[pmf73]

The problem is that the majority of the reps that work at the stores are minimum wage monkeys that are pushing the items that they're really driven to sell. (i. e. IPhones and SIII's). It's been my experience that most of them don't even pay attention to much other than that, let alone pay attention to what's coming on the horizon.

I'm sorry, but as much as we all love BlackBerry's and are all looking forward to its release, there are the store monkeys that haven't even been fed the information on it, because it's not trendy and it's definitely not an Apple product...

/rant

[sam81]

Also, as a word of advice, I wouldn't buy a device first. Give it a week or a month for problems to come out, and then to be quickly fixed. Even though it was delayed a whole year, there will still be issues when people take it out into the real world

I got one of the first 9700's several days before they went on sale nationally. Never had an issue with it.

[Tim-ANC]

I've been with ATT since 2006. (Cingular actually) Grandfathered into the unlimited data plan for $50 per month. I've got no reason to change. Works well in Alaska and everywhere else. There is a better carrier in AK but they suck everywhere else. Lack of options is the price I pay for choosing to live here. Nevertheless, I want them to have what I want when I want it.

[rottonj]

The problem is that the majority of the reps that work at the stores are minimum wage monkeys that are pushing the items that they're really driven to sell. (i. e. IPhones and SIII's). It's been my experience that most of them don't even pay attention to much other than that, let alone pay attention to what's coming on the horizon.

I'm sorry, but as much as we all love BlackBerry's and are all looking forward to its release, there are the store monkeys that haven't even been fed the information on it, because it's not trendy and it's definitely not an Apple product...

/rant

Just another rude rant. Have some respect for the working, in this enconomy having a job is a plus. Its the responsibility of management to see their people are trained. Maybe you should be taking your questions higher up if they are not being answered to your satisfaction..

[Tommy6030]

Guys,
I spoke to my AT&T regional rep last nite at length. (I work for Audi and take care of his car)

He told me that he hadn't heard much of anything about BB10 and that the RIM/BB rep doesn't even stop by anymore!

He also said that nobody even asks for Blackberry anymore and they sell less than 1% of the devices. He's going to email the rep this morning and find out what he can, but man that was a discouraging phone call!

[Tim-ANC]

We want to buy stuff. Don't they want to sell stuff? Pull the anti-rattle spring out of one of his disk brakes and tell him you will fix it once you get a straight answer.

[rottonj]

We want to buy stuff. Don't they want to sell stuff? Pull the anti-rattle spring out of one of his disk brakes and tell him you will fix it once you get a straight answer.

Thats funny. That little squeek can drive you nuts.

[anon(2692400)]

I called my AT&T business rep and asked about per-ordering the z10. At first he did not know what I was asking about. But, he took his time and looked in the system. He found that the launch will be on the 30th and that I should call him the week before for per-ordering. He could not give me pricing details or any other details since he did not have it. This is not proof that they will have it at launch but it is good that he did see it in his system.

[Tim-ANC]

I called my AT&T business rep and asked about per-ordering the z10. At first he did not know what I was asking about. But, he took his time and looked in the system. He found that the launch will be on the 30th and that I should call him the week before for per-ordering. He could not give me pricing details or any other details since he did not have it. This is not proof that they will have it at launch but it is good that he did see it in his system.

Though positive.

[Bias reduX]

Just another rude rant. Have some respect for the working, in this enconomy having a job is a plus. Its the responsibility of management to see their people are trained. Maybe you should be taking your questions higher up if they are not being answered to your satisfaction..

He isn't mocking them for their low paying job. He is mocking the fact that people ask them. They just work there, they are the last of the last to get updates and most likely don't even follow smartphones like we do. They get told to push phones so they do it (hence the monkey part).

[rottonj]

He isn't mocking them for their low paying job. He is mocking the fact that people ask them. They just work there, they are the last of the last to get updates and most likely don't even follow smartphones like we do. They get told to push phones so they do it (hence the monkey part).

So minimum wage monkey isnt a rude comment? How do you know what he means? It is frusturating that they dont know, I get that. Its another thing to belittle for not being properly trained.

[Bias reduX]

So minimum wage monkey isnt a rude comment? How do you know what he means? It is frusturating that they dont know, I get that. Its another thing to belittle for not being properly trained.

I didn't say it wasn't a rude comment. The context he goes into after making the comment is about how they are told what to push and they follow that. Minimum wage is just used as emphasis on monkey because someone that is paid well usually isn't a "monkey".

[NoLimitz80]

The problem is that the majority of the reps that work at the stores are minimum wage monkeys that are pushing the items that they're really driven to sell. (i. e. IPhones and SIII's). It's been my experience that most of them don't even pay attention to much other than that, let alone pay attention to what's coming on the horizon.

I'm sorry, but as much as we all love BlackBerry's and are all looking forward to its release, there are the store monkeys that haven't even been fed the information on it, because it's not trendy and it's definitely not an Apple product...

/rant

We are far from minimum wage thank you very much. We do not get told to push any one device and/or platform. We are told to sell gross adds, tablets, mobile share, wireless home phone, mobile protection pack, uverse, and accessories. We also need to be great at customer service and taking care of customers no matter what the issue to boost the WTR from customers. You cannot expect us to be a know it all in all upcoming devices especially a device that hasn't even been officially shown off and one where we have no training materials.

[FlashFlare11]

I talked to a rep in my local AT&T store and was told that AT&T would have the devices at launch, though, he did ask when launch was and was surprised when I told him it was at the end of this month.

Kind of a mixed response but still optimistic because even though he didn't know when launch was, he still knew that it was a brand new OS and confirmed that they will have it ASAP.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9810 using Tapatalk

[crackcookie]

False. Though the devices are being officially announced JAn 30th, it doesn't mean ATT will carry the devices on that day. Carriers put their phones through rigorous testing, ATT is known to take the longest of the major 4 networks. So just because it is released by RIM on the 30th, doesn't mean ATT will sell it then.

Who knows, maybe RIM will sell a few thousand unbranded online like the Nexus did if demand is high enough.

[FlashFlare11]

I went into another store today and asked whether AT&T would be carrying BB10 devices. The rep told me she hadn't heard anything and frankly looked confused about what I was asking. It's making me doubt that AT&T reps have received the BB10 training the Canadian carriers got last week.

[Tommy6030]

I'm just blown away that no one at AT&T can give us any more info considering the launch is so close. This is very frustrating

[TerribleTim68]

We are far from minimum wage thank you very much. We do not get told to push any one device and/or platform. We are told to sell gross adds, tablets, mobile share, wireless home phone, mobile protection pack, uverse, and accessories. We also need to be great at customer service and taking care of customers no matter what the issue to boost the WTR from customers. You cannot expect us to be a know it all in all upcoming devices especially a device that hasn't even been officially shown off and one where we have no training materials.

Again, see my post where I stated -

I checked with two different AT&T stores in my area and both of them had the same answer for me - "Blackberry 10 you say? Never heard of it. I thought Blackberry was going out of business."

I'm not asking my sales rep to know everything. But I am asking them to be educated enough to not make comments like "I thought Blackberry was going out of business." when we're within a month of a major release event. Again I reiterate - you're in the technology business, you should know what's going on in your business. Otherwise, move along so I can talk to someone who cares enough to know how to have an intelligent conversation about the subject matter.

Disclaimer - I may be just really sick of hearing how "Blackberry" (which technically isn't even a company) is "going out of business" from all the iSheep of the world. Maybe doing some homework would help us have a better, more intelligent conversation instead of just railing on how out of touch and irrelivant "Blackberry" is without actually listening to any counter points. You can't actually have a conversation with these people since they just keep harping on the same single point over and over, no matter how out of context that point is and refuse to listen to anything you actually have to contribute the conversation. It just really gets old. I'm looking forward to RIM (which IS a real company) really hitting this one out of the park so I can ram it down the throats of all those I had to endure seemingly endless ridicule from over the past year.

[NoLimitz80]

VP stated new BB's are coming. I would expect to see BB 10 very soon at AT&T. No waiting for weeks after other carriers have it.

[NoLimitz80]

@TerribleTim Yeah I know what you mean. I'm the only rep at my store that knows anything about any new device coming down the pipe. I try to share what I can with them. Some just do not care. Everybody at my store does know that Blackberry 10 is a coming. I've even told customers getting rid of their Blackberry hey you know Blackberry has some completely new things being announced at end of January. Must everyone just laughs/blows it off. I'm thinking in my head No I'm serious don't you want to wait and see?

[joeldf]

VP stated new BB's are coming. I would expect to see BB 10 very soon at AT&T. No waiting for weeks after other carriers have it.

Or months?

[anon(1152406)]

This is very discouraging... We need the US carriers to put their support behind RIM .. if phone shipments aren't very high initially, people may back off ...

[91300zx]

Went to an att store today to pay a bill and ofcourse asked about BB10. The guy couldn't care less about blackberry and had no info. Basiclly what was already said he had the same answer of oh I thought they were going out of business. Only hoping when this phone does come out it changes the attitude of many folks. I don't like this apple, droid world.

[calircr]

my paraphrased conversation with an ATT Rep via phone:

rep: thanks for calling att today, how may i help you?
me: hi yeah, i'm calling to ask about the bb Z10. i would like to know if you have any information on when it will be available and/or/how i can pre-order one?
rep: huh? bb Z10? what's that?
me: that's the new all touch bb 10 phone that is supposed to be coming out at the end of the month.
rep: bb is going to have a new phone at the end of the month? for reals?!?!?!
me: yes.
rep: oh snap! let me look. i loooooooooooove my bb and i'm on sprint, i hate iphones. (she actually seemed geniunely excited and not being sarcastic)
me: yeah, this new bb is supposed to be a really nice phone with a lot of nice features
rep: let me look in the system to see if i can find anything.....
rep: i don't see anything in our system. you have no idea how excited i am to hear that bb is coming out with a new phone. i love my bb and i can't do anything without it.
me: me too, that's why i'm trying to find out when i can pre-order one.
rep: let me google it...they have pics of the phone?
me: yeah, just google bb z10 and you should find a bunch of info
rep: daaaaaaaammmn, that @#!( looks nice...(over hears her telling another rep, "hey come check this #@!$ out!!! this new bb Z10 looks nice!)
rep: sorry, excuse my language. i'mma gonna have to get me one of those!
me: now you know why i want one.
rep: yeah, is there anything else i can do for you mr. xxxxx?
me: nope, just find out some info about the new bb Z10 for yourself and pass the word along to others that may not know about it.
rep: oh i will and THANK you so much for telling me about the bb Z10! You made my day! i'm so excited!


it was definitely a fun phone call because i was able to inform her about the new bb, but a bit of a let down since she had no info for me. lol. also found it weird that she had srevice with sprint but worked for at&t.

[calicocat2010]

my paraphrased conversation with an ATT Rep via phone:

rep: thanks for calling att today, how may i help you?
me: hi yeah, i'm calling to ask about the bb Z10. i would like to know if you have any information on when it will be available and/or/how i can pre-order one?
rep: huh? bb Z10? what's that?
me: that's the new all touch bb 10 phone that is supposed to be coming out at the end of the month.
rep: bb is going to have a new phone at the end of the month? for reals?!?!?!
me: yes.
rep: oh snap! let me look. i loooooooooooove my bb and i'm on sprint, i hate iphones. (she actually seemed geniunely excited and not being sarcastic)
me: yeah, this new bb is supposed to be a really nice phone with a lot of nice features
rep: let me look in the system to see if i can find anything.....
rep: i don't see anything in our system. you have no idea how excited i am to hear that bb is coming out with a new phone. i love my bb and i can't do anything without it.
me: me too, that's why i'm trying to find out when i can pre-order one.
rep: let me google it...they have pics of the phone?
me: yeah, just google bb z10 and you should find a bunch of info
rep: daaaaaaaammmn, that @#!( looks nice...(over hears her telling another rep, "hey come check this #@!$ out!!! this new bb Z10 looks nice!)
rep: sorry, excuse my language. i'mma gonna have to get me one of those!
me: now you know why i want one.
rep: yeah, is there anything else i can do for you mr. xxxxx?
me: nope, just find out some info about the new bb Z10 for yourself and pass the word along to others that may not know about it.
rep: oh i will and THANK you so much for telling me about the bb Z10! You made my day! i'm so excited!


it was definitely a fun phone call because i was able to inform her about the new bb, but a bit of a let down since she had no info for me. lol. also found it weird that she had srevice with sprint but worked for at&t.

Lol weird, but totally rocked her world. Good job!! Let's see maybe you should be the main PR fan to call up every ATT store to find out. I'm on ATT too so here's hoping!