[tofast]

I'm at an at&t store as I type this getting my sons z10 taken off a prepay and adding it to our plan and just had the sales rep tell me blackberry is just about out of business. After seeing our blackberry phones. Is ok to punch him in the throat

Posted via CB10

[Elite1]

Only lightly. If you crush his larynx, you might have significantly higher liability resulting.

This reply is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute actual legal advice.

[raino]

I'd just tell him, "I'm sorry, are you unable to perform the task I'm asking of you? If so, please get me the manager. Hopefully he's competent enough to help me."

It's not ok to punch him in the throat.

[Elite1]

I'm at an at&t store as I type this getting my sons z10 taken off a prepay and adding it to our plan and just had the sales rep tell me blackberry is just about out of business. After seeing our blackberry phones. Is ok to punch him in the throat

In all seriousness, did you tell him anything in response?

[vanrickman]

Tell him that the sky is falling, then report back to us with your findings.

Sent from the phone of the gods.....Z30

[ppeters914]

I would have asked for the manager, and asked why their strore training/product knowledge is so poor. If the manager starts making excuses, I would want the manager's boss or regional manager name, and complain to them. A PITA to be sure, but we won't get treated better if we don't say anything. Goes for anything, not just cellphones.

I'm lucky. The AT&T store near Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, WA has always been BlackBerry-friendly. How knowledgeable they are now (new store manager and many new sales faces) remains to be seen.

P.S. - just bid on unlocked Z10. Wish me luck!

[Elite1]

I would have asked for the manager, and asked why their strore training/product knowledge is so poor. If the manager starts making excuses, I would want the manager's boss or regional manager name, and complain to them. A PITA to be sure, but we won't get treated better if we don't say anything. Goes for anything, not just cellphones.

I'm lucky. The AT&T store near Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, WA has always been BlackBerry-friendly. How knowledgeable they are now (new store manager and many new sales faces) remains to be seen.

P.S. - just bid on unlocked Z10. Wish me luck!

Just drove past there last Friday.
Anyway... good luck!

Posted via CB10 from my Z30

[tofast]

After I had a talk with him. He backed down, and started telling me that the q10 is actually a good phone. But it was as though he was scared to admit it. And yes he said that he's an I phone user

Posted via CB10

[droiddude]

Went to my Verizon store no q10's on display

Posted via CB10

[tofast]

They did have a z10 on display though. The other thing that really bugs me is how they hover around you can't Evan mess around with the phones without them staring over your shoulder . Costumer service is one thing but geeesss.

Posted via CB10

[silversmith75]

You should should have said "wow for some one who works in the mobile phone business you a very poorly informed,not only are they not going out of business they will be releasing a new phone in North America... in the coming months. And it's miss information and attitude like that that have damaged BlackBerry. Causing people who would have and wanted to buy a BlackBerry but went for a Sammy when scared off by misinformation.. but thanks for your help is there anyone else that works here!!

Posted via CB10

[privateeyes]

I'm at an at&t store as I type this getting my sons z10 taken off a prepay and adding it to our plan and just had the sales rep tell me blackberry is just about out of business. After seeing our blackberry phones. Is ok to punch him in the throat

Posted via CB10

Yep they suck BAD!

Posted via CB10

[BBUniq01]

After I had a talk with him. He backed down, and started telling me that the q10 is actually a good phone. But it was as though he was scared to admit it. And yes he said that he's an I phone user

Posted via CB10

I asked my son once if any of his grade school friends had smartphones. He answered "No, just iPhones". Grin.

Loving my Zed 10!!

[TgeekB]

Let's not lump all ATT stores into one group. The one I go to is great.

Posted via my Nexus 10.

[ksbb10]

At least at your store blackberry is still in business. Mine said yesterday they've been bought out long ago.

Posted via CB10

[Elite1]

At least at your store blackberry is still in business. Mine said yesterday they've been bought out long ago.

Wow really?
I've heard lots of misinformed tales of going out of business or for sale, never heard they've been bought out.

Posted via CB10 from my Z30

[Francis Pavolko]

It saddens me to read these posts. I moved over to AT&T from Verizon in 2004. We had just purchased our new Prius with a bluetooth system that Verizon had most of the features blocked. AT&T had the full BlackBerry line back then and I subsequently experienced my first BlackBerry with the move. Pretty clear however that AT&T is far from being the driver of BlackBerry's woes.


Posted via CB 10 on Z30

[Grumblegrumble]

Worst store and service Ive ever experience as a client. I will NEVER go back to them.

[tofast]

Ya I don't understand what's going with all these sales people not getting any training on the blackberry phones. The sales person started asking a bunch of questions on why I thought blackberry was better so I named off a bunch of stuff and started doing the things on my phone wile telling him and he just kinda stood there in aw at how fast I was navigating around my blackberry q10 and his last comment was well everyone has there own phone preferences which is a very fair comment. And that was wear I conversation ended. BlackBerry really needs to assemble a group of people to go around and train the sales people at these stores. It would be a big help!!!

Posted via CB10

[Troy Tiscareno]

Ya I don't understand what's going with all these sales people not getting any training on the blackberry phones.

I can explain for you.

Cell phone sales is an entry-level, low-paying sales job with a high rate of turnover, and is mostly young people. In any given store, chances are the average phone salesperson has only been on the job for 4-6 months. From a training perspective, what that means is that training must be constant and ongoing.

BB last had sales reps in cell phone stores a year ago, for the launch of BB10. Those are contracted-out positions, because they are temporary and when the BB assignment is over, those people are off to the next product, which might be TVs or copy machines or whatever. But most, if not nearly all, of the sales reps who got to see and get ANY training on BB10 a year ago are long gone by now. Most of the sales personnel working today have never seen a BB rep, and that alone is very telling to them, because I assure you, they've all seen Apple and Samsung reps at the very least, and likely LG, Moto, Microsoft/Nokia, and Sony reps as well. It is not lost on them that they've never seen anyone from BB.

Doing this kind of marketing and training is expensive, and BB had to cut those expenses after the BB10 launch, because BB10 sales couldn't justify the cost. The only thing that's changed from then until now is that BB10 sales are much worse today than back then.

This is why it's been said, over and over and over, that Chen is "focusing on (mature market) Enterprise and emerging-market consumers." He's said almost directly that BB can't compete against Apple and Google in mature markets (except in enterprise sales) - BB simply doesn't have the money to go toe-to-toe with them right now, and not anytime in the near future.

Right now, Chen has bet the hardware business on getting enterprise BES contracts and on the Z3 selling in big volumes in the emerging markets that have been BB's strongest markets over the last 2-3 years. All the focus, and all of the small amount of marketing money he has to spend are being spent there. That leaves none, or virtually none, for mature consumer markets until after the results of the Z3 and enterprise sales are in, which is 9 months from now at the very least. And that assumes success, which is far from assured.

Chen hasn't said it 100% outright, but it's still quite clear: BB has effectively abandoned the mature consumer market. That's why the Z30 was launched in Malaysia, and why you've not seen a word of advertising about it. It's why there are no ads today, and why there is no carrier training going on, or attempts to reverse the drop in carrier support. BB simply doesn't have money to throw at these problems, and they all require a lot of money to even try to solve.

As he said months back, he knows that "prosumers" like the CrackBerry audience will find a way to buy a BB if they want one, and enterprises will be able to get them via an enterprise sales rep, but mainstream consumers are mostly going to be out of the loop. That's not what BB wanted, but they have no choice at this point - they're no longer fighting for survival in the mature consumer market, they are fighting for survival of the company as a whole, and it's still VERY possible that the handset business will have to die in order for the company itself to survive. Chen has alluded to this himself less than a week ago.

I know folks here want something to talk about, but all of the ideas about "how to improve BB marketing" are pointless when there is no money to make any of them happen. BB is a huge corporation, doing business internationally, and anything they do is going to cost money, and a lot of it. Right now, they simply don't have it to spend.

[stiletto835]

To tell you the truth all the carriers are horrible when it comes to blackberry. They choose to push whatever device makes them more money whether it's an iPhone or android. Blackberry gets the cold shoulder all around at my AT&T store in jersey.


Sent from my iPhone using CB Forums mobile app

[jasonvan9]

I had a rep at target try to talk my gf out of the Z30 because quote "blackberry isn't going to be around much longer, so you need to look at the long term"... he had a note 3 and was heavily pushing that device...

On a positive note, i walked into a wind mobile store yesterday with my Z30, and the two girls at the counter both asked "is that a blackberry? It's beautiful! "



Posted via CB10

[Troy Tiscareno]

To tell you the truth all the carriers are horrible when it comes to blackberry. They choose to push whatever device makes them more money.

Which makes them just like any other retailer in any other business. Are you telling me you wouldn't do the same if you owned a carrier store? You'd push a poor-selling product over putting food on your family's table?

If you take your emotions out of it and look at it objectively, what the carriers are doing makes perfect sense from a retailer's perspective.

Posted via the Android CrackBerry App!

[privateeyes]

Worst store and service Ive ever experience as a client. I will NEVER go back to them.

+1

Posted via CB10

[redtail34]

I myself have been asked many times why I like blackberry. Don't be upset with them, all you have to do is enlighten them. Explain to them why you don't like iphone and android. I usually tell them I want a phone first that gets the job done, not a toy. If they can't be persuaded, and still talk crap about bb, ask them if they ever use one. And if they said no, how can you have opinions on it if you've never use one. And yes I've used ios and android - they are not phones, they're toys.