I can't believe this happened

[Fire923]

I went into one of my local Verizon stores to buy a TB. Talked with the salesman and he got my account information and got the phone out and some other accesseries I wasn't going to buy. After he pulled up my account he told me that I got a upgrade and my phone will only be $149. I then told him that it should go on and change the price to $99.99 for another discount on top of that. He looked at me puzzled and I told him I checked online and my price should be $99.99. He go get a manager and they tell me that I was wrong. I then go over to a Ipad and log in to my verizon account and showed him what it said there. He said that they couldn't do that price and I said "see ya", I'll go home and get the phone online for the price it showed if you wouldn't match it. They didn't match and I walked out the store without the TB and will be getting it online.

As a customer and even a former salesman for another business, I've never seen someone let a good customer walk and not get the sale. I guess they thought I would say "ok", I'll buy yours for the higher price and not get the one from your online store.

Waiting for my TB to arrive soon.

 

[spazma7ik]

It's a well known fact that the online stores yield better discounts (eg instant rebates) compared to the actual stores.

 

[aBoldPatriotsFan]

Wow sucks to hear that. I had to pay retail for mine but i absolutely love it. I am however not on the 4G network so i dont get the full experience. I do have to say that coming from a BB,it is a world of a difference.

I have heard and experienced the complete opposite from my ONE local VZW store. I have either had reps on the 611 agree and notate my account or raise hell in a store. Well not too much hell since i do have 5 lines and have been with them since i have been 18. 5 years next month.

You will enjoy it though!

 

[Fire923]

Wow sucks to hear that. I do have to say that coming from a BB,it is a world of a difference.

I have heard and experienced the complete opposite from my ONE local VZW store. I have either had reps on the 611 agree and notate my account or raise hell in a store. Well not too much hell since i do have 5 lines and have been with them since i have been 18. 5 years next month.

You will enjoy it though!

Thats the thing that is so surprising, I have 4 lines with them and have been with them since way back in the GTE days and the old bag phones. The customer serive in the stores use to be so great, this would never happen in the past.

 

[ChuckG73]

I had the same experience at a VZW store. I even showed them the online site and price of the TB in my online cart and they said they would not be able to match that price......WTF. So I ordered it online. I know someone could make it make sense, it just does not make sense to me. Otterbox is mostly an online reseller, but if you buy it in a VZW store it still cost the same price..

 

[Komodod]

It cost a lot more for the physical people to draw a paycheck and keep the lights on at the stores. Online is cheaper on most anything and often brings with perks like no tax and free shipping. This is a common fact in the modern online economy. Sorry you had to find this out this way.

 

[bjboucher]

A lot of companies don't match their on-line prices. Like people have said, gotta pay the bills. I do find it kind of odd though since its all one company.

 

[vandouche]

Same here Online was $50 cheaper than in-store. From what I understand Verizon does not compete with itself. That's probably a good portion of the commission the employee or store would get if they were able to sell to a customer. There's nothing they can do about it unless they cut their own commission.

 

[tropper]

They dont honor online prices, I was gonna get the Incedible for the fiancee when I got my Tbolt, online said free with 2yr activation in store was 199. So we ordered it online, there goes his commision.

 

[ReuvenNY]

Verizon is notorious of these kind of practices.
I went to an AT&T store to get 2 HTC Inspire 4G's at $100 a piece. When the store manager saw me hesitating, he said "It's the last day of the month, we want to drum up some business, I'll give you 2 for $50 each" - a total of $100. He got the deal and so did I.
I don't really like AT&T but I like their practices...

 

[htowngator]

Verizon stores said that the price I would get online through my corporate profile wasn't what they could give me in store so I bought online. Came to find out that they were wrong entirely and the store would have rang up the price at the same value as the online sale.

Sometimes these guys don't know their butt from a hole in the ground, but it is what it is.

 

[vandouche]

Contrary, I think they do know what they're doing. If they give you the online price, perhaps they don't get a cut of that commission. Thereby they'll be working for free, why not just send you home and let you do it yourself and they move onto another computer illiterate customer.

 

[EvolutionGSR]

You know what yoi should have done was use their ipad in front of them and placed the order in the store hahahaha.

 

[tropper]

Contrary, I think they do know what they're doing. If they give you the online price, perhaps they don't get a cut of that commission. Thereby they'll be working for free, why not just send you home and let you do it yourself and they move onto another computer illiterate customer.

Exactly, why do it for free.

You know what yoi should have done was use their ipad in front of them and placed the order in the store hahahaha.

Lol that woulda been hilarious! [stunned idiots face "boss can they do that", boss "IDK"]

 

[Malefickus]

I've never had any problem purchasing anything for a cheaper price in the store. I guess the stores that I visit know that I'll just go give my business to someone else if they don't want to make the deal with me.

Example, when I started my service, the phone I purchased was supposed to have a mail in rebate. I was hesitant, since I am a truck driver and really don't want that sitting in my mailbox while I'm gone. They picked up on this, and sold me the phone with the rebate instant instead.

 

[Fire923]

Same here Online was $50 cheaper than in-store. From what I understand Verizon does not compete with itself. That's probably a good portion of the commission the employee or store would get if they were able to sell to a customer. There's nothing they can do about it unless they cut their own commission.

Usually there is still a flat fee that someone gets when they make a sale no matter what. That's why they tty to sell you all those accessaries to get more commission.

You know what yoi should have done was use their ipad in front of them and placed the order in the store hahahaha.

That would have been a awesome move, hate I didn't think of it then.
I had a person online helping me when I made my order this morning.

 

[AubreyPage]

I have had it work both ways with Verizon. Two years ago, I got a letter in with my bill offering me $150 off. I took that letter to the store and they honored it instantly (I would not have expected anything less) and they told me that that offer was better than any they had seen.

This time when I bought the T'bolt, I checked on line for what my offer was and then decided to save myself a trip to the store and called. Believe it or not, the phone sales person did not believe me about the online offer and would not give me that price at first. I offered to do a screen capture and send it to them. After consultation with a supervisor, they did honor it. I was just about ready to go to the store with the printout. I am sure they would have honored it as it does not say online purchase only or anything like that. I have bever had a bad experience at our local company store. I had buyer's remorse after buying over the phone thinking that if I ever had an issue and had to exchange my phone, that I would have to send it back. But in fact I did have issues, went to the store and they were very helpful despite the fact that I went in with the Fedex box in hand. Later I did need to excahange the phone and they did so at the store without question. I handed my phone to them in the Fedex box. My second T'bolt works fine.

 

[Fire923]

I guess they just are giving better prices online than in the store. I got a extended warranty for $1.99 and the store employee didn't go below $6.99. I usually don't buy those things but since I got a discount on my data plan I decided to purchase the extended warranty. It doesn't cost me more than what I was paying for BB data plan combined.

 

[jakej914]

I had the same experience at a VZW store. I even showed them the online site and price of the TB in my online cart and they said they would not be able to match that price......WTF. So I ordered it online. I know someone could make it make sense, it just does not make sense to me. Otterbox is mostly an online reseller, but if you buy it in a VZW store it still cost the same price..

Verizon, a lot like other retailers such as Walmart, uses a third party for their online sales. I too tried to get the retail store to match my price online, but they would not. (And I then proceeded to order my TB online.)

 

[WasatchRocks]

I went into one of my local Verizon stores to buy a TB. Talked with the salesman and he got my account information and got the phone out and some other accesseries I wasn't going to buy. After he pulled up my account he told me that I got a upgrade and my phone will only be $149. I then told him that it should go on and change the price to $99.99 for another discount on top of that. He looked at me puzzled and I told him I checked online and my price should be $99.99. He go get a manager and they tell me that I was wrong. I then go over to a Ipad and log in to my verizon account and showed him what it said there. He said that they couldn't do that price and I said "see ya", I'll go home and get the phone online for the price it showed if you wouldn't match it. They didn't match and I walked out the store without the TB and will be getting it online.

As a customer and even a former salesman for another business, I've never seen someone let a good customer walk and not get the sale. I guess they thought I would say "ok", I'll buy yours for the higher price and not get the one from your online store.

Waiting for my TB to arrive soon.

The same exact thing happened to me the day of release. I printed out the online price of $99 just in case the store was going to charge $149.

Interestingly enough, while checking out, a different sales rep helping someone else stated there was a "special" code that needed to be entered by the sales rep completing my transaction. And, that she had see a few of the Tbolts go out the door for $99 that morning (by lunchtime, over 60 Tbolts had been sold).

When I asked about matching the online price of $99, the sales rep couldn't figure how to enter the respective code and then had to get his manager. They talked for a bit, and then the manager approached me and simply stated, we can't enter the code here at the store. I will have the sales rep note in your account the online price. And, he then asked me to cal VZW customer service, after the purchase at $149, and to have customer service give me a $50 credit against my first bill.

Both the manager and the sales rep were very nice but for some reason, they simply couldn't enter the code in at the store level.

4 days later, I called and without any hesitation, VZW customer service credited my account $50.

For me, I simply couldn't get to where the Tbolt was in my hands and leave without the Tbolt . And, with my 10+ years with VZW, I new they would follow through with the credit.

As an FYI, the online price said nothing of an online discount. It was in relation to either a corporate discount code or some other type of discount code.