Verizon Store Experience

[chinesepiratefood]

When i got my Ativ SE the rep was decent. I was switching from Android to WP and he just asked what prompted the switch. Then he got my phone and that was that.

 

[Alienhead95]

I think it has to be personal interest, otherwise why would they care what the customer wants. It could be commission, no. of phones they sell etc. If it is no. of phones they sell they obviously dont want people returning it.

 

[arbyjr]

First off I'm new to the Windows phone side of the street, so please be kind to me...
I was an Android user before switching to the icon about 5 days ago. I had several Android phones and with each version my hatred for Android grew stronger and stronger. My phone finally upgrade to Kitkat, and after a couple days with that i couldn't deal with it any longer. I went into the local corp store and explained the problems i was having and the growing hatred for Android. The local rep was very nice and she showed me the iPhone's Blackberries and the Windows phone choices. She was very pleasant and explained the up's and downs of all 3, but also tried to steering me away from the Blackberry. Actually she also was telling me that out of all the phones they have the Windows phones have had more satisfied customers. She also compared the icon to the iPhone 5, and strongly suggesting that i should really consider the icon instead. I'm actually glade that she did because I'm very much liking this phone.
I have been with VZW since 1993 (well not truly Verizon, there were a few take overs during that time), but this was one of the most pleasant shopping experience i have ever had.

 

[swervinsuburban]

The rep at my store wasn't rude but he did say he didn't,like WP himself but knew people who liked it a lot so even though he didn't,like it himself he didn't bash it

 

[explosive0]

I walked in a Verizon store last week trying to decide if I wanted to upgrade to the Icon. The rep basically laughed and said they had sold only about 10 of those since release day. I swiftly turned back, bade him Godspeed and left the store.

 

[kc77]

I didn't have the nightmares with sales reps that most people seemed to have. Back when I asked for my 928, the rep said he hadn't used any Windows Phone handsets personally, but had heard great things about the OS and the phones themselves. He also said the app store was supposed to have great 3rd party support for the apps that aren't official and the store was growing every day. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[pursuit2550]

I picked up my icon a couple of days ago at a vzw store. The guy helping me was helpful and all he asked was do I like WP. I told him I go back and forth between different is systems and that 8.1 should be the best os when it comes out. I was tired of having to reboot my g2 and clearing the memory because it would lag. I had the 822, 928 and icon and never any lag .

 

[Starrbuck]

At my local VZW store (Grapevine, TX) the salesman didn't care what phone I chose. He was fine with selling me my new Icon.

 

[anon(8503161)]

I've had very similar experiences OP, as have my 928-toting friends. Verizon has never been the pinnacle of customer service in my eyes at all. For one, I'm still stuck on a mildly defective ICON because they continue to send replacements with defective screens. I've given up for now. As for the obvious ignorance and steering from sales reps, I never had to experience that because I ordered online. The only remark I got was from the manager who himself had an enormous Note 3 (I personally left Sammy because of not being able to flash custom firmware anymore), and when I told him I was a student/developer he shut up quick. My friend, however, bought her 928 in-store and the rep hounded her about not purchasing an iPhone when she came in knowing exactly what she wanted to purchase.

TL;DR Verizon's customer service is great if you're not a WP user.

 

[peacefulberry]

Reading these stories, I'm pretty sure Microsoft should take this into consideration about sales reps not wanting to sell their product. The sales rep to me was great and honest when I was having a
Posted via the WPC App for Android!

If MSFT doesn't know by now, they'll end up in the same boat as BlackBerry! BlackBerry assumed that every business customer would continue to support them for eons, and they kind of forgot to advertise properly and offer the same perks as the other platforms. I think MSFT forgets that salesmen and women are normally younger individuals, so the latest, coolest, most impressive device that's POPULAR is what's going to attract the salesmen /women (most of the time). They market the surface, but I haven't seen much advertising for WP besides from Nokia. The Nokia Lumia commercials are funny and they should continue this after the nokia/msft merger if they want to succeed as a competitive mobile OS. (I hope MSFT doesn't screw up all of nokias efforts that they put into WP!)

 

[grafixguy#AC]

It wouldn't surprise me to see a much bigger marketing effort after 8.1 is officially rolled out and shipping on all new devices.

 

[peacefulberry]

It wouldn't surprise me to see a much bigger marketing effort after 8.1 is officially rolled out and shipping on all new devices.

Hope so.

 

[anon(123856)]

No you're not alone. If I need any WP accessories or have any questions, I go to the local Microsoft Store or come here to WPCentral to get answers. Although, the Verizon guys here don't seem to be quite as inept or apathetic towards Windows Phones; mainly because I think they are happy that they can help a Verizon customer that has some questions. I guess, results may vary depending on where you are and what the local and regional managers are pushing.

Of course, it could just be that I'm in Hawaii and the people here are generally nicer, unless they are driving, then the Aloha ends when they get behind the wheel..especially downtown Honolulu.

I'm with you on going to the Microsoft store. One opened up within a half hour of me and that's pretty much where I'm going from now on. Where I live Verizon sucks less signal wise but going into a store is always painful.

 

[wrm1]

My favorite experience was the associate that told me about the new HTC Windows Phone with the Android Store built in!!! Lol. I refuted her claim and she told me she had just been trained in it that morning. Nothing I could say could convince her she was wrong. Even pointing to the chrome icon in the dummy didn't convince her. She also told me that people don't really like Windows Phone. It's a horrible seller and the ones people buy always get returned. People like her are the reason WP is not catching up. It's not a matter of features or power, it's the mindset of the sales associates in the stores.

 

[bartclan]

I recently upgraded our two Droid phones to NLIs. My wife's Samsung Charge was a piece of junk since we got it three years ago (don't ask why we got it) but I'd been very happy with my HTC Incredible 2 except that the phone's microphone was going south. Both phones were approaching their three-year birthday, so my intention was to replace my bride's phone and I'd spend some more time looking before switching. Next issue was that I needed to keep my unlimited data on both lines--we've also got two feature phones that our daughters carry, and both of these phones had available upgrades. We traveled to the mainland last week, and hitting the Verizon store was priority #1 for me. I had done my research and knew that of the two available latest generation WPs, the Icon was the model I wanted. Not knocking the Samsung, but the Lumia had more positives in its column. So, I walked into the store and met with a salesman who admitted that he didn't know much about WPs, but would try to answer our questions. We played with the phones for a while, and the salesman excuses himself. 20 seconds later, he approaches and he has the local Nokia rep who just happened to be in the store. Nokia rep had WP8.1 on his Icon and demo'ed some of the upcoming changes. Having the Nokia rep sealed the deal for me--I told the salesman that we'll take 2 x NLIs and I can help my wife as she adjusts to the new technology. The salesman also took care to ensure that we kept our unlimited data, too.
After carrying it for a week now, I can say that I'm pretty impressed. It does everything that my Droid did, but the interface is clean. I'm missing a couple of apps (one solitaire game in particular) but nothing that is life changing. Now that I'm back in Hawaii, I may have to visit the MS Store in the mall to see if there is anything more to learn/add/enhance this device.

 

[Jan Tomsic]

Nothing to do with Verizon or even US for that matter, but my experience of buying a phone at Telekom Slovenia was first, I did my research at home, settled for 925 (I couldn't afford the 1020, and I liked it somewhat more than 920), I was decided about WP already, my wife's 720 convinced me with it's performance and smoothness, I went to the store, said 'I want the white 925', I signed the contract, payed and left. No comments about android, WP, iPhone, anything. From all the comments it looks like sales people in Verizon (and many others) really care more about pushing their own personal opinions on buyers then doing their job. Then again, I rarely go to the store to browse, I browse at home on the internet already, or make several trips to stores before actually buying something, sales people mostly can't answer 99% of my questions.

 

[Justinius]

Was just in a Verizon corporate store, I was picking up a wireless charger. A woman was in the store with her elderly parents to get them a new phone. I was looking at the Lumia Icon while waiting to be checked out so I gave her my opinion. I told her my wife and I like it phones but apps can be slow to come out and smaller businesses probably won't support it for awhile. As I was checking out she asked the sales rep for his opinion. He flat out said it was bad and then said it had taken Microsoft years to catch up to where IOS was when it came out. I just about busted out laughing. Unfortunately the old man got an iPhone.

 

[alowisney]

I switched from AT&T and an iPhone 3GS to an Icon five days ago. I called one of their corporate stores and was put on endless hold after asking if they had any Icons in stock. I called the other corporate store in town and was told that they had them and we could come in and pick up our new phones that afternoon (my wife upgraded to an iPhone 5s). The rep was really knowledgeable about Windows Phone and she said that even though the Windows App store doesn't have all of the official apps that some people might be looking for, they have third party apps that are even better. She actually seemed excited about Windows Phone, which was nice.

As far as customer service goes, Verizon has beaten AT&T so far in my experience. We had to call tech support when my wife's iPhone wouldn't make calls after activation and they were friendly and helpful, which is the opposite of what I've dealt with at AT&T.

 

[M L]

I'm on the AT&T side -actually using Net10 on my att branded off contract L920, quite happily I might add. However I'm interested in upgrading to the new 930 when/if it comes out. Since it looks similar to the Icon I thought I'd pop into a Verizon store to check out the Icon. There's only 1 Verizon store in Miami (downtown area anyway, I don't get out to the burbs or malls much) I went in and looked around, no Windows phones on display at all. Salesman asked to help, I mentioned I just wanted to check out the Lumia Icon, he practically laughed saying they didn't have any because Windows Phones just "aren't popular". He then told me that he had seen one and played with it when they first came out, and that it was "really boxy" in a smug condescending tone as his way of talking me out of any interest in it. Not having a good comeback ready I only managed a "yeah, so's the new iPhone" while exiting the store.
The most frustrating part of this experience for me is trying to figure out why Microsoft/Nokia has these exclusives?? If Verizon doesn't want to promote the Icon, why would they want an exclusive? They don't have exclusives with iPhones or Samsung GS4 or whatever. If they don't want it why would they care if ATT or TMo had them?

 

[jazz70]

I had a similar experience at my local VZW store as others have described, the windows phone(s) were stuck back in a far corner where you could hardly see them, no Icons or even 928 units on the floor to look at they only had one HTC 8X that didn't even have power and I asked if they had a Icon I could look at and the salesperson told me they had none or had he even seen one yet

As I was walking around looking at phones the sales associate came up to me and made sure to mention how Windows phones are not user friendly and have a lot of bugs and problems and then he proceeded to tell me how wonderful the new Samsung S5 and Motorola devices were and how great and user friendly androids are

I have given up going to local VZW stores and just do my ordering from the online site so I don't have to deal with the stupidity :straight:

It is amazing to me that Windows phone has gotten any traction at all seeing the way it is presented and portrayed by sales associates in Verizon stores