Verizon Store gives a hard time when trying to buy a Droid DNA

Aug 3, 2012
210
0
0
Visit site
ACTUALLY Verizon and any other company have the right to refuse service to anyone they chose if they feel your motives are less than sincere

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Android Central Forums

How would they know what he was doing? Exactly they didn't. They had no "sincere" reason to treat a customer (who is willing to spend hard earned money on their product) like that.

Sent from my S3 from AT&T
 

mtmjr90

Well-known member
Apr 17, 2010
264
34
0
Visit site
How would they know what he was doing? Exactly they didn't. They had no "sincere" reason to treat a customer (who is willing to spend hard earned money on their product) like that.

Exactly. Not only that, even if I clearly admitted to wanting to use it on another network, it's still in both Verizon's as well as that particular store's best interest to sell it to me. Instead, I now have a strong negative opinion of Verizon as a whole (which I did not have before). As the guy who pretty much everyone in my family as well as most of my friends ask for phone advice, that's not ideal. Yes, in the grand scheme of things, I'm insignificant, but it's still poor customer relations. Not only that, if for any reason I do end up using Verizon in the future, you better believe I will not be going to that store.
 

jreed2560

Well-known member
Jul 12, 2010
84
0
0
Visit site
Exactly. Not only that, even if I clearly admitted to wanting to use it on another network, it's still in both Verizon's as well as that particular store's best interest to sell it to me. Instead, I now have a strong negative opinion of Verizon as a whole (which I did not have before). As the guy who pretty much everyone in my family as well as most of my friends ask for phone advice, that's not ideal. Yes, in the grand scheme of things, I'm insignificant, but it's still poor customer relations. Not only that, if for any reason I do end up using Verizon in the future, you better believe I will not be going to that store.

But you are not their customer and they would rather sell the phone to someone who is going to use it on their network. You can argue and get huffy all you want. And obviously if you're the "phone guy" and you're not using Verizon, its not likely that you've sent any business their way to begin with. Again they are under no obligation to sell you anything. You don't have to like it, but it is their right. I work for Verizon indirect and personally I would have sold you the phone. But if you came in there and got pissy and demanded I sell it to you i would tell you to keep steppin

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Android Central Forums
 

mtmjr90

Well-known member
Apr 17, 2010
264
34
0
Visit site
But you are not their customer and they would rather sell the phone to someone who is going to use it on their network. You can argue and get huffy all you want. And obviously if you're the "phone guy" and you're not using Verizon, its not likely that you've sent any business their way to begin with. Again they are under no obligation to sell you anything. You don't have to like it, but it is their right. I work for Verizon indirect and personally I would have sold you the phone. But if you came in there and got pissy and demanded I sell it to you i would tell you to keep steppin

Okay, you've made a good number of assumptions about me... First off, I have used Verizon very recently (bought the GNex on release day) and prior to this incident had no issue considering them in the future. Second, I switched my Dad to Verizon from AT&T a couple years ago. [Actually, my opinion of Verizon had been growing more positive since they started releasing their phones unlocked (iPhone 5, 8X, DNA)...]

Third, I was perfectly amicable when I went in to buy the phone. I was just as pleasant the second time I went in...after all it wasn't the rep's fault that the managers were less than stellar at customer service. It was the treatment I received that soured my attitude toward the very end.

One thing I am not, and never will be, is a carrier apologist. I'm sorry, but one primary function of carrier stores is to sell phones. I went in to buy a phone. I expect to be sold a phone. In no other industry does the customer have to jump through as many unnecessary, consumer-hostile hoops than in mobile telecom and until people start pushing back, nothing changes.
 

sarasotatim

Member
Jan 8, 2013
18
0
0
Visit site
They didn't give me a hard time about the DNA when I bought it last week, but they did really try to push the Note II....I mean HARD lol
After I explained that the bit of difference in size was too much for me personally, they let up.
 

8100User

Well-known member
Nov 30, 2012
166
0
0
Visit site
The problem, as I see it, is the entire way cellular is marketed, and sold, in the United States.

In Europe, you choose your carrier separately from your cell phone. (From what I've heard)

This business of cellular companies doing the marketing of phones, and subsidizing them, is garbage! We end up with cell phones that are subsidized when we sign a two year agreement, but they typically have a one year life span (if you want to have the latest and greatest!) Believe me, we're PAYING the entire cost of the phone, we're just doing it over two years. If Verizon, or ATT DIDN'T have to subsidize phones, the monthly service costs would be much lower!

Imagine if you had to purchase a television set that worked with DirecTV, and if you moved your cable to another service, you'd have to change televisions!
 

mtmjr90

Well-known member
Apr 17, 2010
264
34
0
Visit site
The problem, as I see it, is the entire way cellular is marketed, and sold, in the United States.

In Europe, you choose your carrier separately from your cell phone. (From what I've heard)

This business of cellular companies doing the marketing of phones, and subsidizing them, is garbage! We end up with cell phones that are subsidized when we sign a two year agreement, but they typically have a one year life span (if you want to have the latest and greatest!) Believe me, we're PAYING the entire cost of the phone, we're just doing it over two years. If Verizon, or ATT DIDN'T have to subsidize phones, the monthly service costs would be much lower!

Imagine if you had to purchase a television set that worked with DirecTV, and if you moved your cable to another service, you'd have to change televisions!
I get a sense that things are changing (albeit slowly). The growing popularity of contract free, prepaid options like StraightTalk combined with T-Mobile's imminent elimination of subsidies (and thus lower cost monthly plans) I believe are good signs. It should be remembered that with the latter, if the customer doesn't want to pay the full unsubsidized price up-front, they will have to finance it month-to-month over the course of a service contract (bringing monthly bills up to similarly high levels to carriers elsewhere)..so effectively there's not a huge substantive difference. The major change is the pricing transparency.

On the other hand, until we have phones that will work on any US network, our options are limited. As it is, the best you'll get is something like the Droid DNA that works on VZW, AT&T, T-Mo, and all GSM MVNOs...but options like this are few and far between. Props also to T-Mo for refarming their 1900MHz spectrum to operate on 3G, so that unlocked AT&T phones will now get decent speeds on T-Mo (and T-Mo based MVNOs).
 

tech_head

Q&A Team
Aug 25, 2010
783
15
0
Visit site
They want you to sign a contract is you don't have one.
They want you off unlimited, if you have it.
They want to extract the maximum amount of money from you.
The correct way to buy a phone with no service is to buy it claiming that you want to give it as a gift to your relative that is a Verizon customer.
No activation required. No hassles.
 

Ry

Moderator Captain
Trusted Member
Nov 16, 2010
17,656
214
0
Visit site
How would they know what he was doing? Exactly they didn't. They had no "sincere" reason to treat a customer (who is willing to spend hard earned money on their product) like that.

Sent from my S3 from AT&T

That still doesn't change the fact that they have the right to refuse to sell to anyone.
 

PsychDoc

Well-known member
May 28, 2011
1,402
7
38
Visit site
If you go through the activation on VZW.com, the first step is to use Verizon Backup to backup the data from the original phone. Then when the Droid DNA was activated, I assumed it used the Verizon Backup app which is already installed to import the contacts. Pretty painless and my wife was happy with the process...
The problem with Vz' Backup Assistant is that it's always running in the background and uses up both ram and battery power every time it refeshes. I suppose it's fine to get the contacts in there if they weren't already associated with a gmail account but now that she has a gmail account (to access the Play Store, etc.) it would really be a much better idea if she associated all those contacts with her gmail account. No matter what smartphone she eveer moves to on whatever carrier she'll always have all of her contacts as soon as she signs into gmail.
 

mtmjr90

Well-known member
Apr 17, 2010
264
34
0
Visit site
The correct way to buy a phone with no service is to buy it claiming that you want to give it as a gift to your relative that is a Verizon customer.
No activation required. No hassles.

Tried that, they then asked why my relative doesn't just buy it himself. I repeated that it was a gift. They then asked why I don't just go with him to the store to get it when I want to give it to him. I said he lives in another state. They then asked if he was currently a Verizon customer. I said yes. They asked what his number was. At this point, I could tell they didn't believe me and just circled back to, "Look, I want to buy the phone full retail, however you want to make that happen, I don't care. All I want is to walk out of here with that phone in my hand and without a contract." (You can refer to my prior post to see how it all went down...)

That still doesn't change the fact that they have the right to refuse to sell to anyone.

No argument on that point. But this right does not change the fact that it is poor customer service and overall poor business acumen to do so. Spoiling even a potential customer's good opinion can be much more costly than selling this one phone without a contract/service.
 

reeneebob

Banned
Aug 21, 2010
206
9
0
Visit site
Actually the customer has a RIGHT to buy whatever he wants from them. Verizon was in the wrong. So happy I left them

Sent from my S3 from AT&T

No. The customer doesn't have a RIGHT.

This "customer is always right" BS is the worst thing to ever happen to retail. It's simply an excuse for customers to abuse staff to get their own way. The customer is not always right. Period. And you do not have a right to buy something if it's against policy. Period.

Also, there's two sides to this. Everyone is jumping all over the sales rep when for all we know his wife behaved like a toddler. Just saying. I could claim to walk into Verizon tomorrow and be helped by a three headed unicorn. Doesn't make it true.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2
 

reeneebob

Banned
Aug 21, 2010
206
9
0
Visit site
Exactly. Not only that, even if I clearly admitted to wanting to use it on another network, it's still in both Verizon's as well as that particular store's best interest to sell it to me. Instead, I now have a strong negative opinion of Verizon as a whole (which I did not have before). As the guy who pretty much everyone in my family as well as most of my friends ask for phone advice, that's not ideal. Yes, in the grand scheme of things, I'm insignificant, but it's still poor customer relations. Not only that, if for any reason I do end up using Verizon in the future, you better believe I will not be going to that store.

Really? It's in the best interest of the store to sell a phone outright, let it walk out and be activated on another network?

If it was the last phone there and a Verizon customer walked in and asked for that phone and the store couldn't provide their client with it because some schmo just bought the last one to use with another company, that's in Verizon's best interest?

Ooooookay.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2
 

mtmjr90

Well-known member
Apr 17, 2010
264
34
0
Visit site
No. The customer doesn't have a RIGHT.

This "customer is always right" BS is the worst thing to ever happen to retail. It's simply an excuse for customers to abuse staff to get their own way. The customer is not always right. Period.

Please do provide empirical evidence that this is indeed the case. Because having studied Marketing and having worked in retail, customer service and marketing, you are wrong. On aggregate, the benefits from customer retention far outweigh the small losses from giving the customer small concessions.

And you do not have a right to buy something if it's against policy. Period.

And again I ask, as I did the store manager who refused to sell me the DNA on these grounds, please show me where in Verizon's policy is says that I cannot (or in the OP's case, his wife cannot) buy a phone full retail.
 

mtmjr90

Well-known member
Apr 17, 2010
264
34
0
Visit site
Really? It's in the best interest of the store to sell a phone outright, let it walk out and be activated on another network?

If it was the last phone there and a Verizon customer walked in and asked for that phone and the store couldn't provide their client with it because some schmo just bought the last one to use with another company, that's in Verizon's best interest?

First off, it wasn't their last phone. Not even close. I could understand this argument if it was closer to release day and supplies were constrained.

Second, that's a very short-sighted view on long-term customer value.
 

reeneebob

Banned
Aug 21, 2010
206
9
0
Visit site
And I work daily in customer service in a retail environment and see people abuse staff because 'they are always right'. Guess what. They aren't. And I will not contradict policy because a customer pitched a fit st me to get their way because they think they can get away with it because they are 'always right'.

I studied business administration marketing, and I've worked in customer service for over 20 years. The idea that a customer is 'always right' had been twisted into a weapon by some and given some a false sense of entitlement.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2
 

diesteldorf

Well-known member
Dec 1, 2010
974
17
0
Visit site
Not trying to really take sides or hijack this thread, but I buy quite a bit of stuff online for the convenience and ease of delivery. Of course, I use a lot of public transportation and don't own a car either :) But, are there many advantages to buying a phone at a store anyway?

I can understand if someone is unsure of what to buy, takes a chance to play with the hardware, and wants to go home with a phone all in one trip, but I imagine the OP already had his mind made up.

I always order from the Verizon website because I like the fact that Verizon corporate will stand behind me if there is a problem.

Obviously, online shopping doesn't work if you are buying perishable goods or produce, or have an immediate need, like running out of toilet paper, but, unless it dies or stolen, I would rather just order a phone online and avoid the store experience.

Other than being able to play with the goods or use for tech support if needed, what advantage does the store offer?
 
Last edited:

MrRicks84

Well-known member
Apr 10, 2011
205
0
0
Visit site
Not trying to really take sides or hijack this thread, but I buy quite a bit of stuff online for the convenience and ease of delivery. Of course, I use a lot of public transportation and don't own a car either :) But, are their many advantages to buying a phone at a store anyway?

I can understand if someone is unsure of what to buy, takes a chance to play with the hardware, and wants to go home with a phone all in one trip, but I imagine the OP already had his mind made up.

I always order from the Verizon website because I like the fact that Verizon corporate will stand behind me if there is a problem.

Obviously, online shopping doesn't work if you are buying perishable goods or produce, or have an immediate need, like running out of toilet paper, but, unless it dies or stolen, I would rather just order a phone online and avoid the store experience.

Other than being able to play with the goods or use for tech support if needed, what advantage does the store offer?

This!
Agreed.
 

Trending Posts

Forum statistics

Threads
942,116
Messages
6,912,535
Members
3,158,237
Latest member
Landers2