Verizon Store Visit (Kind of funny)

[shaskell724]

The whole app thing is really getting old. It's well past 200,000 now, and the majority of major apps is on there. Most of the time it's just some of the newest games and niche apps that are missing. I don't think that the app thing will be much of an excuse in about 6 months considering the growth we've seen in the last 6. It's kind of getting hard to ignore this platform, and WP 8.1 is going to make it harder.

Hey.. there might be apps.. but the quality is lacking. The reviews on a lot of apps are not very good. A lot do not work or have issues that are not getting fixed in a timely manner.
I think this is the real problem. MSFT may say that have Spotify or GroupOn... but go look at it. People really dont like them and Spotify doesn't even really work. The last time it was updated was July, 2013......

The quality needs to go up before a real case can be made about the app store, IMO.

 

[admorris#AC]

The whole app thing is really getting old. It's well past 200,000 now, and the majority of major apps is on there. Most of the time it's just some of the newest games and niche apps that are missing. I don't think that the app thing will be much of an excuse in about 6 months considering the growth we've seen in the last 6. It's kind of getting hard to ignore this platform, and WP 8.1 is going to make it harder.

Don't take this wrong way, because I like where wp is heading, but people having been saying what you said for the last two years..."the apps are coming...just wait and see". I see people saying the same thing about blackberry, although I do believe wp has a much better app selection than BB.

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[willied]

Hey.. there might be apps.. but the quality is lacking. The reviews on a lot of apps are not very good. A lot do not work or have issues that are not getting fixed in a timely manner.
I think this is the real problem. MSFT may say that have Spotify or GroupOn... but go look at it. People really dont like them and Spotify doesn't even really work. The last time it was updated was July, 2013......

The quality needs to go up before a real case can be made about the app store, IMO.

That is kind of the unseen problem of the app store. We may have plenty of popular apps, but some of the developers are really half-a**ing it.

Hopefully 8.1 brings an updated app store as well. We need a way to rate reviews and sort them, such as only your language, most helpful first, newest, etc. I also like how Apple's app store has separate ratings for overall and just the latest update.

 

[Citizen X]

Customer service in most US stores sucks regardless of industry. But what is going on with Windows Phone is astonishing. For YEARS when you walked into at&t all you saw was big iphone banners and a bunch of iphones at the front of the store. The Windows Phone stuff was in a dingy corner in the back. They finally did quite a bit to rectify that situation and moved the Windows Phones up closer to the entrance. But the absolutely cluelessness of the staff coupled with the bias is astonishing.

My parents went in to at&t to get their first smartphones ever. They were immediately steered towards Andriod. It's a joke. I had to make them return their phones and get 1520s. MSFT is losing all kinds of sales for no good reason.

 

[etad putta]

Customer service in most US stores sucks regardless of industry. But what is going on with Windows Phone is astonishing. For YEARS when you walked into at&t all you saw was big iphone banners and a bunch of iphones at the front of the store. The Windows Phone stuff was in a dingy corner in the back. They finally did quite a bit to rectify that situation and moved the Windows Phones up closer to the entrance. But the absolutely cluelessness of the staff coupled with the bias is astonishing.

My parents went in to at&t to get their first smartphones ever. They were immediately steered towards Andriod. It's a joke. I had to make them return their phones and get 1520s. MSFT is losing all kinds of sales for no good reason.

Maybe they would have been just fine with the phones the sales rep sold them? I assume you paid their restocking fee? Oddly enough we older folk can make decisions on our own.

 

[Premium1]

This isn't anything new. The stores in my area push the iPhones hard, its hilarious to see them guide people to a completely different phone when they come in asking for a phone, yet the salesperson wants to push another device.

 

[Premium1]

Customer service in most US stores sucks regardless of industry. But what is going on with Windows Phone is astonishing. For YEARS when you walked into at&t all you saw was big iphone banners and a bunch of iphones at the front of the store. The Windows Phone stuff was in a dingy corner in the back. They finally did quite a bit to rectify that situation and moved the Windows Phones up closer to the entrance. But the absolutely cluelessness of the staff coupled with the bias is astonishing.

My parents went in to at&t to get their first smartphones ever. They were immediately steered towards Andriod. It's a joke. I had to make them return their phones and get 1520s. MSFT is losing all kinds of sales for no good reason.

If they had no problems why return them? You *Making* them return them seems like *YOU* were the one pushing said device when they were content with the device they purchased. Essentially you are no better than said salesperson.

 

[Acenth]

Went to my local Verizon store today to get more information - The sales rep said 4 or 5 people had already come in asking about the Lumia Icon. Confirmed you can't pre-order (Even in store), they'll have units in stock on the 20th. They said the didn't have any units yet.

She also didn't think they'd have any discounts for accessories like wireless chargers (Like AT&T had).

 

[california86]

Went to a store today; reps said they didn't sell WPs at that location. They asked me why I wanted a WP while staring at me like I had a third eye.

What kind of commission do these guys make on pushing iPhones and Androids? They seem very averse to selling WPs.

 

[Citizen X]

Maybe they would have been just fine with the phones the sales rep sold them?

They weren't.

I assume you paid their restocking fee?

Please stop lying. There was no restocking fee.

Oddly enough we older folk can make decisions on our own.

What's this "we" business? You think you know my parents better than I do? Just because someone's numerical age is in the neighborhood of yours doesn't mean they have the same strengths and interests. My parents are very well educated intelligent people who I get advice from on a whole host of scientific matters, but computer technology just isn't their strong suit. The computer stuff is my domain. I am hands on about it because if anything screws up the at&t salespeople will be worthless as far as helping them and I am the one that will field the panicked tech support calls. I hope that arraignment doesn't offend you.

If they had no problems why return them?

What makes you think they had no problems?

You *Making* them return them seems like *YOU* were the one pushing said device when they were content with the device they purchased.

What is wrong with you people?

Essentially you are no better than said salesperson.

WTF?!

Listen I got them Windows Phones that they absolutely love. I set everything up for them. Email accounts, nice large live tiles, etc. I made detailed instructions for them in case they got into trouble. Oh, and I got a couple of sweet tablets for them through various Microsoft and Nokia deals. For Pops I got the 2520 bundle with the free keyboard and $200 off. I stood in line and got my mom the $99 Dell Venue 8 Pro. I got memory cards for everything.

My parent's are stoked. They saved hundreds of dollars and got better hardware than the Andriod crap at&t were pushing on them. And they love the live tiles. The Windows Phone interface is so simple and straight forward they find their way around very easily. They text, email, check Whatsapp, check the weather, etc. It's just so easy for them to do.

Look fellas my folks don't hang out on XDA looking for ROMs to flash. They use a phone to communicate easily, and Windows Phone excels at that. No lags. No freezes. No rebooting.

 

[freestaterocker]

I visualized this whole thing in a Comic strip out of the newspaper. lol. I don't know why.

I totally did the same thing! Lol

 

[ret18057]

FWIW, I stopped by a local store and asked if they had Icon dummy units (I wanted to see the size vs an S4 and a Note 3). The first guy stared at me like I had a nipple on my forehead, but another one came up, knew exactly what I was talking about, brought out two demo units (white and black), and said they had some in the back they could start selling Thursday.

I am going to make the jump from an S4, and the spouse just bought a Note 3 after an ATT 1520 failed due to coverage. The size was right between the S4 and N3, and it looked and felt good. Glance support asides (ugh, see that mess of a thread), I am hopeful to make the leap, and I think she is going to as well (she liked the OS, just not the coverage).

Thanks

 

[etad putta]

I tried to find similar stories of people being steered in the wrong direction on our sister forums (imore and android central). It would seem they are a little less insecure with their purchases.

 

[lcw731]

You realize your coverage isn't determined by your OS right? As a matter of fact the two aren't related at all. You weren't swayed by the sales rep because you didn't know what you wanted in the first place. The point of this thread as far as I can tell is when people know what what they want and sales reps will go out of their way to direct them into and iPhone is google spybot phone.

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[Mister_Burris]

Fortunately we have a Microsoft store in Indy but when I went in to the store, the employees weren't going to be trained on it until the next day so I knew just as much as they did about it. The employee ended up going to the back and letting me look her training pamphlet of what they need to know and should be able to communicate to customers. There was some good information in there especially for me since i am switching from the iPhone 5 and don't have any previous WP experience although I do have a Surface RT so I do understand the interface.

 

[Usman Mubashir]

So my friend had to buy a new phone, but unfortunately he could not even afford a Lumia 520. We found a Lumia 800 for an impressive $140 (the device had a sensor problem) Now my friend got busy in the looks of the phone and,
SP: you know you could get an awesome Android for the same price.
ME: Yes but we don't want an Android.
SP: This one has 1 Gig of Ram and a dual core.
ME: This one lags.
SP: Have you tried this? It has no complains.
ME: No, but it runs Android.
SP You know Windows Phone is not gonna survive.
ME: You know, Android is fast becoming the Symbian of today. And it was guys like you who said no one can answer to Nokia when I told you about Android.


My friend rocks a matte black Lumia 800 now, its super fast and oh so gorgeous. Only he has to press the whole screen down to disconnect a coll

 

[Citizen X]

I tried to find similar stories of people being steered in the wrong direction on our sister forums (imore and android central). It would seem they are a little less insecure with their purchases.

That is a very bizarre comment. Why would posters on those forums have any complaints? When they walk into at&t there is always a pretty good chance they will have someone who will be available to tell them about a phone they like. Strange choice to insult people on this forum vs hanging out with iphone and andriod users you admire.

No one in this thread cares what phone some stranger likes or uses. If someone makes an informed decision and is happy with an iphone or Andriod phone good for them. What we take issue with is a lot of consumers can't even make an informed decision because the staff at these stores never tell them about Windows Phone or even worse actively steer them away from Windows Phone apparently 100% of the time. Trust me my friend if at&t was steering people that inquire about iphones towards Andriod or Windows Phone 100% of the time the internet would explode with people being "insecure" as you put it.

Tons of ink is spilled on why Windows Phone hasn't done as well as it should. On this very forum there are tons of people saying it would be so much more successful if the 1520 had Qi built in. It would be so much more successful if the 32 GB 1520 was available at launch. For heaven sake when the 32 GB variant was finally made available the new complaint was the phone had a nano sim! Well the iphone doesn't have Qi. It has a nano SIM. Most of the iphones you see around are less than 32 GB. So what's the difference? Well one huge difference is the iphone is pushed to everyone that walks in the door at at&t and people are actively discouraged from getting Windows Phone.

I was accused of being an at&t shill when I shrugged off the gimping of the 1520. But I simply can't buy into the thesis that the1520 isn't going to be one of the top selling phones because it lacks Qi or a red 32 GB variant. Yes those features do matter to some people but people like my parents don't care about any of that. What made the difference for them is a complete lack of Windows Phone sales effort by retail sales people. Luckily they had me around to get them up to speed on Windows Phone.

 

[dkediger]

Why would posters on those forums have any complaints? When they walk into at&t there is always a pretty good chance they will have someone who will be available to tell them about a phone they like.

Customer validation/empathizing is a rudimentary sales tool. The real question is why it seems less prevalent when WP is involved. Product knowledge/experience? Incentivization? Peer pressure?

 

[Markham Ranja]

Customer validation/empathizing is a rudimentary sales tool. The real question is why it seems less prevalent when WP is involved. Product knowledge/experience? Incentivization? Peer pressure?

From anecdotal evidence, return rates. A lot of people, in my experience, buy a WP8 handset because a) it looks cool and/or b) it's a Nokia. The latter is especially true in developing markets.

Then they find that [INSERT APP HERE] is not available and return the device. Or it can't do something essential, like manage email attachments properly or work with certain types of Wifi networks. Eight people on my Facebook friends list were waiting for the Moto G to launch in India so they could get rid of their WP handsets and they have done so recently. If the retailer or whatever channel you postulate, sees high return rates for a certain product, it is beneficial for them to push other products which do not have such a high return rate. Statistics.

 

[california86]

Customer validation/empathizing is a rudimentary sales tool. The real question is why it seems less prevalent when WP is involved. Product knowledge/experience? Incentivization? Peer pressure?

I spoke with VZ Customer Service on the phone with a woman who was quite helpful (surprisingly good customer service), and among other things, I asked her if there's any incentive for the sales people at the stores to push iPhone/Android and why they look at me like I have a third eye when asking about WPs. She stated there's no greater incentive in selling iPhones/Androids over Windows Phones other than they just sell more iPhones/Androids so they may be more in their comfort zones selling iPhones/Androids.