Coming to a Wal-Mart near you: iPhones
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source: MacRumors
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42 Comments
1. (unregistered) posted on 20 Oct 2010, 01:42 0 0
Youd be lucky to get so much as a grunt from a walmart cell phone person. The only time I ever got a phone someone stole mine so I bought a full retail at walmart since it was an emergency. Yea, just give me the phone, Ill activate it, please dont touch my phone.
7. ddaann78 (unregistered) posted on 09 Dec 2008, 12:17 0 0
You are soooooo funny........... but accurate :)
32. MoonlitTear posted on 10 Dec 2008, 02:38 0 0
THIS ONLY APPLIES TO CELL BOOTHS THAT ARE ACTUALLY OWNED AND OPERATED BY WAL MART/SAMS CLUB. MEANING THE PERSON HELPING YOU IS GETTING A PAY CHECK BY WAL MART. NOT ALL OF THEM ARE!! (and i would not go to those either) Wal Mart/Sams Club Connection Centers are no different than any other Cell Dealer. You have people who care and are motivated and some who just want their paycheck. I worked for both a Wal mart and Sams Connection Center, and there a several key reasons why I would activate my phone there. (and have) 1. Absolutely NO commissions. Nada, Zilch, Nothing. We have no monetary gain whether you are upgrading, adding a line, or you get 1,000 dollars of features or 1 dollar in features. We have no reason to lie to you, sell you something you do not need, or pump you full of features. We could activate 30 phones a day or 3 phones a day. Our hourly wage is all we get. 2. Absolutely no rebates. That is right, when you go to a Wal Mart or Sams, the price you see is what it is. It is not some 'after mail in rebate price' 3. No sales tax on retail price. i do not know about all states, but in california, you pay sals tax on the retail price. Not the price you are paying. ie. LG Shine for at&t is listed at $0.00 for 2 yr upgrade. (which it is right now at all sams/wal mart owned connection centers). It retails for 259.00. If you were at an at&t corporate store it would be, $0.00 AFTER a rebate, plus 7.25% on the 259.00. Wal Mart. Free out the door. They only tax the price you see next to what you want. (i.e. price next to 1yr NEW is the amount you will pay sales tax on). So NO rebate, you were taxed 7.25% of $0.00 equaliing zero dollars. 4. For at&t. DATA feature NOT required for a blackberry (or any other phone we have right now) at Wal Mart Or Sams!! You heard it. NOT required. Right now at my sams club a Blackberry Curve is 46.88 for both NEW and EXISTING 2ry signings. Price out the door $49 dollars. Your monthly bill stays the same, if all you want is a curve for just messaging.. that is our EVERYDAY price not a sale. Now like I said at the top. Not ALL connection centers are Wal Mart or Sams owned. Some are third party (ie. radioshack). Those I cannot speak for. If you are wondering if your local one is actually wal mart or sams, ask the person there who they work for or check name badge. All I am saying is we have a good value, and some of us truly enjoy and strive to understand our product. Not everyone will care, but a lot of us do.
36. (unregistered) posted on 10 Dec 2008, 11:39 0 0
regarding point 1... commission salesman are not all used car salesman... commissioned salesman are expected to know more about phones than non-commissioned... plus, they also have no reason to sell you something you dont need, because if the customer returns it, they dont get paid... point 3... by law, you pay tax on sales price... if phone is being rung out at $50.00... tax is off of $50.00...
38. Ell@ (unregistered) posted on 10 Dec 2008, 13:15 0 0
How do you figure they DON"T MAKE COMMISION????
39. some guy (unregistered) posted on 10 Dec 2008, 15:42 0 0
you pay tax based on what your state tells you to pay it on, not on whatever the sales price is. I.E. California taxes all phone purchases off of the full retail, not what you pay for it
40. MoonlitTear posted on 13 Dec 2008, 01:13 0 0
Wal Mart/Sams Club associates do not get a dime from the carrier to activate a phone, nor does Wal Mart pay anything to the associate for activating said phone. All we get is our hourly wage. The store DOES get what they call Service Income, but we see none of that. The only thing we got was cookies once back in 2004 for doing twenty seven T-mobile activations in one day. (and they had to get home office approval for that).
2. (unregistered) posted on 09 Dec 2008, 08:35 0 0
The only time I ever got a phone *from walmart* X|
3. (unregistered) posted on 09 Dec 2008, 08:39 0 0
i got an 8310 from walmart about a week ago and it took the lady 2 1/2hr to get it going on my family talk plan. it was a good deal but not worth all the trouble and time.
42. MoonlitTear posted on 13 Dec 2008, 20:48 0 0
What Wal Mart was that? Was the system down? Was it a port or brand new? Even when the system is down, we do 'Call Carrier Mode' It should never take that long, and sorry that happened.
4. Jyakotu (unregistered) posted on 09 Dec 2008, 09:18 0 0
I'd rather just go to a company store or website to get a cell phone. I usually don't buy cell phone from third parties unless it's a prepaid one that I probably won't care about if I lose.
5. The Doc (unregistered) posted on 09 Dec 2008, 11:14 0 0
"Now let's hope their employees can live up to the Apple's standard when it comes to providing useful and knowledgeable experience for their customers." I always thought that At&t provided the service for the iPhone. I didn't know that Apple had a different level of standards than At&t. Another reason why VZW has the best customer service. You only deal with one company. Kudos to Phonearena.com for pointing that out. And before customers and employees from At&t get their panties in a twist, I'm just saying that accoring to this post, people will be more worried about Walmart's knowledge about a device rather than a service. Maybe the corporate office at At&t or Apple or whoever handles issues with the iPhone should put their employees through 18 week training course. That way there is ample time to make sure the employees have that knowledge that APPLE expects. Go VZW!
6. (unregistered) posted on 09 Dec 2008, 11:45 0 0
If Verizon got the iPhone, it would be the same way.
9. (unregistered) posted on 09 Dec 2008, 12:18 0 0
not really...when verizon gets a phone we have a launch party AND and 2 day training class to familiarize us with the device. most of the training classes have an actually phone rep (palm BB or someother manufacturer) there to answer any questions outside of the training packet.
15. (unregistered) posted on 09 Dec 2008, 14:39 0 0
That's why verizon is having so many issues with the Storm, because they do such great testing right? LOL
16. (unregistered) posted on 09 Dec 2008, 14:42 0 0
Depending on the problem you are having there can be an advantage in contacting the manufacturer and not the service provider. I'm not sure I would want to contact At&t if I had problems with say syncing the phone to itunes as Apple would be better trained to assist. The provider reps have at least 20-30 phones/aircards from multiple manufacturers and multiple OS that they must be familiar with. If you google Blackberry Storm support every link takes you to BB not the VZW site. A two day training is nice for general questions but does not come close to the training the manufacture reps go through.
17. (unregistered) posted on 09 Dec 2008, 14:51 0 0
It was APPLE's decision to do all the troubleshooting for the iPhone. You idiots crap out of your mouth and dont' even realize it sometime.
23. (unregistered) posted on 09 Dec 2008, 17:48 0 0
testing??? what does this article have to do with device testing
31. (unregistered) posted on 09 Dec 2008, 23:05 0 0
that doesn't mean that they're not knowledgeable with the phone douchebag
