[JMDBERRY]

I was just in the A T & T Store yesterday - 12-30-12,...and I overheard something that I find to be disturbing! First, two nice young ladies come into the AT&T Store to purchase a new phone. The lady buying the phone currently had an iPhone in hand and evidently, she didn't rate an upgrade,...I'm guessing. Anyway, she and here friend were browsing the available phones and made a pit-stop at the Blackberry phone display. Upon stopping there...and also appearing to be very interested in a Blackberry phone, the AT&T employee rushed over and immediately stated to the ladies,..."You Don't Want A Blackberry,....we haven't sold one of those in 6-months or so!" Now, as a Blackberry user and defender of the Crackberry Nation,...I wanted to wack his dumb-arse over the head with my 9810! If I were RIM, I would be peeeee'd off to the max. I mean, how can you survive in the smartphone world if one of your main carriers is against folks buying your devices? This is literally nuts. A short time later, the carrier nudges the girls towards,...you guessed it....Android devices! They came to the same display area I was browsing,...as I was wasting time toying with the Lumia 920 and HTC One X+. One of the young ladies ask me what did I think,...so, not really wanting to make the AT&T rep look like a total arse-sa-nine-aaa-hole,...I informed the young lady to simply find the OS she would like and she would easily find a phone. She immediately posed the question,..."What's an OS"! I stated,...just find the OS,...the Operating System you like,..for instant, you iPhone is iOS, etc. Again, she has an iphone 4,...or 4s in hand, and I'm guessing again she couldn't get the iPhone 5 subsidized. That said, I find it to be dirty business when your carrier knocks down your device!!!!

The moral of this story,...even your carrier will stab you in the back with eyes wide opened!!

JMD

[Foreverup]

I don't think you can blame the carrier for some random employee trying to push a customer to a different phone. For all you know they get a commission for the number of dollars they sell in a month and since the iphone5 would be priced higher than a Blackberry I would push the more expensive phone.

Disclaimer I have never worked at a carrier store so I have no idea is this is true.

[dakid72]

You were waaaaaay better than me, I would've told that lady what a BB can and will do and there is no money in the world that would make me switch from my beloved 9930 (sprint) to go somewhere else....as a matter of fact, I have at&t u-verse for my home and they always ask me if I want to sign up for their cellular, mobile services and my reply is always the same, if you are not going to give me and iphone for free, then we have nothing to discuss, I love my BB and not giving it up.......whenever one of them bites, I will have an iphone for sale to someone but I won't be using it.
next time speak up and put those dumb sales reps in their place, because all they are concerned about is $$$$$$$$$

[GTiLeo]

I don't think you can blame the carrier for some random employee trying to push a customer to a different phone. For all you know they get a commission for the number of dollars they sell in a month and since the iphone5 would be priced higher than a Blackberry I would push the more expensive phone.

Disclaimer I have never worked at a carrier store so I have no idea is this is true.

sure you can, carriers were a reason for the fall of BB in the market, they couldn't make the profits they were with Android and iPhone so they pushed harder to get you to buy a device that costs more on data. sure BBs were behind the times a little bit but that doesn't mean that they didn't do everything a person needs it to do, they are able to browse they are able to text, e mail, BBM, social message, and play apps and they do target users still but you hear the exact same comments about a blackberry all the time, they crash and they dont have the apps the others do, when Androids crash and require battery pulls just the same and iOS isn't really an efficient mobile OS, its easy to use but efficiency is lacking, but you will never heard carriers or anyone pushing the flaws in these systems and won't push the positive of a BB so its just a rise for some and a fall for another in these cases

[kill_9]

The only thing most wireless carriers employees can be trusted to properly is take your money; everything else varies from employee to employee and from wireless carrier store to wireless carrier store. I usually buy directly from a business outlet rather than the consumer outlets and whenever possible try to deal with the manager. However, Research In Motion does bring some of the anti-BlackBerry sentiment upon itself through its lack-lustre product line-up during between 2011 and today. BlackBerry OS 7 and associated smartphones were a stop-gap and were originally meant to only be on the market for six months while Research In Motion got BlackBerry BBX (the name at the time) ready for release. < cough, cough > We see how that panned out. And it seems Research In Motion continues this tradition with the latest BlackBerry 10 device line-up. In summary, RIM's poor performance falls on their own doorstep.

[berklon]

You're taking this way too personally.

I don't see the big deal. She's steering away a customer from buying a dead-end product which no one has bought in the last 6 months. If I were a customer I'd appreciate her honesty.
If they sold a lot of Blackberries in the last 6 months, her answer would've be different.

I think you should put the blame on RIM for not providing customers with a product that competes - instead of blaming a salesperson who is doing customers a favor by not off-loading an inferior product.

[kill_9]

sure you can, carriers were a reason for the fall of BB in the market, they couldn't make the profits they were with Android and iPhone so they pushed harder to get you to buy a device that costs more on data.

Due to data compression offered by BIS and BES data plans these wireless carriers could effectively subscribe 1000 BlackBerry accounts to the same bandwidth requirements as a few hundred Apple iPhone or Google Android subscribers. Plus the heavy-lifting was transferred to the RIM NOC further alleviating resource requirements of the carriers. I have a 1GB BES data plans and have never come close to exhausting the data plan even when my BlackBerry PlayBook is bridged to my BlackBerry Bold for email and web browsing.

[kill_9]

I think you should put the blame on RIM for not providing customers with a product that competes - instead of blaming a salesperson who is doing customers a favor by not off-loading an inferior product.

Agreed. Between 2011 and 2012 Research In Motion has failed to offer any compelling reason for non-BlackBerry users to consider their smartphones. A significant number of forum members are lauding Thorsten Heins' performance in regards to BlackBerry 10 yet fail to acknowledge he is the same person whom under the L&B Reign of Indifference (2007-2011) apparently thought all was well.

[Foreverup]

Due to data compression offered by BIS and BES data plans these wireless carriers could effectively subscribe 1000 BlackBerry accounts to the same bandwidth requirements as a few hundred Apple iPhone or Google Android subscribers. Plus the heavy-lifting was transferred to the RIM NOC further alleviating resource requirements of the carriers. I have a 1GB BES data plans and have never come close to exhausting the data plan even when my BlackBerry PlayBook is bridged to my BlackBerry Bold for email and web browsing.

with tiered data plans it would be better for US carriers to steer customers to a phone that sucks up data quicker. then you either have to upgrade to a higher plan or buy a more expensive on right off the bat. with that said, they should be pushing BB10 with active frames and apps pulling/pushing data to update them carrier will be happy to push that function to consumers.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9810 using Tapatalk

[Bilaal]

Being a BlackBerry die-hard fan, even I wouldn't recommened anyone buying the current BlackBerry's on market. With what BB10 unveiling in a month, why would I convince them to spend their hard earned money only to find out a better phone is released a month later?

[donmateo]

When I got my 9700 at Best Buy multiple employees were trying to force an HTC something on me and I looked at it and said meh. I went with the 9700 and they were a little pissed off to be honest, which I found extremely inappropriate. This was about 2 years ago, btw...

[GTiLeo]

Being a BlackBerry die-hard fan, even I wouldn't recommened anyone buying the current BlackBerry's on market. With what BB10 unveiling in a month, why would I convince them to spend their hard earned money only to find out a better phone is released a month later?

because not everyone wants to pay the price that a BB10 phone will cost, the same way some might not want to pay the price of a SGSIII or an iPhone5

[JMDBERRY]

Well! Perhaps RIM should become their own carrier! They can start by pushing their devices to customers via the internet,....just like Netflix did with DVD rentals. One can order on Monday and have in their hands on Tuesday or Wednesday but surely within a week. RIM would then lease carrier space from the carriers. Could this work?,..I dunno. But, if I worked at a GM dealership and someone was browsing the showroom looking to buy a car,....and I told the customer to not buy GM,..but got to Hyundai instead,...my days would be short lived at the GM dealer. The only thing I'm saying is,...the AT&T rep shouldn't be in the practice of telling customers "NOT to buy a phone,..not to buy a Blackberry,...they should find out the needs of the customer,...then offer/suggest devices that meet the customer's needs best",...and not because they hadn't sold any (Blackberry devices) in months. That said, I suspect they haven't sold any in months (...even if it was true) because they have continually made a concentrated effort not to sell any Blackberry devices! Go figure....

[FunktasticLucky]

I definitely think it was due to data and the price of the device. The markup on those androids are probably pretty high. and we know how much the iPhone sells for. I agree 100 percent that this was all data driven. Android and iPhone's do no have data compression, nor do the carriers have to pay service fees for the data like they do with RIM's NOC fees.so it's a double win for them. People have to go to higher tiered data plans, or pay the overages, and they make the full 30,50, 100 dollars you spend for the data plan off you.

Now, as for recommendations for phones. People are always impressed with my bold here in Okinawa. Most Okinawan's don't like it because they see all the americans (we have like 80k active duty on this island) with their iPhones and their droids and their big fancy screens. A good majority of them just stick with traditional flip phones but the ones who go smart phone hit up the Galaxy S3 or Notes like crazy because of screen real estate. But when people ask me if they should buy a BB or the new iPhone or the latest android, I just tell them to wait a month or 2 to see what the brand new BB has to offer. and show them a couple of videos of BB10 to peak their interest.

[Roo Zilla]

because not everyone wants to pay the price that a BB10 phone will cost, the same way some might not want to pay the price of a SGSIII or an iPhone5

Why not? Are you expecting the Z10 to cost more than the S3 or iPhone 5 or the Optimus G or the 9900?

[darkehawke]

The reason for RIMS poor performance is RIM itself.
I'm afraid what the OP has described is a symptom of RIM's complacency not a cause.
With BB10, Blackberry will on a level playing field

[GTiLeo]

Why not? Are you expecting the Z10 to cost more than the S3 or iPhone 5 or the Optimus G or the 9900?

no i never said it was goign to cost more i said they won't want to spend as much, you think the 9900 will be priced the same as the L series? i think not

[Roo Zilla]

no i never said it was goign to cost more i said they won't want to spend as much, you think the 9900 will be priced the same as the L series? i think not

At ATT currently, the 9900 is the same price as the S3 and iPhone 5 16GB. So unless the Z10 is going to cost more than $199 on contract, it will be the same price as the 9900 is now.

[berklon]

Why not? Are you expecting the Z10 to cost more than the S3 or iPhone 5 or the Optimus G or the 9900?

This is what's ridiculous. RIM lost so much marketshare and mindshare, yet the price of an inferior 9900 is the same as a SGIII (which is selling like hotcakes). Why would the average person even think about getting a 9900?

[lnichols]

I doubt that the major carriers will even carry BBOS devices in the stores after BB10 is released. They'll have them to order for corp/gov customers, but the BBOS device sales numbers and pricing is a joke in the US, and carriers won't waste retail and warehouse space on them. RIM should have dropped the pricing on these devices significantly but all carriers have them listed in the $500+ range and the market has shown what it thinks of that pricing.

[timmy t]

A lot of salespeople have been steering people away from bb products for a long time. That is why nobody has bought one in six months.

[Roo Zilla]

That said, I suspect they haven't sold any in months (...even if it was true) because they have continually made a concentrated effort not to sell any Blackberry devices! Go figure....

There was a thread a while back about the closing of the Blackberry flagship store somewhere in Michigan. Apparently the guy who worked there also reported not having a sale in a long time, I don't remember if it was months. It's not from lack of effort, it's mostly from lack of interest. Even if the sales person makes the effort, more often then not, the customer doesn't buy it. Eventually the sales person learns to not waste his time.

[Hawkeberry]

lol @ 9900 costing same as S3. Still not as bad when you have contracts. Here it costs a sweet 30k (~$550) & the low end curve that the majority of BB owners here use costs $330. For all Blackberry's advantages, those are quite overpriced and there are other 'better' phones in both price ranges. BB10 costing the same as Android flagships is totally ok but 9900 costing as much is a joke. I won't blame that employee at all

[amjass12]

yh this sounds like an employee thing.. that still not good for RIM though..

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[taz323]

You were waaaaaay better than me, I would've told that lady what a BB can and will do and there is no money in the world that would make me switch from my beloved 9930 (sprint) to go somewhere else....as a matter of fact, I have at&t u-verse for my home and they always ask me if I want to sign up for their cellular, mobile services and my reply is always the same, if you are not going to give me and iphone for free, then we have nothing to discuss, I love my BB and not giving it up.......whenever one of them bites, I will have an iphone for sale to someone but I won't be using it.
next time speak up and put those dumb sales reps in their place, because all they are concerned about is $$$$$$$$$

so agree I also have the 9930 and Sprint and with unlimited data and the PB it can't be beat, but have had more than one sales person that tried to steer me away from BlackBerry's, and that is not going to happen.