[MsTiaLia]

My mom went to a Verizon store in SC today to upgrade her BB to the BB Torch. Shortly after she arrived, I received a phone call from her telling me that the rep in the store told her that BlackBerry is obsolete and that she should get an iPhone! When she asked him what the iPhone could do that her BB couldn't, all he could talk about was siri. She told him that she could do similar things with Vlingo (yay Mom!) Anyway, he went on to pressure her until she told him that her daughter told her to stick with her original choice.

What does VZ stand to gain by throwing BB under the bus? My mom said they didn't even have the BB Torch on display even though they had them in stock! I had a similar experience when I bought my PB from Staples. As someone who loves BB, this is very frustrating!

[kill_9]

One word: payola
One company: Apple Corporation

These clues and a modicum of critical thinking skills will answer the question the OP posed.

[gtiffany]

The same basic thing happened to me in Rockford, IL recently. I went in to upgrade my Storm 2 9550. When I told the rep that I wanted the Bold 9930, he tried to steer me to Android or Apple saying they had so many more apps than BlackBerry and they were so much better. When I told him I wanted to stay with BlackBerry because of my Playbook, he got a kind of disgusted look on his face and finally went to get the Bold. It was almost like "I must not be cool because I wanted BlackBerry. All the cool kids have Android or Apple."

[Spencerdl]

A similar situation happened to me in GA, the rep even said "Android is the future, why are you living in the past". This appears to be happening at all Verzion stores. Bottom line.....carriers make more money "pushing" androids, because they release phones more frequent and the younger generation have to have the lastest, greatest thing. The mature consumer thinks differently, we tend NOT to think of phones as something you dispose of after 6 months. We hold on to our phones longer most of the time, until the upgrade.

[jthep]

I think it has more to do with lazy salespeople that know Apple products tend to sell themselves so they really don't need to work very hard to explain the features on Apple mobile devices.

A salesman actually may have to do some work in I dunno, knowing about the products they sell when discussing BB's or other mobile devices not branded Apple.

[tack]

I think it has more to do with lazy salespeople that know Apple products tend to sell themselves so they really don't need to work very hard to explain the features on Apple mobile devices.

A salesman actually may have to do some work in I dunno, knowing about the products they sell when discussing BB's or other mobile devices not branded Apple.

I think you are right but combine with what they think is most popular. I don't think anyone makes more money off Apple than RIM.

[sashlon]

This happens in Australia too.

I just got a second-hand Curve 9300 (love it) from my wife - she got an iPhone. I've always wanted a BB, so I'm pretty stoked.

I'm currently researching newer phones, because I'm planning to buy a new device in a couple of months, and in 2 major stores I had 1 sales rep basically tell me that BB are rubbish and at the other store the rep couldn't give me any info about the Bold 9900 and Torch 9810 they had in stock because "no one buys those".

[jordandrews90]

Definitely very frustrating! But the CB community is proud of your Mum for not just believing every word the Salespeople say!

[TheScionicMan]

"Excuse me, did I ask for your opinion or did I tell you what I wanted?"

[FuzzyB]

I think if you go to a independently owned verizon store instead of a corporate owned store you will see much less of this. They will have a much different motive than corporate employees.

[soogriff]

This happens at the VZW store by my house. They always give me strange looks when I check out the Blackberries. Always suggesting a Droid. Meh.

[elvin1983]

Commission based pay... They will push the products that will pay them the most, plain and simple. They have no motivation to sell the customer the best handset for their needs, they want to sell the phone that's going to pay them the most.

I hate it when I hear stories like this. I work part time for a 3rd party authorized retailer for wireless phones (Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T currently, we used to carry VZW) and I always tell people to avoid the carrier stores. I always try to find out what the customer wants to do with their device, and then try to fit them with the best platform to achieve their wants and needs.

When I went to my local VZW store to get my 9930, I decided to walk in there and play stupid in hopes to get a little money off the handset. I told the rep (who seemed to be new) that I've got a 9630, that I liked BlackBerry, and wanted to see what was available for BlackBerry (as if I didn't already know) and what else may be available. We went over to the 9930, and the rep told me, "you should be able to browse the web and do e-mail and stuff on this." He then directed me immediately to the newest Android handset, and went on a big long explaination on how I can access my desktop remotely from this, and do 800 different things. Then we looked at a couple other Android handsets, as well as the iPhone. I ended up getting my $50 off the 9930, and left.

Moral of the story, don't go to the carrier store. You pay more for the handset, you don't get a straight deal from the salesmen, and you leave disappointed...

[Lead_Express]

I wonder if this rep would tell that to President Obama; he seems to think they're okay.

[MsTiaLia]

I wish there was something BB lovers could do to make our voices heard to VZ and others who discourage people from buying BBs. Ultimately, reducing the number of people who share our fondness for BBs limits the number of people we can interact with (bbm) and makes us less of a priority for people who create things that can upgrade our experience.

[llllBULLSEYE]

I work at AT&T I'm a BB fan co worker BB fan hardcore
others workers and manager have iPhone.
Androids sell and they sell easy so we push them
It's so sad, but true.
Plus a lot of them are easy to break not durable at all
and a new one comes out every month
so customers return soon for an early upgrade.
Also they usually take the bigger data plan with Android/iPhones
and we really stress that.
Omg most common word a customer especially older 50+ says
when they walk in is
"Hey you got those Android phones" smh
and of course I wont dare show them anything else, cause its an
easy *Fast sale of what they want

[Economist101]

Moral of the story, don't go to the carrier store. You pay more for the handset, you don't get a straight deal from the salesmen, and you leave disappointed...

Not really an option for many though, as some people are simply not interested in buying things online and still want to go to stores. Unfortunately, outside of carrier stores and Apple stores there's really no place to physically touch these devices before purchase.

[JAGWIRE]

IMO
this is why RIM/BB has tak'n such a huge hit in the American market. It all comes down to the feel of the people. If the people don't like the brand then the market will slip. Yes there are a lot of other factors involved but the opinion of the customers is a BIG one. The reps at the store are supposed to be the knowledgeable ones. they are supposed to research on their own and be fully informed so they can help their customers find the best phone for them... at least that's how i see it. the reps having blinders on and only selling iPhones has nothing to do with the customers its what they feel personally everyone should have.

[bllbored]

could it be a data plan thing? bb uses so much less data..i have a 500mb/month on my 9900, and if i go over it costs me $5 more for another 500...i don't come anywhere close to 500, but i bet i would go way over with an android or iconform..

[palmless]

One word: payola
One company: Apple Corporation

These clues and a modicum of critical thinking skills will answer the question the OP posed.

You should ask someone at one of the stores what each phone pays them in spiff, specifically.

Pretty much obliterates your theory... facts can be so inconvenient!

In reality, they get to use everything, and they have to deal with returns and complaints. They react according to those two experiences.

[FuzzyB]

I wonder if this rep would tell that to President Obama; he seems to think they're okay.

Seriously? You had to bring HIM into the conversation? Ruined the whole thread...

[lorax1284]

I think it has more to do with lazy salespeople that know Apple products tend to sell themselves so they really don't need to work very hard to explain the features on Apple mobile devices.

A salesman actually may have to do some work in I dunno, knowing about the products they sell when discussing BB's or other mobile devices not branded Apple.

This is simply a bad salesperson. I don't want to assume the age of the OPs mom, but I wouldn't recommend a full touchscreen device to anyone who's getting a little older and maybe has some visual acuity problems, and isn't necessarily interested in using the device much beyond that of a "PDA / Phone" user paradigm.

By the way has anyone seen that really cool app for the iPhone that you can kind of hold the phone and just turn in place and it will automatically take a panoramic 360 degree photo and stitch it together? It's quite a cool app... BUT I USED IT ONCE AND WENT WOW AND THAT'S IT. If I had time to play with these crapps all day fine, but I have an actual life and don't have enough time for the things I REALLY want to do, and not waste it with very cool high-tech computer-science-fiction-become-fact apps all day... and when I need information and I need to communicate, BB is way more efficient than an iOS device, and I CAN OPERATE IT WITH ONE HAND WITHOUT DROPPING IT. Ska-doosh, iPhone.

[Morty2264]

How horrible that that happened! As far as I am aware, salespeople who work at these kinds of stores get commission off of their sales, right? So why does it matter if their customer gets a phone that they don't necessarily like? It's different if they say, "This phone often malfunctions; please look at these ones, which work longer and more efficiently." But they're not saying that - they're letting their own personal biases cloud their business skills and actual civility. It's so stupid. Isn't the customer always right? I'm glad your mom stood up for herself!

[Economist101]

Seriously? You had to bring HIM into the conversation? Ruined the whole thread...

Lucky for you, it's still a free country.

[southlander]

Yeah I just bought my 9850 torch from a local Verizon store. They only had one dead battery demo unit in the back to try. The rep was actually fairly open minded but I could tell he wanted to push me to something else. He explained how with my unlimited data plan I could be using unlimited 4G data. I then explained to him I am waiting for a BlackBerry 10 device so that the modem and chipset are integrated. He did not push too hard. But I had called ahead and was told specifically the he would need to assist me. So I guess he was the one person there that is actually trained on BlackBerry. Lol.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9850 using Tapatalk

[Coraya]

Commission based pay... They will push the products that will pay them the most, plain and simple. They have no motivation to sell the customer the best handset for their needs, they want to sell the phone that's going to pay them the most.

I hate it when I hear stories like this. I work part time for a 3rd party authorized retailer for wireless phones (Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T currently, we used to carry VZW) and I always tell people to avoid the carrier stores. I always try to find out what the customer wants to do with their device, and then try to fit them with the best platform to achieve their wants and needs.

When I went to my local VZW store to get my 9930, I decided to walk in there and play stupid in hopes to get a little money off the handset. I told the rep (who seemed to be new) that I've got a 9630, that I liked BlackBerry, and wanted to see what was available for BlackBerry (as if I didn't already know) and what else may be available. We went over to the 9930, and the rep told me, "you should be able to browse the web and do e-mail and stuff on this." He then directed me immediately to the newest Android handset, and went on a big long explaination on how I can access my desktop remotely from this, and do 800 different things. Then we looked at a couple other Android handsets, as well as the iPhone. I ended up getting my $50 off the 9930, and left.

Moral of the story, don't go to the carrier store. You pay more for the handset, you don't get a straight deal from the salesmen, and you leave disappointed...

I also work for a Third party retailer that sells T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T. I completely see where you come from. When I walked into a Verizon Carrier store a month or so ago when I was picking up the 9930 that wasn't immediately available at my kiosk, they asked me why I was switching over to blackberry from an iPhone. He asked it in a sort of rude tone though and I told him I was experienced with blackberry and that the iPhone just wasn't cutting it for me but he continued, well attempted to batter my brain. "You sure you want to go to a blackberry for an iPhone??" An emphasis on the device names. I told the guy that's what I wanted and that was final. I know how the spiffs work and I know what he was trying to do.

I enjoy the feel and operation that Android devices offer. Especially they're customization features. IPhone is incredible and beautiful but just doesn't cut it for me. I love my blackberry and even though I've tried to leave it more than once it hasn't worked. No device has ever been as efficient as this blackberry has been for me (Well other than my original 8330. That device was a workhorse.) I have experienced the best of all three worlds and the Blackberry devices are the second brain I couldn't ever detach completely. I always somehow fell back into this bland but simple, working OS.

How could this device excel?

- 2000mah Battery versus the 1230.
- An improved OS visually as well as feature rich but yet just as efficient.
- Flash
- Larger selection of apps
- Better balance between paid and free apps.

I know this reply may not be perfectly relevant to the thread but I just felt I should share my thoughts and experiences with you all.

Is this my last Blackberry? Maybe. I need a physical keyboard. A good one at that. If the OS I'm looking for can surpass that of android, ill stay in the Blackberry family. If that doesn't hold true, I will hold onto my 9930 for as long as possible. If a next generation full qwerty device is released by RIM I may take the upgrade. If the OS doesn't sharpen up though, unfortunately I'll have to find another OS. Most likely Android.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9930 using Tapatalk