mostly because the Windows 8 Phone has a higher return rate other than the iPhone 4 8gb (People think a 2 yr phone should act like the iPhone 5)
My personal observation is that people like what they know and do not want to learn a new operating system for there phone. Not that any of them are that far apart from each other but W8P has a different way of going about things.
Also, as shallow as it to say, but the lack of Facebook Game support is huge. Candy Crush is a huge game right now. But I've had people interested in the phone but the lack of support still bites it in the bum. The camera is amazing but if you do not take pictures with your phone, I feel android or iOS is a better option right now for general population.
Microsoft just needs to force these app makers hands just like they did w/ YouTube.