Verizon is definitely biased AGAINST Windows Phone

[TrueMetalGeek]

Today I went to go look at the HTC M8 WP8.1 just to compare it to my Nokia ICON.

So I go to the local retail store here and they had only ONE Windows Phone out on display. The Samsung ATIV.
The Nokia ICON has been removed from existence.
And they only had a M8 Android.

The salesman told me to check out the M8 Android as if it was "the same" phone.
HA!

So I asked for a Verizon location that had one and I drove to it.
They had a M8 WP but it was locked up. Took me a little bit to get it to force restart.
I did find it pretty wacked from people playing with it so no wonder it was locked.
It had dozens of pending app download and installs, etc.

But even there, the salesman at that store could care less about knowing or selling a Windows Phone.

It's as if Google paid them off.

5 years ago all the GOOD phones were Windows phones. Back with Windows Mobile 5, 5.5 and 6.0
No iPhone and no Android.
And when iPhone came out, my Windows Mobile 5.0 (Palm Treo 700wx) ran flash video and Bluetooth headphones with easy registry edits and whatnot.

Shortly after I had Skyfire beta for a good year or more which opened the door to playing streaming videos on most websites.
The only phones capable of doing it for a period.

Then Andoid comes out and Skyfire made apps for iPhone and Android while SHUTTING DOWN the windows server so our app was then useless!

Yes, there was/is a conspiracy.

I do love my Nokia Icon. Wish I could get more choices like a Nokia 1520 or something.

 

[snowmutt]

Sorry, but I have a problem buying into these things. The ONLY carrier I would accept as "bias" against WP is the only one that has shown it through it's lack of support and devices.... Sprint. Otherwise, I would say the bricks and mortar stores may have a lack of interest in WP, but Verizon has shown it wants WP to have a presence in it's line up. I believe the WP7 days were a wash, especially without LTE support like the devices were saddled with. But now? Big Red has had top end devices and nice mid grade ones since WP 8 rolled out. They had a nice advertising campaign for the WP HTC 8X and Lumia 822 (So advanced... they are simple.) They have a nice top end threesome of WP 8.0 devices this year.

Biased? Nah. WP just hasn't had that "breakout" year or device yet that makes the sales personal sit up and take notice. But as a company, Verizon has been okay.

Sure could use some WP 8.1 update love, though. I will accept that.

 

[pmhgeneral]

I'm with you on this one, had the very same experience at my corporate Verizon store, the sales person i spoke to first didn't even know about the htc m8 till she asks another and than had to get it from the back room not on display and wait, this was over one week after release!

 

[oviedofreak82]

It's not just Verizon, it's all the major carriers in the US, even AT&T and they're showed to be "friendly" to Windows Phone. I remember last year when the 1020 came out, I went to look at one and the salesmen near my house looked at me with a stunned demeanor on his face as if I was speaking gibberish. That was enough for me to walk out of the store and look elsewhere.

 

[TrueMetalGeek]

Sorry, but I have a problem buying into these things. The ONLY carrier I would accept as "bias" against WP is the only one that has shown it through it's lack of support and devices.... Sprint. Otherwise, I would say the bricks and mortar stores may have a lack of interest in WP, but Verizon has shown it wants WP to have a presence in it's line up. I believe the WP7 days were a wash, especially without LTE support like the devices were saddled with. But now? Big Red has had top end devices and nice mid grade ones since WP 8 rolled out. They had a nice advertising campaign for the WP HTC 8X and Lumia 822 (So advanced... they are simple.) They have a nice top end threesome of WP 8.0 devices this year.

Biased? Nah. WP just hasn't had that "breakout" year or device yet that makes the sales personal sit up and take notice. But as a company, Verizon has been okay.

Sure could use some WP 8.1 update love, though. I will accept that.

Oh yeah?

For one, where the heck is the Nokia Icon now???

The Windows M8 is the ONLY new one.
And I believe the other three are all OLDER than the Nokia Icon which came out last spring.

The Nokia Icon is not even a year old and Verizon has dropped the ball on the official update.

If I wasn't running Developer Preview, I would still be on WP 8 and wouldn't have Cortana, etc which has been out for most of the year now.

I was originally a Altell customer before Verizon's hostile takeover.

Everything cost more and you get less.

Back in the day the Altell reps actually knew something about the devices.
And there was never any hidden limit or throttling on the data.

Oh, the good ol' days!

The only thing Verizon has is that since they bought out Altell they have the best signal coverage in this part of the country.
Before they bought Altell Verizon SUCKED out here compared to Altell.

 

[TrueMetalGeek]

It would be nice if they made a version of the 6" 1520 for Verizon.

 

[TrueMetalGeek]

It's not just Verizon, it's all the major carriers in the US, even AT&T and they're showed to be "friendly" to Windows Phone. I remember last year when the 1020 came out, I went to look at one and the salesmen near my house looked at me with a stunned demeanor on his face as if I was speaking gibberish. That was enough for me to walk out of the store and look elsewhere.

Yeah I see the 1020 is greyed out now at the ATT website.
They still got the nice 1520 though.

I do like my Icon still though. But having the official WP8.1 with the camera software update would be nice.
Even with Developer Preview I hear that I am missing some features.

 

[TrueMetalGeek]

I'm with you on this one, had the very same experience at my corporate Verizon store, the sales person i spoke to first didn't even know about the htc m8 till she asks another and than had to get it from the back room not on display and wait, this was over one week after release!

Yeah and a few months ago I went into the store to change something on my plan and the icon had been out for months by then.
The salesmen knew NOTHING about the Icon phone.

I was showing the salesmen how well it did Windows Remote Desktop with my home Windows 8 PC and some other features and he was like "Wow, maybe I should start selling some of those" after he admitted that they don't even offer them to customers UNLESS THEY ASK.

 

[blue1k]

I echo this. I'm from Canada and I visited an ATT store looking for a case for my 1520. They looked at me all confused when I asked where their windows phone cases were. Thank God I have Amazon.

 

[metalchick719]

Weird, I went into a Verizon store in the mall near me a few months ago and saw the Icon (both the black AND white) and the Samsung ATIV SE on display. I even got to play with the black Icon for a bit. I'm on T-Mobile but was curious to see the Icon in persona. The sales rep didn't give me a hard time or even look at me funny when I asked him where the Windows Phones were. Quite the opposite, actually.

 

[snowmutt]

Again, I understand the annoyance. Truly I do. But by your own screen shot TrueMetalGeek, I dare you to find another carrier with that many WP options. Sure, it hurts that the Icon flopped. It was easily the best overall device missing only Glance to be a top end device. But AT&T doesn't have as many options, T-Mobile hasn't had a top end WP since the dinosaurs died, and Sprint? Come on now. Not even worth the type to list the painful WP history up to now.

Brick and Mortar stores are unique experiences. They will stock what sells. I won't argue most Verizon stores don't stock WP . In my Burb, we have 4 Verizon stores and only 1 AT&T. There is only one that has WP on display. In Champaign, the 2 major Verizon stores have entire displays for WP. Both of them have every WP fired up and running. But, that is my experience. I do not doubt others have worse. Big Red's support of the 8.1 update is pathetic. But just cruise over to Android Central and let me know how their forums feel about Verizon's support of ANY update is. AT&T dusts Verizon in this area, and they are bad.

I am sorry you have had a bad experience, but Verizon has had 3 quad-core, top-end WP's this year. AT&T one. T-Mo and Sprint zero. I feel comfortable with Verizon as a carrier will continue to have WP options. And blow chunks in supporting them.

Again, I feel bad you have that amazing Phone and no support. I am sorry Verizon has the amazing M8 and no working units to compare to your Icon. Not any fun, and new devices are the fun part.

 

[jmshub]

I am an at&t customer. I have seen both sides from sales staff in the store. When I bought my 920, it was launch day in the US, and all of the sales staff at my store were wearing Windows Phone t-shirts, and the guy that sold me my phone seemed excited by it, and said he was looking forward to getting one of his own. A few months later, when my wife was ready to upgrade, we went into a different at&t store, and the lady there was kind of a jerk about it. When my wife said she was looking for a Lumia 920, the lady asked her why she wanted one of those, and walked her over to the display of the then recently released Galaxy S4 on display.

 

[pedmar007]

I am an at&t customer. I have seen both sides from sales staff in the store. When I bought my 920, it was launch day in the US, and all of the sales staff at my store were wearing Windows Phone t-shirts, and the guy that sold me my phone seemed excited by it, and said he was looking forward to getting one of his own. A few months later, when my wife was ready to upgrade, we went into a different at&t store, and the lady there was kind of a jerk about it. When my wife said she was looking for a Lumia 920, the lady asked her why she wanted one of those, and walked her over to the display of the then recently released Galaxy S4 on display.

Your wife should have gone to the store manager and ask if they're in the habit of hiring non-English speaking and educated staff as the lady who helped you could not understand one word of English you were speaking.

 

[aximtreo]

Again, I understand the annoyance. Truly I do. But by your own screen shot TrueMetalGeek, I dare you to find another carrier with that many WP options. Sure, it hurts that the Icon flopped. It was easily the best overall device missing only Glance to be a top end device. But AT&T doesn't have as many options, T-Mobile hasn't had a top end WP since the dinosaurs died, and Sprint? Come on now. Not even worth the type to list the painful WP history up to now.

Brick and Mortar stores are unique experiences. They will stock what sells. I won't argue most Verizon stores don't stock WP . In my Burb, we have 4 Verizon stores and only 1 AT&T. There is only one that has WP on display. In Champaign, the 2 major Verizon stores have entire displays for WP. Both of them have every WP fired up and running. But, that is my experience. I do not doubt others have worse. Big Red's support of the 8.1 update is pathetic. But just cruise over to Android Central and let me know how their forums feel about Verizon's support of ANY update is. AT&T dusts Verizon in this area, and they are bad.

I am sorry you have had a bad experience, but Verizon has had 3 quad-core, top-end WP's this year. AT&T one. T-Mo and Sprint zero. I feel comfortable with Verizon as a carrier will continue to have WP options. And blow chunks in supporting them.

Again, I feel bad you have that amazing Phone and no support. I am sorry Verizon has the amazing M8 and no working units to compare to your Icon. Not any fun, and new devices are the fun part.

Your statement from above.
They will stock what sells.

Don't you think the opposite is true as well?
They will sell what they have in stock.

Novel idea to merchandise a product to sell it. I guess you don't go to Costco, Sam's Club, Target and other major retailers and see what and how they merchandise their stock. Put it in front of the customer and it has a chance to sell. Out of sight is out of mind,

 

[TrueMetalGeek]

I am an at&t customer. I have seen both sides from sales staff in the store. When I bought my 920, it was launch day in the US, and all of the sales staff at my store were wearing Windows Phone t-shirts, and the guy that sold me my phone seemed excited by it, and said he was looking forward to getting one of his own. A few months later, when my wife was ready to upgrade, we went into a different at&t store, and the lady there was kind of a jerk about it. When my wife said she was looking for a Lumia 920, the lady asked her why she wanted one of those, and walked her over to the display of the then recently released Galaxy S4 on display.

Wow. I guess I am just smack in the middle of the WP hating Verizon stores.

This local store is a BUSY store and it only has ONE Windows Phone and it is an ATIV.
How crappy. And the guy telling me to test the Android M8 was so lame.

 

[TrueMetalGeek]

Your statement from above.
They will stock what sells.

Don't you think the opposite is true as well?
They will sell what they have in stock.

Novel idea to merchandise a product to sell it. I guess you don't go to Costco, Sam's Club, Target and other major retailers and see what and how they merchandise their stock. Put it in front of the customer and it has a chance to sell. Out of sight is out of mind,

EXACTLY!

I know guys buy what they might have researched on but women often just buy what is pretty.
Which is why my wife went right to the monster sized Note 3 the last time and didn't even bother looking at the 4.5 to 5" phones after that.
The Note 4 is tempting with the screen specs and all but going back to Android after having WP8 would suck.
I hated going through the menus with the Android based M8 as it was.

My daughter (17) went from the old 822 that was used when I gave it to her to my Samsung S4 which she's now had since I got the Icon.
She is already tired of the S4 and wants another WP

 

[metalchick719]

EXACTLY!

I know guys buy what they might have researched on but women often just buy what is pretty.
Which is why my wife went right to the monster sized Note 3 the last time and didn't even bother looking at the 4.5 to 5" phones after that.
The Note 4 is tempting with the screen specs and all but going back to Android after having WP8 would suck.
I hated going through the menus with the Android based M8 as it was.

My daughter (17) went from the old 822 that was used when I gave it to her to my Samsung S4 which she's now had since I got the Icon.
She is already tired of the S4 and wants another WP

As a woman, that's really kind of an insulting and very generalizing comment. I am definitely a tech person, and so is my best friend (also a woman). I always research phones and other gadgets before considering a purchase.

Also, how could anyone find a Samsung "pretty???" I'm totally not wrapping my head around that. Eww...

 

[Ltauhmise]

As a woman, that's really kind of an insulting and very generalizing comment. I am definitely a tech person, and so is my best friend (also a woman). I always research phones and other gadgets before considering a purchase.

Also, how could anyone find a Samsung "pretty???" I'm totally not wrapping my head around that. Eww...

The Samsung Ativ SE is a BEAUTIFUL phone, as is the Ativ S. Have you seen it? That brushed-metal silver look is absolutely gorgeous. And the honeycomb details on the front is fantastic.

 

[metalchick719]

The Samsung Ativ SE is a BEAUTIFUL phone, as is the Ativ S. Have you seen it? That brushed-metal silver look is absolutely gorgeous. And the honeycomb details on the front is fantastic.

Of course I have. It was sitting right there beside the Icon I played with for a few minutes when I went into a Verizon store to check it out last year. Meh... I have yet to find any Samsung I find remotely nice-looking... The S6 Edge is close, but eh.

 

[wrm1]

I know guys buy what they might have researched on but women often just buy what is pretty.

That's why the HTC Rhyme sold so well. Lol

I worked retail, selling cell phones for many years and I found that no matter the company, sales people will sell what they know, what they get paid for, and what their favorite manufacturer rep tells them to push.