[jabtano]

I've been talking to a co-worker about Nokia and WP7 for two years now. so much so that he went out and bought 5000 shares anyway it is time for his upgrade so he went to the AT&T store bought a white L920 with a red case "he wanted a red phone" they set up his contacts from his BB to the L920 gave it to him showed him the On/off button and that was it....I showed him how to use it today. loves it by the way.. But really AT&T that is not how you sell phones. Is this the Norm with them?

[m0unds]

I've been talking to a co-worker about Nokia and WP7 for two years now. so much so that he went out and bought 5000 shares anyway it is time for his upgrade so he went to the AT&T store bought a white L920 with a red case "he wanted a red phone" they set up his contacts from his BB to the L920 gave it to him showed him the On/off button and that was it....I showed him how to use it today. loves it by the way.. But really AT&T that is not how you sell phones. Is this the Norm with them?

just like with any business with a multitude of retail locations, it varies. my experiences w/the corporate stores here in my city have been great. it depends more on the reps and other store personnel than the company itself, imo.

[lordofthereef]

When I bought the phone the reps didn't even know they had it. They only went back after I mentioned that this is is launch day. But I find this to basically be the norm, at least in locations I have visited. I probably should have just gone to the Microsoft store and made a direct comparison with Apple; they have the best customer service in the industry IMO.

[octavian90]

Gotta remember that these stores are staffed by lazy incompetents..bare minimum effort is the standard at those kinds of jobs..

[sabotagebx]

ATT is god awful. their in store reps have no clue about the phones they sell, so yes this is quite normal.

[giantenemybird]

As a former AT&T employee, I can tell you that AT&T doesn't adequately train their employees on new products. Honestly, so much **** comes out at a rapid pace, that combined with pressure to push u-verse, it's difficult to keep up. I knew my ****, but that's because I learned it all on my own time, and I'm a phone nerd.

[Oridus]

Gotta remember that these stores are staffed by lazy incompetents..bare minimum effort is the standard at those kinds of jobs..

I resent that comment. Not at all true. I work my *** off to make sure I know the products so I can educate my customers. I apologize you haven't had a good experience at your local stores, but you cannot say that of all of us.
Sent using Board Express on my Yellow Nokia Lumia 920.

[entropism]

MOST people don't know what they're talking about in store. Oridus was like me when I worked for Sprint & AT&T... Phone geek, cared about the customers' needs, wanted to get them into a good phone. Other reps, well... not so much. When the Inspire and Atrix came out, we had reps in my store saying that the phones were LTE upgradable. When I called them out on it, I was told "Who cares? By the time LTE comes here, they can't return the phone". Short sighted, incompetent workers...

Honestly though, I blame the carriers on this not the workers. Back 6-7 years ago, a good salesman could EASILY make $100K+, if he knew the product and knew sales. Now, with the carriers cutting commissions and upping quotas so much, you're lucky to make $40k in a high cost of living area like NYC or NJ. So you don't get REAL sales people anymore, you get the idiots who don't care and don't know how to build a customer base.

[octavian90]

I resent that comment. Not at all true. I work my *** off to make sure I know the products so I can educate my customers. I apologize you haven't had a good experience at your local stores, but you cannot say that of all of us.
Sent using Board Express on my Yellow Nokia Lumia 920.

ok I'll be happy to amend my statement..MOST of these 9 to 5ers are incompetent and lazy. My experience is mostly with new York stores and I swear...im being helped by uneducated low lifes.

[lordofthereef]

I resent that comment. Not at all true. I work my *** off to make sure I know the products so I can educate my customers. I apologize you haven't had a good experience at your local stores, but you cannot say that of all of us.
Sent using Board Express on my Yellow Nokia Lumia 920.

No reason to resent it. When there are more complaints than praises, people are going to say it is bad as a whole. The way I see it, you can either accept the fact that people are going to assume you don't know squat, or get a job where you are appreciated. AT&T's could fix this if they required some education on new products. They don't, at least not in my area; it's a safe bet that I will walk into AT&T knowing more than the salesperson about any given product I am interested in.

[entropism]

ok I'll be happy to amend my statement..MOST of these 9 to 5ers are incompetent and lazy. My experience is mostly with new York stores and I swear...im being helped by uneducated low lifes.

I'll share a funny story with you... The AT&T training center in Morristown NJ was banned from a few local hotels (at least 2 years ago) for rep training, because of people:

Lighting rooms on fire
Smoking various drugs in the rooms and halls. Yes, VARIOUS.
Throwing things *through* windows
Urinating on doors/halls/floors
Sexual misconduct
verbally assaulting hotel staff

Several of these happened during my time in training. By the time training was over, quite a few people were fired. These were NY and NJ reps, and I swear these people were just the dregs of society.