wireless_throwaway

A few things I feel like everyone should know also. I am a commissioned sales rep. 75% of my income comes directly from selling you products. I have about 50 different sales metrics that I need to maintain. For example for EVERY phone I sell, Verizon requires me to have an attachment of $80 in accessories. 50% of my sales need to have insurance. If I do not meet these numbers, I will be written up and eventually terminated. Now this next part might sound kinda douchey, but its not because we are terrible people. It's because of the pressure on us to sell.

Does the rep seem distracted or not wanting to help you? He/She probably doesn't because you're going to ruin their metrics. You're judged the moment your car pulls up into the parking lot. We secretly hope you'll leave.

Check your bills carefully "I know you told me you do not want the insurance package for your new $700 droid maxx, but I do want to make sure your phone is protected. WE will start you with a trial and WE can remove it later when the trial ends. I just want to make sure I set you up correctly today" Trial doesn't mean "free" trial. The words WE vs I subconsciously give you the feeling that I'm working for you. Apparently this is worse at T-Mobile who requires 90% attachment. Some reps dont even bother explaining and just bundle it in

While I hope my company does well, YOU personally threatening to leave my company and go with a competitor affects me in no way. If I get the vibe you're wanting to waste my time and not going to purchase anything. I'll try to usher you out. That time could be spent with a customer that is there to buy something.

Upgrades don't matter. We make a few bucks and thats it.

Best way to avoid all the games if you're there to upgrade? "Hey we're out of contract and looking at getting a few new phones and I was also looking at the internet hotspot online and curious about getting one of those added onto my plan." Even if you have NO intention of purchasing a hotspot, the prospect of a new activation will have the rep bending over backwards for you. (We have a quota of 20 additional products - home phones / hot spot otherwise we lose a percentage of our commission checks)

I don't think so. I feel these plans act as a great deterrent to churn and also create brand loyalty. While the carriers put up an image of wanting to get people off these plans, customers with these "cool" and "no longer offered" plans are some of the most loyal customers out there....

And if it never goes away, you'll never leave :D, AT&T knows this too and probably prefers to keep you as a customer.

On a side note, it's funny seeing how much data a large majority of "unlimited" users use... 1-2gb /month

From the inside, Verizon and AT&T are going to provide the best customer experience (as shown by their recent JD power results) simply because their in-store reps are given pretty much all the tools needed to assist their customers. Reps are able to issue credits, cancel accounts, transfer accounts, etc AT&T has locations with trained technicians to provide in-store warranty exchanges on the spot along with troubleshooting,and Verizon stores swap out phones for you on the spot. If there is a billing error or overages I can use my judgement and correct it all on the spot.

T-Mobile requires reps to call into a dedicated support line to issue any credits, billing errors, and even if something is clearly wrong, I would have had to sit there and explain why to someone on the phone to get something corrected. phone won't turn on? I have to file a request to get one shipped to your house for a $20 fee.

Sprint I feel is getting much better with empowering their reps, but their plans are overrated imo. Their LTE coverage is almost non-existent, so most of their phones are stuck on 3g. What's the point of unlimited data when you're getting 0.5 mbps.

At the end of the day, I think it really comes down to what you're looking for in a carrier. Verizon/ AT&T for coverage, Verizon has larger LTe footprint but once you leave an LTE zone you get dropped down to 3g which is terribly slow. Literally you can go from 30mbps to 1mbps in about 3 seconds. AT&T has a smaller LTE network but their HSPA+ (4g) network is HUGE. Even if you leave a LTE area, your phone will switch to HSPA+ (30mbps LTE - 10mbps HSPA+).

This depends on the carrier. I've found T-Mobile and Sprint offer TRULY unlimited data plans,(T-Mobile also has "unlimited" data plans that throttle after a certain amount of usage for cheaper) At AT&T / Verizon, only the top users get throttled, last I heard it was top 5%. AT&T likes to be sneaky and will say "unlimited 3g" not "lte" so I think they throttle you down to HSPA after 5gb