[Brimlen]

It happened to me at Phone4U UK when I trying to buy my 2nd BB Z30. She told me BlackBerry phones, I quote: we stopped selling Blackberries because they are not good. I then said, what do you suggest. Of course I expecting her answer: iPhone, Samsung... I told her I have tried all OS apart from Windows and I returned them all after 2 weeks of extensive trial. Samsung 4s, iPhone 5s, Experia Z something, LG 2G... they are not good either, I said to her. How on earth would take a phone seriously with an OS called "jelly bean, kitkat" and so on... I showed her my BB Z30 White and closed the conversation by saying it is the best in many respects.

Posted via CB10

[Francis Pavolko]

If she had answered me different, like "they don't sell well" or "sorry, we don't have room to carry every possible phone" or something like that, I wouldn't have cared so much. Then I might have mentioned the new update and how much better the new 10.2.1 OS is.

I didn't even take down her name to punish her directly. My point was that some education or training needs to happen when a phone is so highly rated, yet not available to see.

I was just thinking of how I could get someone to notice and respond and because the FCC regulates cell phone companies, thought I would try that. I've also registered formal complaints about slow OS updates every time I've been on the phone with Verizon Customer Service. I hadn't thought of the FTC.

Your approach to the matter was as if someone had violated the law. Both of the agencies you cited are under staffed and overworked just on matters where laws have been broken. Don't think you will find them very sympathetic. My confusion in your cause is really based on your desire to make a company that is selling rate plans somehow responsible for some sort of phone hardware fairness policy. If you were having a problem with their plans it would make some sense.

Posted via CB 10 with Z30 on AT&T

[MikeLip]

I'm sure it matters to the people who still work for BlackBerry and it's vendors. I'm sure it matters to the enterprises which need certified security only BlackBerry has so far achieved. It matters to those of us who find BlackBerry phones meet our needs better than any other. So while you may think it's equivalent to a teaspoon, that is shortsighted and callous.

Really? Any more callous than the guy who figures the girl is a criminal? You might want to rethink that.

[MartyMcfly]

Do you guys know how much sales has BlackBerry lost because of this bad treatment by Shops and their reps?

Posted via my Zee Zed 10

I'm willing to bet not much.


Sent from iOS using Tapatalk

[Tre Lawrence]

How on earth would take a phone seriously with an OS called "jelly bean, kitkat" and so on... I showed her my BB Z30 with the jellybean runtime White and closed the conversation by saying it is the best in many respects.

LO freakin L.

[Tre Lawrence]

I'm willing to bet not much.

Please stop. You are interrupting the naa\rrative. Fifty Shades of Black, featuring the dastardly sales-blocking VZW salespeople. They caused the write downs.

[MartyMcfly]

Please stop. You are interrupting the naa\rrative. Fifty Shades of Black, featuring the dastardly sales-blocking VZW salespeople. They caused the write downs.

Lol.


Sent from iOS using Tapatalk

[MikeLip]

Do you guys know how much sales has BlackBerry lost because of this bad treatment by Shops and their reps?

Posted via my Zee Zed 10

Probably a very small fraction of the number they lost when they decided it would be smart to ignore the iPhone. BB management put BB in this fix, not kids right out of school hawking phones in a mall kiosk or something.

[SmellWhole]

Apple makes complete garbage that doesn't work very well. You have to the hold the iphone a certain way for calls not to drop.

(Ordinarily, the people saying "It's no big deal, it's only a phone" and "Relax, so the kid made a mistake" would be jumping all over this statement to set the record straight and correct "misinformation.")

[app_Developer]

Who's to define a company's job? The board and shareholders that's who.

I think the board and shareholders would agree that it was BlackBerry's job to maintain their once dominant marketshare and not let it fall into the "other" category. That was BlackBerry's job, not Verizon's. Not AT&Ts. Not the American public's. Just BlackBerry.

Takes more than one person to run a multi national company and yes I believe the people that were responsible for the delays and terrible market were held accountable. As I recall Chen cleaned house and Bouben was one of them thankfully. Still doesn't give the right to mislead customers about one of YOUR own products.

I think we can say who wasn't responsible for all the failures at BlackBerry: the salespeople working at carriers. (In fact, Verizon made a better ad for BB10 than anything BlackBerry ever did!) But given where BB is, carriers and their salespeople are now directing customers to more successful devices, which is a totally rational decision for most customers (who have no emotional commitment to BlackBerry the company)

[canuckvoip]

I am going to take the unpopular stance too. I understand sales people regurgitate BlackBerry premature demise, but to complaining about her can have her end up with her on her *** because you felt mad. Now she's jobless because you got mad she said your favorite company is out of business. You have to be aware that BlackBerry is severely unpopular with average consumers. For them to say they are going out if business isn't too far fetched from their point of view. T-Mobile stop selling BlackBerry devices for a while, Verizon was the only carrier to get the Z30 and even then its hard to find one in store, and add on the stigma that blackberry's don't have the latest apps (which they don't natively) and you get a lot of people saying they are going out of business.

Sent from my XT1060 using Mobile Nations mobile app

Why are you defending a liar?
At best she is uneducated and needs retraining. The only way to fix that is to complain and get management to retrain her. If she does it repeatedly she deserves to be out on her A$$.
If my employee kept on in that manner I'd fire her/him in a heartbeat.
It's called managing employees to make sure customers are getting the best possible service.
UGH!!!!

[MikeLip]

Apple makes complete garbage that doesn't work very well. You have to the hold the iphone a certain way for calls not to drop.

(Ordinarily, the people saying "It's no big deal, it's only a phone" and "Relax, so the kid made a mistake" would be jumping all over this statement to set the record straight and correct "misinformation.")

Oh yeah, antennagate. Haven't heard of that happening in a really long time. At the moment I'm not sure any of the people making phones are making garbage. There's not a thing wrong with the Z30 or the Z10 (well, except battery life, but what can you do - it has a small battery) or the Q10. The iPhone 5 is a work of industrial art, The Samsung Note 3 is a fantastic bit of hardware. The Nokia Icon, same. Even Motorola got off the dime and made some terrific phones for a change. It's not the phones as phones that are the problem, Mismanagement by BB was the problem. Their refusal to face a changing market was the problem. Their refusal to fix a messy and unstable OS was the problem..Their arrogance in thinking they owned the market was the problem. And now they are paying the price for that. Sadly most of the price is being borne by their employees, which is always the case when a big company stumbles. It's not the boardroom that suffers. But you cannot blame the kid selling the phones. He sells what's selling. BB just isn't making much effort to popularize their phones.

[SmellWhole]

Why are you defending a liar?

He defends the liar unless the liar is lying about apple or google/android.

[SmellWhole]

Oh yeah, antennagate. Haven't heard of that happening in a really long time.

You couldn't wait to set the record straight on that -- hasn't happened "in a long time."

[canuckvoip]

I'm going to take the unpopular stance here. It's what I do. While lying from a saleperson is ethically wrong, there are many possible reasons for her to have done what she did;

1) Kim Kardassian or Oprah said Blackberry was dying, and like so many fans of those people she just took them at their word.
2) She doesn't know. Sales people never, ever like to say "I don't know" to a customer. They want you to think they know everything. So she said what came to mind to avoid appreaing ignorant, which is a very human thing to do.
3) She is on commission. The Z30 is not the sexy phone of the moment. Yes, I have one and no you cannot pry it out of my hands even though I also own a Note 3 and Lumia Icon (which is an awesome phone). Both of those phones are far flashier than the Z30. Plus the iPhone is still extremely popular, to say the least. She is going to want to sell those since half the battle is already won for her by the companies making them and their ad campaigns. Why should she spend two hours educating buyers about BB when she could spend that time making commission? She's not an evangelist. I'm blaming BB for that one - they should be pushing their phone to the public. I'm not a particular fan of any platform, but the Z30 has advantages to people like me - professionals who need to communicate. No other phone does it better and there are a lot of us out there who maybe don't know how badly iOS and Android compare to BB10 for that. WP8 is better but not as good as BB10.

So while you may feel better for having called out that poor girl, you are doing what my old boss called "Pissing up a rope." There are some fundamental problems with how BB is approaching the market, the biggest of which is they are doing so in a very halfhearted way, if at all.

All three of your reasons are worthless.
1) Kim K is not her manager, nor is Oprah. Ridiculous!
2) If she doesn't know, she needs retraining. If her manager can't retrain her he/she should be replaced as well.
3) The customer specifically asked for a Z30. She should find a way to get it, stupid Samsung commission notwithstanding.

Doesn't anybody know how to handle employees anymore?

[Tre Lawrence]

All three of your reasons are worthless.
1) Kim K is not her manager, nor is Oprah. Ridiculous!
2) If she doesn't know, she needs retraining. If her manager can't retrain her he/she should be replaced as well.
3) The customer specifically asked for a Z30. She should find a way to get it, stupid Samsung commission notwithstanding.

Doesn't anybody know how to handle employees anymore?

My simple, overriding question would then be: who is ultimately responsible for BBRY's image?

Folks have been complaining about salespeople on CB for years. One could argue that the employee who supposedly lost her job deserved it, but I do believe the issue is much, much bigger, and it is almost silly to focus on salespeople as a whole.

[Morty2264]

Thank you, OP.

Sales representatives are certainly allowed not to like BlackBerry. Heck, they can like whatever they want! But don't spread lies, false information, or biased remarks about it. If you don't like it, don't push your opinions on customers. Let them buy what they want, even if you don't like it, or let them at least make up their own minds about the product.

Posted via CB10

[Tre Lawrence]

The best way to stem the tide is to vote with your walled. Or get more salespeople fired. I suspect the former will be more effective... in theory at least.

[canuckvoip]

Really? Any more callous than the guy who figures the girl is a criminal? You might want to rethink that.

She's not a criminal. She's just poorly trained, or a lousy employee. One of those things has a chance of being fixed.

[canuckvoip]

My simple, overriding question would then be: who is ultimately responsible for BBRY's image?

Folks have been complaining about salespeople on CB for years. One could argue that the employee who supposedly lost her job deserved it, but I do believe the issue is much, much bigger, and it is almost silly to focus on salespeople as a whole.

It doesn't matter. If your company sells a device, and a customer asks specifically for that device, it is a disservice not to fulfill that order promptly. It is unprofessional to be ignorant and/or poorly trained and an employee that knowingly lies to a potential or existing customer should be fired.

[SmellWhole]

My simple, overriding question would then be: who is ultimately responsible for BBRY's image?

Folks have been complaining about salespeople on CB for years. One could argue that the employee who supposedly lost her job deserved it, but I do believe the issue is much, much bigger, and it is almost silly to focus on salespeople as a whole.

Yea, from one side of your mouth it's "the market will punish" the under-performer or poor performer, but from the other side of your mouth it's "the kid is just trying to make a quick buck." Why should the incompetent and lying sales clerk be shown mercy while BlackBerry should be punished for its purported failings?

[collinc93]

I can't believe that people would care about a multi-billion dollar corporation more than a girl trying to work her starter level job.

I get the enthusiasm, but trying to directly get a young prrson fired to defend a company that doesn't even know who you are? It's hard for me to even understand that.

These salespeople are not harboring some vindictive plot against BB. They are reacting to the general industry-wide view of BlackBerry. People in the industry think BB is dying.


Sent from my iPhone 5S using Tapatalk

lol....and I guess poor customer service is fine because its up against the might of a multi-million dollar corporation

[Tre Lawrence]

It doesn't matter. If your company sells a device, and a customer asks specifically for that device, it is a disservice not to fulfill that order promptly. It is unprofessional to be ignorant and/or poorly trained and an employee that knowingly lies to a potential or existing customer should be fired.

I won't disagree. It is insane to think the salesperson is the problem though. It goes far beyond the frontline person. It is an image problem.

Bottom line, with a company in such a state of flux, it makes sense for salespeople to sell problem free devices that are mostly promised to be around. When I was looking to buy a new Treo way back in the day, a salesperson pointed out the 8320 to me. I ended up being quite happy.

I get as "het up" as the next guy, but calling a federal agency on a "lying" telecom employee would not have occurred to me. It does open up a world of opportunities for me, and going forward, I dare any moderator to point something out to me...

[Tre Lawrence]

Yea, from one side of your mouth it's "the market will punish" the under-performer or poor performer, but from the other side of your mouth it's "the kid is just trying to make a quick buck." Why should the incompetent and lying sales clerk be shown mercy while BlackBerry should be punished for its purported failings?

The company, not the kid. Y'all are focused on the employee. As has been noted, this is just a symptom. The issue is WAY bigger, and located in Waterloo.

But we can go on a transcontinental to find unfriendly salespeople and fire them, but without BBRY stepping up to the plate and figuring out how to make sure it is taken seriously, the narrative will be the same. No salespeople are responsible for BBRY's inability to convert its own customers to BB10, for instance.

[SmellWhole]

The company, not the kid. Y'all are focused on the employee. As has been noted, this is just a symptom. The issue is WAY bigger, and located in Waterloo.

The "company" is just people "in Waterloo." Whatever you perceive to be the problem (e.g. "company," "image," whatever) your adamant defense of the lying sale clerk is peculiar. You seem to think that her lying and incompetence should be rewarded with a steady job.

But we can go on a transcontinental to find unfriendly salespeople and fire them, but without BBRY stepping up to the plate and figuring out how to make sure it is taken seriously, the narrative will be the same. No salespeople are responsible for BBRY's inability to convert its own customers to BB10, for instance.

Yes, lying sales clerks should be taught that there are negative consequences for lying and they should not be rewarded with some kind of tenure at their jobs. Some of us BlackBerry enthusiasts are not waiting for BlackBerry to do it; we don't mind volunteering at the grassroots level.