[just_say_no_to_crack]

Here we go again. I went into my local ATT store just to inquire about the Passport and BBRY in general. I got the same uneducated sales rep as I've seen over at Verizon. Immediately, they begin to bash BBRY. Not one positive thing to say. Whatever BBRY's strategy is worldwide, it has to be deeply invested in getting the sales reps on their side and properly educated. There isn't a marketing strategy around that can win the day over a sales rep who's determined to tarnish the brand and create doubt in the customer's mind. In the midst of all their enterprise plans, I hope that BBRY has a better strategy for engagement at the store level. I would include secret shops that show the carriers how their reps are mis-representing the brand.

[jaydee5799]

Frustrating when you walk into a store and you know more than the rep. And that they have to bash the brand you enjoy.

[blueburk]

not shure why u guys dont video tape these persons of interest

just saying..... posted via north west with my passport

[kbz1960]

That has been happening for years now. It's no surprise. How much do those people get paid? How much training do they get on anything? What do they use? What does everyone they know use? What does 99% of people coming in the store ask for? A Samsung or iPhone. How many bb's have they ever sold? Likely zero.

So no surprise at all.

[anon(2313227)]

You are talking about young sale[if you can call them that] people who are just out of high school. Who has and Android stock or a iPhone stock and never really even use a phone for more than youtube, web and sms. Who doesn't care about communication. Raised to believe they are all important and that what other people think don't matter. Who are self absorbed and are given incentives to sell a brand.
Have memories of their parent using BB and probably ignoring them as a child.

What do you expect?

[donnation]

You are talking about young sale[if you can call them that] people who are just out of high school. Who has and Android stock or a iPhone stock and never really even use a phone for more than youtube, web and sms. Who doesn't care about communication. Raised to believe they are all important and that what other people think don't matter. Who are self absorbed and are given incentives to sell a brand.
Have memories of their parent using BB and probably ignoring them as a child.

What do you expect?

Lol, that might be the broadest assumption i've ever heard about a non-blackberry user. If you aren't aware of the brand you were ignored as a child.

I don't blame these sales reps one bit. If BB wants them to sell their product then A. Get it to the stores, B. make sure the reps are educated on it, and C. offer an incentive for them to sell their products.

If you were a high school kid and were offered more to sell one brand over the other which on would you sell?

[-Puck-]

Don't even bother going into the stores with questions about BBRY. Not only will they not be able to answer them - it's in their best interest not to.

I have two close friends that work as Cell Phone sales reps in a big name retail store that does Sprint, VZN, and ATT. They are paid on a points commission rate, and an iPhone commission is significantly more then what they make on an Android or WP sale of similar dollar value. No BB's are carried for any carrier. Of course they push iPhones because of that. They have taken Apple "Expert" training, and after that Apple GAVE them top of the line models for free to use as their personal phones on the job to help advertise even more...because if the guy who sells the phones uses it, it must be the best, right? They actually delivered unlocked 128GB 6+'s to them...and the guy who had a G3 still hates it two months later but feels forced to use it.

Neither are young fresh out of high school. One is 26 and the other is his Manager and 34. The commercial bias for Apple is enormous, way more then even Samsung could hope for.

[donnation]

How many times does BB have to say that they aren't focusing on the consumer market before it will actually sink in with some of you? They don't care that the carriers aren't pushing their brand to the consumer because that is not who their target audience is right now.

I really think Chen needs to send a letter out to every person that buys a BB that says "Thank you for being a loyal consumer of our product. We aren't really trying to sell to you right now but we really appreciate your loyalty. In the future we may try to focus on you and your fellow consumer but right now its not something that makes sense for us financially."

Maybe then some of you would understand and stop complaining about consumer stores as BB has made it perfectly clear they aren't interested in them right now.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

BlackBerry is the one who tarnished the Brand.... your local ATT sale rep isn't the one that ignored the competition for six years and let the company slip to the point where it is irreverent in the consumer marketplace. Which is why Chen says they are focused on enterprise..

Can't blame store sales reps for not being fans for BlackBerry or knowing what is currently going on with BlackBerry.... if they don't wast time on Fan sites like CrackBerry how would they know. And even if they did, it would only be useful with about 1% of their customers. If you think these people make enough money to be able to stay abreast of every minor OEM in the marketplace, you are only fooling yourself.

Don't be surprised when/if the Passport comes to ATT, they it isn't in most of the retail locations. Like most BlackBerry devices these days, corporate stores will be the only ones that display these "for business" devices. And I doubt ATT will bother training all of their representatives on a device that most will never even sale. And I doubt BlackBerry will have support people or incentives for sales people like other OEM's do.

[anon(2313227)]

I've always been told that these sales incentives were illegal practices. I could never understand why BB just don't do the same and offer better incentives as well. I spoke to an BB employee about it 3-4 yrs ago and they said it was illegal.

[CecilTsunami]

I find most of the kids that sell phones try to push their favorite phone. My niece went to one kiosk interested in a SG5, the saleskid wouldn't even tell her anything about the phone, he was trying too hard to push her into an LG. I asked him about the Sony Experia and he wouldn't even tell me about the features he wanted to sell that LG so bad.

So we walked away and went to another kiosk where they were willing to explain the differences between the phones without bias, purchased from there.

I kind of think that's all you can do when you run into this. Either go to a different store or find a different salesperson who will listen to what you want instead of telling you what they think you need.

Posted via CB10

[BB Adict]

How many times does BB have to say that they aren't focusing on the consumer market before it will actually sink in with some of you? They don't care that the carriers aren't pushing their brand to the consumer because that is not who their target audience is right now.

I really think Chen needs to send a letter out to every person that buys a BB that says "Thank you for being a loyal consumer of our product. We aren't really trying to sell to you right now but we really appreciate your loyalty. In the future we may try to focus on you and your fellow consumer but right now its not something that makes sense for us financially."

Maybe then some of you would understand and stop complaining about consumer stores as BB has made it perfectly clear they aren't interested in them right now.

Well said....


Posted via CB10

[Playbook007]

How many times does BB have to say that they aren't focusing on the consumer market before it will actually sink in with some of you? They don't care that the carriers aren't pushing their brand to the consumer because that is not who their target audience is right now.

I really think Chen needs to send a letter out to every person that buys a BB that says "Thank you for being a loyal consumer of our product. We aren't really trying to sell to you right now but we really appreciate your loyalty. In the future we may try to focus on you and your fellow consumer but right now its not something that makes sense for us financially."

Maybe then some of you would understand and stop complaining about consumer stores as BB has made it perfectly clear they aren't interested in them right now.

THIS!

If you are a consumer only, and you want a BlackBerry device there are many ways to get one. Chen would love you to have one also. But in the interest of BlackBerry's future, they need to stay focused on the enterprise portion first, and the consumer 2nd


Posted via CB10

[Playbook007]

BlackBerry is the one who tarnished the Brand.... your local ATT sale rep isn't the one that ignored the competition for six years and let the company slip to the point where it is irreverent in the consumer marketplace. Which is why Chen says they are focused on enterprise..

Can't blame store sales reps for not being fans for BlackBerry or knowing what is currently going on with BlackBerry.... if they don't wast time on Fan sites like CrackBerry how would they know. And even if they did, it would only be useful with about 1% of their customers. If you think these people make enough money to be able to stay abreast of every minor OEM in the marketplace, you are only fooling yourself.

Don't be surprised when/if the Passport comes to ATT, they it isn't in most of the retail locations. Like most BlackBerry devices these days, corporate stores will be the only ones that display these "for business" devices. And I doubt ATT will bother training all of their representatives on a device that most will never even sale. And I doubt BlackBerry will have support people or incentives for sales people like other OEM's do.

Besides your obvious hate for BlackBerry, did you ever step back and notice that BlackBerry devices were meant from day one to be great enterprise devices first. As being one of the few choices back in the day they spilled over into the consumer arena and mainly for BBM as far as the consumer went. The iphone was a pure consumer device that shamed BlackBerry devices as far as the consumer was concerned. However they still can't match BlackBerry in truly the enterprise arena. They don't have a BES equivalent, their security is highly questionable, they don't have great email abilities, definitely don't have a HUB, nor balance, nor Blend. They don't even have a file manager! Now BB10 is becoming increasingly a much better consumer device even though Chen is driving the enterprise side first and foremost.

Posted via CB10

[ChainPunch]

With the enterprise market, for the most part, they already know what they want and do not need a rep to tell them anything about what phone to purchase. In those situations if a rep starting talking bad about blackberry and the client is already made the decision about getting blackberry devices, then that rep will be replace with someone that understands their place to provide what the customer wants. On the customer retail front it just a case where people feel the need to talk up the phones they sale the most of and don't have any returns on. By putting down blackberry it allows them to steer the customer toward a device that the rep knows more about and hopefully the customer will not return.

I went into a Verizon store and the rep was willing to sale me a Q10 without any problems, but when I question him about different issues that have popped up about the Q10, double type and the reboot when putting the phone on a surface issues, he did not know anything about. However, he wanted to make the sale so he tried to answer my questions based on his experience with the Z10 reboot issue with the problems I stated being software issues that had been fixed by Blackberry.

At the end of the day I think Crackberry members need to stop torturing themselves by going to local stores and asking questions about Blackberry devices availability or trying to seeing what the reps know. Do your own research and purchase the device that you want online and be done with it. If for whatever reason you need to go to a store to purchase device, then make it clear to the rep that you already know what you want to purchase and that you are here to get the order process nothing more. The rep can either do their job and provide the customer with what they want and earn their commission or you can tell them straight up that you will just get someone else at the store to process the order and that person will get the commission.

I am getting too old to deal with this nonsense of people telling me how to spend my own money. My money my choice, if they can't deal with that they can go jump off a cliff for all I care.

[PantherBlitz]

I've always been told that these sales incentives were illegal practices. I could never understand why BB just don't do the same and offer better incentives as well. I spoke to an BB employee about it 3-4 yrs ago and they said it was illegal.

Its not. giving an incentive directly to the sales force is called a "spiff" in the biz and it happens in just about every industry.

[hopper76]

Sadly it not just AT&T And Verizon. We all know it happens on TMobile and Sprint as well. Most of their replies when asked about BlackBerry is "they still make BlackBerrys?" how sad and pathetic! It too shall pass and be relevant again! SMILE!!!

Posted via CB10

[Oglon3r]

If you are the least Techie you should school their butts. I enjoy doing so every time but I'm a engineer technician and I'm messed up like that. LOL
Also you guys will be surprised. I had the most pleasant experience from.... wait for it.
A TMOBILE REP!!!
Last year I went to activate my old 9860 because my z10 I got from ebay got blacklisted.
She saw it and recognised it, she began to tell me you know we got new like of Blackberry phones and what not.
I was like yeah and got into conversation about. She told me she got quite the lengthy training for it and how it was a shame they sold so poorly.
She also told me she herself had to move because the app gap even though the phone was solid and stylish.
Man how far have we come from such days. Wonder if she ever went back to Black...


Supporting the People's Struggle Worldwide via my STA100-5 Z30 ?

[shaleem]

Besides your obvious hate for BlackBerry, did you ever step back and notice that BlackBerry devices were meant from day one to be great enterprise devices first. As being one of the few choices back in the day they spilled over into the consumer arena and mainly for BBM as far as the consumer went. The iphone was a pure consumer device that shamed BlackBerry devices as far as the consumer was concerned. However they still can't match BlackBerry in truly the enterprise arena. They don't have a BES equivalent, their security is highly questionable, they don't have great email abilities, definitely don't have a HUB, nor balance, nor Blend. They don't even have a file manager! Now BB10 is becoming increasingly a much better consumer device even though Chen is driving the enterprise side first and foremost.

Posted via CB10

I don't see an "obvious hate" for BlackBerry. What part of his post is not true? BlackBerry's problems are EXACTLY because they sat on their behinds while others were moving passed them. I love BlackBerry and have for many years, but I refuse to stick my head in the sand and be unrealistic about the reasons for their problems. I don't believe that they will go under, but they have much work to do to become as relevant as they once were.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Besides your obvious hate for BlackBerry, did you ever step back and notice that BlackBerry devices were meant from day one to be great enterprise devices first. As being one of the few choices back in the day they spilled over into the consumer arena and mainly for BBM as far as the consumer went. The iphone was a pure consumer device that shamed BlackBerry devices as far as the consumer was concerned. However they still can't match BlackBerry in truly the enterprise arena. They don't have a BES equivalent, their security is highly questionable, they don't have great email abilities, definitely don't have a HUB, nor balance, nor Blend. They don't even have a file manager! Now BB10 is becoming increasingly a much better consumer device even though Chen is driving the enterprise side first and foremost.

Posted via CB10

My point is you can't expect an ATT sales person to "know" about BlackBerry, when their marketshare has fallen so low and when most of the locations that do carry BlackBerry devices, vary rarely ever sell any of them.

As far as how much better a consumer device BB10 devices are becoming.... I agree that BB10 is getting better. But hardware is sorely lacking and long term the Android Runtime is going to be a problem. And it has been stated over and over.... enterprise is made up of consumers. Which is why even in business Apple is now number one. Even with their lack of a BES equivalent and "highly questionable" security. You have to face facts, BlackBerry and Push email where a huge phenonom.... in the past.

But back to the topic - Very few Retailers are going to chase that 1% - 3% of the market... especially if there isn't much profit for them. Unlike in other low marketshare products (say high end car market) where profit margin are very high - devices like the Z10, Q10, Z30 are priced to sell with very little room for the Carrier to make more the a few dollars. And what Carrier's are really interested in is NEW SUBSCRIBERS, and I doubt any of their market research shows that BlackBerry is driving new subscribers to them.

So it is foolish to expect a rank and file salesperson at any retail location to have a high opinion of BlackBerry.

Now once AT&T officially launches the Passport, once they do some training, and once they get some devices into the hands of the sales people (most likely only in corporate stores) then maybe some opinions will change about BlackBerry.

[mvpcrossxover]

In befo teh lock.

[RubberChicken76]

BlackBerry is the one who tarnished the Brand.... your local ATT sale rep isn't the one that ignored the competition for six years

The issue for me was not that they ignored, but rather they didn't execute well, particularly when struggling with growth, new markets and a legacy platform.

[RubberChicken76]

But hardware is sorely lacking

Geez - two melodramatic, sweeping, all encompassing statements in the same thread. They "totally ignored the competition" for 6 years and "all their hardware is sorely lacking".

You make it sound like the Passport might as well be a Nokia Flip Phone circa 1999. :-P

[J Quimson]

It will take time to rebuild the Empire. Haha! Please keep in mind BlackBerry just went through a scenario that almost toppled it.

As for BlackBerry Passport on AT&T, I would rather buy from BlackBerry directly rather than AT&T.

For a while I felt fine with buying through carrier stores when it would take a while before newer phones came out, but now, I would not want to be locked in a contract if I upgrade or pay off a phone that I could either get unlocked and brand new or cheaper through other sellers.

We already know that BlackBerry hasn't done enough to inform carrier sales reps and we don't really need them at this point. We make our own decisions based on our own research.

They can bash BlackBerry all they want but at the end of the day, we will buy a BlackBerry regardless, so why let them make money out of the sale when they won't even accommodate us?

via Z10-ER

[wasabiGT]

What did they say?

Posted via CB10