cell phone stores beware of fast talking idiots.

allen levine

Member
Messages
12,340
Location
new york city burbs
on the way home Friday evening, I was a bit tired, but my wife and me stopped off at a new ATT store near my home.
My wifes phone was dying slowly, and we had an upgrade due on our plan.
We have an older family plan, grandfathered forever if we want to keep it, and we do.
This was not a corporate store, just an ATT authorized dealer store. Nice looking new store, new.

My experience:
We walked in and were asked by the man in front desk, (maybe 4 desks and one in back in center), do you need help.
We told him we had an upgrade and wanted to know what the new phone would cost.
He hesitated, and said, wait, let me bring you to the boss.

I knew immediately, this is the high pressure type sales situation. Pawn off someone who you think is unsuspecting, a middle aged couple, who knows little of the techie talk, and sell them what makes you the most money, not what they want.
I knew we were in trouble, he was trying to convince us our plan was just old and it was better if we took one of the new family plans he was offering.
My son is very on top of this stuff, so after insisting he speak with my son.(He didn't want too, I just dialed my son and handed the guy my cell), after 30 minutes on the cell, getting no where with my son(I heard the guy tell my son a lie, and my son immediately questioned him and then the guy started making no sense, and I caught it just listening to his end of the conversation)
At that point I wanted to leave, told my wife, but we finally got the guy to just charge us the upgrade price of 199 plus tax.

He made an error, shut off one of our phones on the plan(not sure if it was just a mistake, so I wont rip him for that), but then handed my wife 5 sheets of paper, asked her to sign the creditcard receipt and the top page to show we took the new phone upgrade.

printed on the fourth page, we noticed in small print a whole bunch of expected charges for next month, all different fees, which I thought was nonsense, since weve been with them forever.

We called ATT, told them our experience, they looked over everything, told us we wont be charged any of those fees, also told us for the aggrevation, they would wave the activation fee. ATT handled this so great, they were very concerned about the dealer, and told us they would look into it.

My guess is although he didn't do anything wrong, he is a high pressure salesman that leaves out too many small details.

He insisted wed pay 30 dollars less a month with same plan, but my son told him on ATT website, wed pay 50 dollars more amonth with what he wanted to sell us(my son went to att website to follow this guys run around talk.(and my son was right, wed pay 50 bucks more a month with his plan and it wasn't as good as ours, but Im sure hed collect residuals)
He left out some little issues Im guessing he lies to a lot of unsuspecting customers. Its mumbo jumbo talk to us,and most people don't understand it all, must what the guy explains, but if they lie, you get stuck.
This stuff doesn't happen in corporate stores, so just make sure its a corporate store, as ATT has the best customer service on this planet. We have never had a problem dealing with them, they always do whats best for us and never try to sell us anything we don't need.

it was funny, I walked out of there and said to my wife, what a hustler.
 
I had no idea that those phone stores worked like that.

I suppose it explains why they seem to open so many of them, and staff them up like they do.


Remember MaBell and cheap phone rates, now it's hundreds of dollars per month for walkie talkie service,

and (seems like) half of those in the USA get cell serivce for free under welfare, subsidised by everyone else

who pays double.


It's not like they are using those phones to get jobs or anything.

Maybe they should have a landline put into their free homes, and lower everyone elses cellular bills or taxes.
 
Remember MaBell and cheap phone rates, now it's hundreds of dollars per month for walkie talkie service,

Yeah but on the flip side remember when long distance wasn't included? Man that could add up in a hurry if you had to call anywhere. I remember when I first moved to phx it cost $0.25 per minute to call across town to a classmate that lived maybe 2 miles away because it was in a different bill code (same area code - can't remember the details but it was complicated). On the whole I think its pushing a wash IF you're careful about what you buy.
 
My experience earlier this year at an AT&T-owned store was just about the opposite. We had an ancient grandfathered family plan and wanted to replace my wife's equally-ancient flip phone with an iPhone. The sales guy offered us a different plan that would save us about $30 a month. The new plan has a few changes that won't affect our usage, just our costs. For example, we no longer have unlimited data. We now have a 10 GB monthly limit, but that's not a problem since our monthly data usage has historically never exceeded 2 GB per month.
 
we just got done cutting the cord this time around. the charge for the phone service was $47, and the taxes, fees, charges, surcharges, and other assorted little nibbles came up to another $35!! when i cut off the service, i told them that i may have been born at night, but not last night. now its just the cells for us.
 
My experience earlier this year at an AT&T-owned store was just about the opposite. We had an ancient grandfathered family plan and wanted to replace my wife's equally-ancient flip phone with an iPhone. The sales guy offered us a different plan that would save us about $30 a month. The new plan has a few changes that won't affect our usage, just our costs. For example, we no longer have unlimited data. We now have a 10 GB monthly limit, but that's not a problem since our monthly data usage has historically never exceeded 2 GB per month.



att owned store are usually upfront and honest.

Its the authorized dealer stores that could have a mumbo jumbo salesman convincing you he knows whats best for you.
 
att owned store are usually upfront and honest.

Its the authorized dealer stores that could have a mumbo jumbo salesman convincing you he knows whats best for you.

Yep, agreed. I've seen the same at Verizon stores/dealers. To echo Scott, this is good info for folks to have. :thumb:
 
Our local ATT store has a girl who has been there for years. She is the most unresponsive, disinterested person I have ever seen in a store. Her answers are barely grunts. I have considered switching from Verizon several times but always walk out on her when I make inquiries about service. The local Verizon stores are privately owned. The personell are usually technically very good and helpful but they change frequently. Almost never the same ones week from week. They are judged by sales and if they don't make quota are gone. Signal wise, Verizon is far better than any other providers in my area so I stay with them. I am eligible for an upgrade from 3G to 4G but they try to sell me 5G for "only" $200.00 more. Until my old 3G croaks, I'm sticking with it.
 
A few years back I cut the cord, due to the lack of pay phones. I used them on the road for work. Picked up a prepaid cell phone, with 1000 minutes, had them cut off text and been using it ever since. The amount of phone useage I had at home, I should have had lifeline service, but I didn't qualify (not much use and 50% of the bill was taxes). My cell phone refill cost me $70 this year, $60 the previous two and the first refill was $100 (didn't realize your minutes kept if you refilled to a certain point).

Keep the smart phone censored, I am not paying for internet on a small screen and internet at home.
 
We went Virgin Mobile. $35/mo for unlimited (I am sure there is some limiting factor involved) text and data. You buy the phone, but I figured the payoff was less than a year. Don't be fooled by the "free" or reduced price that big boys (Verizon, ATT, etc) advertise for their phones. You are really paying for the phone with the 2 year contract and high monthly rates. After my first year, I will be saving mucho dinaro compared to the normal 2 year contract deal the big boys are offering.

Been very happy! Virgin Mobile piggybacks on the Sprint system. There are others that do the same thing out there, but I have no experience with them.

You don't get the latest phones, but I have one of the 5S Iphone models which is plenty good enough for me.

Just want to add, we don't use that many "minutes", so the lowest price structure ($35/Mo) works for us. If you like to talk on the phone, obviously it will cost more. We tend to text each other. Besides, I hate talking on the phone.
 
Last edited:
Dan, in the example shown in that video, it's not a cell phone problem, it's a people problem. There is a name for people like that, but the CoC prevents me from typing it here, lol.
 
Well they hate me at the cell phone store. I do as much online research as I can when I am due for an upgrade then I go to the store and test drive the phones I am thinking about. I put up with the banter from the salesman then I go home and go to the company web site and order my phone online. I even save money because I don't pay sales tax.
 
Dan, in the example shown in that video, it's not a cell phone problem, it's a people problem. There is a name for people like that, but the CoC prevents me from typing it here, lol.

My wife is one of the worst offenders possible. The longer she talks on her cell the louder she gets. In restaurants she will even get up and walk around while talking loudly (shouting). That way she can annoy everyone, not just those sitting nearby. Ask me how much I hate that. :pullhair:
 
Love that video Dan. The number of times i have wanted to do that is beyond my recall.
Best ones are inside a hospital where it says no cell phones and everyone is on the phone.


Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
My wife is one of the worst offenders possible. The longer she talks on her cell the louder she gets. In restaurants she will even get up and walk around while talking loudly (shouting). That way she can annoy everyone, not just those sitting nearby. Ask me how much I hate that. :pullhair:

my wife also talks very loud on the cell and I go nuts if she answers it if we are out to dinner, or having a conversation and then she gets tied up forever. I think her and her sister speak more hours on the cell to each other than any two people on this planet. I wonder, what possibly to they have left to talk about.

not going off topic, but my favorite always are the jerks who text and talk on their cells at red lights, and when it turns green, they have no clue, and finally when you tap the horn for them to move, they curse at you.
 
not going off topic, but my favorite always are the jerks who text and talk on their cells at red lights, and when it turns green, they have no clue, and finally when you tap the horn for them to move, they curse at you.

Hah! I can relate! And to top it off, they make it through the light and you don't.
 
Top