[-Puck-]

Every single time I have seen one of these threads it ends up that the store I'm question is not a corporate store but an authorized retailer. And ATT absolutely did training for the passport and classic release. I know tbat for sure because I know someone who was in one.

Posted via CB10

Mine was definitely a corporate store - I had ATT for 8-9 years and was at that store many times.

Now I'm on TMobile on my unlocked Passport direct from BlackBerry and couldn't be happier. Cheaper, way faster speeds, no more throttling, not on contract, and unlimited data.

 Posted in CB10 from my amazing SQUARE OG Passport 

[Zeratul57]

There is something wrong with att business when they allow there employees to act this way.

[fishlove73]

ATT seems to.be doing mostly Web ordering with the Passport. I'm going to wait until they come down in price a bit and then get one. Unless they come out with a newer z30 type model.

~Better with Blackberry~

[sentimentGX4]

AT&T has the audacity to force "re-design" the Passport, but neither feature it online nor stock it in any of their physical locations? In Los Angeles??

Blackberry knew perfectly well what it got itself into.

Blackberry knew how many devices AT&T wanted to stock and sell when it agreed to redesign the Passport for the carrier and AT&T sold the entire lot! (Albeit a very small lot.) Looks like the AT&T Passport met everybody's expectation from the business side.

[bakron1]

Sorry folks, but some of the blame for the lack of stock and in store advertising has to go to the folks up there in Waterloo!!

They should have reps out in the field making sure the sales people in the stores are properly trained in selling their products.

I recently bought a AT&T passport through a friend who had an account and the first person we asked about the new passport in the AT&T store told us "Blackberry is out of business".

I was shocked at her response and quickly got the manager and explained that the salespeople should not be passing information that's not accurate and its this type of stuff that's puts Blackberry in a bad position here.

This was a AT&T corporate store by the way. This was the third one we went to in our area. The busiest one we thought would have the new passport didn't even have a classic or passport in the store. WTF!!!

With no marketing and/or sales force presence at all here in the USA, Blackberry is dead before they even have a chance to reintroduce the brand here, sad, very sad.

[mkelley65]

BlackBerry is not a player in the consumer space. Consumers will not find devices in retail outlets. Consumers abandoned BlackBerry.
Enterprise customers don't buy from retail outlets
We get bulk pricing and the devices are either shipped to us or delivered by our rep.
Why would AT&T or ANY retailer stock something that won't move?
Order the device online and move on.
Why is this so hard to remember?

[Machete Santa]

Get the Passport on Amazon and put a StraightTalk SIM into it. $45/mo unlimited. Uses the AT&T 4G LTE network. That's what I did!

[Machete Santa]

I recently bought a AT&T passport through a friend who had who had an account and the first person we asked about the new passport in the AT&T store told us "Blackberry is out of business".

I was shocked at her response and quickly got the manager and explained that the salespeople should not be passing information that's not accurate and its this type of stuff that's puts Blackberry in a bad position here.

This was a AT&T corporate store by the way. This was the third one we went to in our area. The busiest one we thought would have the new passport didn't even have a classic or passport in the store. WTF!!!

That is similar B.S. tactics which was employed by Nintendo to shut down Atari. Paying off stores to have their employees discourage selling anything but Nintendo.

[fishlove73]

Until playstation moved in and kicked their ***. As for the business/ Consumer comment up above. There are many small businesses, that shop Blackberry consumer end. There are no Blackberry reps coming to them or anything. So the shop the consumer side. Very poor relationship they have with ATT. I almost wish Verizon would have the Passport first.

~Better with Blackberry~

[mkelley65]

Until playstation moved in and kicked their ***. As for the business/ Consumer comment up above. There are many small businesses, that shop Blackberry consumer end. There are no Blackberry reps coming to them or anything. So the shop the consumer side. Very poor relationship they have with ATT. I almost wish Verizon would have the Passport first.

~Better with Blackberry~

Small business can also purchase online.

[serbanescu]

I can see it on the AT&T online store:

BlackBerry Passport -- AT&T

It has great reviews already:

[fishlove73]

Small business can also purchase online.

We ALL know this. BUT..as far as ATT reps not knowing the devices. And Lack of Marketing on Blackberry's part is the reason why they are a minority. Apples and Androids are not better devices...they can't compete with QNX, hub or virtual or real keyboards and the world needs to know this IS my point. Word of mouth is not enough.

~Better with Blackberry~

[fishlove73]

I can see it on the AT&T online store:

BlackBerry Passport -- AT&T

It has great reviews already:

From only 52 people out of 400,000,000 people.

~Better with Blackberry~

[serbanescu]

From only 52 people out of 400,000,000 people.

~Better with Blackberry~

Your statement is wrong on multiple levels:

Firstly, the factual errors:

1. There are only approx 320,000,000 people in USA (see here)

2. Out of this population, AT&T has only approx 120,000,000 subscribers (see here). Not all of those are smartphone users.


Secondly, the error in comparison approach:

3. A more relevant comparison is with other "flagship" phones sold on AT&T site:

a) iPhone 6 has 306 reviews and inferior ratings (4.2 versus 5.0 for the Passport)


b) iPhone 6 Plus has 442 reviews and inferior ratings (4.5 versus 5.0 for the Passport)


c) Samsung Note 4 has 247 reviews and inferior ratings (4.6 versus 5.0 for the Passport)


We should also take into account that the AT&T Passport was on sale for a much less amount of time than these competitors.

So, by taking all these into account, we may say that the AT&T Passport reviews number show a surprinsingly strong demand for the Passport from AT&T customers, at least in the first weeks after launch.

[moosbb]

Your statement is wrong on multiple levels:

Firstly, the factual errors:

1. There are only approx 320,000,000 people in USA (see here)

2. Out of this population, AT&T has only approx 120,000,000 subscribers (see here). Not all of those are smartphone users.


Secondly, the error in comparison approach:

3. A more relevant comparison is with other "flagship" phones sold on AT&T site:

a) iPhone 6 has 306 reviews and inferior ratings (4.2 versus 5.0 for the Passport)


b) iPhone 6 Plus has 442 reviews and inferior ratings (4.5 versus 5.0 for the Passport)


c) Samsung Note 4 has 247 reviews and inferior ratings (4.6 versus 5.0 for the Passport)


We should also take into account that the AT&T Passport was on sale for a much less amount of time than these competitors.

So, by taking all these into account, we may say that the AT&T Passport reviews number show a surprisingly strong demand for the Passport from AT&T customers, at least in the first weeks after launch.

That's good to hear. Thank for the reports
Btw I hope that BB release the critical bug fixes ASAP as it don't help neither sells or image of the brand.

Posted via CB10

[sentimentGX4]

We should also take into account that the AT&T Passport was on sale for a much less amount of time than these competitors.

So, by taking all these into account, we may say that the AT&T Passport reviews number show a surprinsingly strong demand for the Passport from AT&T customers, at least in the first weeks after launch.

We've already observed this relatively high volume of ratings pattern with prior Blackberry devices and it did not signify high sales. The reasoning behind this phenomenon is that iPhone and Samsung customers likely feel less need to rate their devices. I mean, it's an iPhone. Everybody already talks about it all the time. What purpose would sharing your non-unique opinion on AT&T serve?

[serbanescu]

We've already observed this relatively high volume of ratings pattern with prior Blackberry devices and it did not signify high sales. The reasoning behind this phenomenon is that iPhone and Samsung customers likely feel less need to rate their devices. I mean, it's an iPhone. Everybody already talks about it all the time. What purpose would sharing your non-unique opinion on AT&T serve?

Ok. So what would be a reasonable number of reviews for the Passport that would signify strong demand, if for the other phones they number in the hundreds after 4 or 5 months on offer (versus a few weeks for the Passport)?

[RubberChicken76]

They should have reps out in the field making sure the sales people in the stores are properly trained in selling their products.

Sure, but realistically, it isn't going to happen? I guarantee you it isn't because "BlackBerry doesn't know this". It's ROI.

I've got years and years of experience with consumer goods going through retail. It's a brutal channel to support and also *EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE*. Why did they have Z10 inventory write downs? Because they built up to stock a massive retail channel and then inventory didn't move anywhere near expectations.

See all those ads in your favorite electronics flyer? Someone pays for that. See the signs in the store promoting a particular product? Someone pays for that. See the phone in your local carrier commercial? Someone pays for that. See the inventory stacked in a certain way in a store? Someone pays for that, and also pays someone to stack it. See the price cut? Chances are someone pays for that too. Want to be carried in a store? Provide a whole bunch of units, $$$$ for promotion, accrual plans etc. And if it doesn't move, the inventory comes back for full credit. Don't do it and they won't carry your product again.

Tough balance unfortunately. Do very little and you see what you're encountering. Do too much and you quickly pass the threshhold of profitability like the Z10 encountered. I've seen companies in the past spend more to sell a product with a particular retailer than they actually earned from the retailer.

It isn't just a case of sending in people to train at some head office. It's often store by store (there are thousands). It often involves training, expensive spiffing, free merchandise, merchandising companies, heavy retail advertising and still subject to the whims of the stores.

See that Apple store inside Best Buy? Apple pays for that. See that Samsung store inside Best Buy? Apple pays for that. The big surface sign? Microsoft pays for that.

I can't speak for Chen, but I suspect when Chen said on the quarterly call a while back that they were "tuning their sales channels" that this was the reasoning.

[RubberChicken76]

Until playstation moved in and kicked their ***.

The US Department of Justice going after them for restraint of trade and monopoly practices softened them up first. As did an aggressive competitor named Sega who was pretty relentless. Plus, they took their time with coming to market and wouldn't let old ways go.

Anyway - back to the topic at hand.

[sentimentGX4]

Ok. So what would be a reasonable number of reviews for the Passport that would signify strong demand, if for the other phones they number in the hundreds after 4 or 5 months on offer (versus a few weeks for the Passport)?

I don't think it is possible to extrapolate sales from the number of reviews. There is no correlation between the two and, if so, it isn't a linear correlation.

The growth of reviews is probably logarithmic. There are many reviews in the beginning but after a certain number of reviews, customers simply stop caring about giving more reviews. So you have a curve that looks something like this except transformed higher above the y-axis.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mV97JAB9J3.../s1600/log.png

[vvildstar]

Sure, but realistically, it isn't going to happen? I guarantee you it isn't because "BlackBerry doesn't know this". It's ROI.

I've got years and years of experience with consumer goods going through retail. It's a brutal channel to support and also *EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE*. Why did they have Z10 inventory write downs? Because they built up to stock a massive retail channel and then inventory didn't move anywhere near expectations.

See all those ads in your favorite electronics flyer? Someone pays for that. See the signs in the store promoting a particular product? Someone pays for that. See the phone in your local carrier commercial? Someone pays for that. See the inventory stacked in a certain way in a store? Someone pays for that, and also pays someone to stack it. See the price cut? Chances are someone pays for that too. Want to be carried in a store? Provide a whole bunch of units, $$$$ for promotion, accrual plans etc. And if it doesn't move, the inventory comes back for full credit. Don't do it and they won't carry your product again.

Tough balance unfortunately. Do very little and you see what you're encountering. Do too much and you quickly pass the threshhold of profitability like the Z10 encountered. I've seen companies in the past spend more to sell a product with a particular retailer than they actually earned from the retailer.

It isn't just a case of sending in people to train at some head office. It's often store by store (there are thousands). It often involves training, expensive spiffing, free merchandise, merchandising companies, heavy retail advertising and still subject to the whims of the stores.

See that Apple store inside Best Buy? Apple pays for that. See that Samsung store inside Best Buy? Apple pays for that. The big surface sign? Microsoft pays for that.

I can't speak for Chen, but I suspect when Chen said on the quarterly call a while back that they were "tuning their sales channels" that this was the reasoning.

Good point, but I'm sure you meant Samsung here

[Nitalia]

As it is the case of Amazon.com even At&t allows non verified purchaser to post reviews...I guess a bunch of fanboys once again posted fake reviews..

I can see it on the AT&T online store:

BlackBerry Passport -- AT&T

It has great reviews already:

[Powdah]

My Att store had the Classic immediately and had store reps using it to become familiar with it. Took a couple of weeks to get two Passports in. Sold immediately. Store reps want one to demo. Cannot get one. I want one to play with.

[ripperj]

Several stores in central CT have the PP and Classic in stock, Glastonbury and Manchester Mall have working displays and semi knowledgable people

Sent from my Passport using Tapatalk 2

[fatclue_98]

I've been to 4 or 5 stores in Miami. All had the Passport and the Classic in stock. All were well displayed and I was told that sales have gone better than expected. I got mine Saturday.

As a side note, BlackBerrys are still quite popular in Central and South America among the upper-crust types so that may explain the good sales in Miami. I suspect this isn't the case in Potato Falls, Idaho.