Yeah...i was a blue rep also and commish sucks now but our store does around 250 to 300 migs a month and that raise would help SO MUCH. 😁
Also t mobile has the worst rssi in this area so would have to keep a cingular line here just to keep a phone that works if i started working there

I heard that is is going to be better in 2006. i can't tell you all the specifics, but ask your manager and they should be able to tell you. Some things if they really go through would mean a lot better commission checks. so hang in there 🙂

yeah the only thing that my manager discussed was that they may give the same comp. on upgrade as they do on new activations, but i wouldnt be surprised if cingular did that and lowered the payout to make up for it. thats pretty much what they did in april. increased the payouts on activations but cut the commissions in half for features, in the end it was no big difference for blue employees as the tiering went into affect on net activations for the month after deacts. orange employees got the tiering on gross activations for the month. true they did not receive true-up payments however the true up never worked like they described it. in the end they pretty much got both blue and orange employees hyped up about the comp. but it worked diffe...
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amen to that. i've seen smart, college-degree-holding blue reps (including myself) who made good money turn into a bitter hatred (not including myself) for Cingular with the pay cuts and benefits price hikes. I'm just happy because I'm moving finally from the store an hour away from home to the one 5 minutes away from home. I'm going to hold out hope that now that we're union, we might be able to do something to stop the indirects.

Yeah THATS gonna happn no that your UNION???

Unions ar the bane of good employees and company health. look at the UAW and the Airlines. Yeah the unions really reamed them. Now look at Union less Verizon. Look at em hard because they are doing everything right including compensating their much happier employees.

Nope the Union will bury Cingular as it has many other industries.

Look at UPS, grocery store clerks and teachers (they may not net a huge amount on their paychecks, but they get rediculous perks).

I'm not sure how guaranteed pay raises, collective bargaining on policies and a little bit of protection from some of the dumber managers is a bad thing.

Also, my store is completely filled (aside from myself) of Verizon defectors. And that's not just my store. So if it's so great at Verizon, why are their employees leaving for Cingular so quickly?

All of our "Orange" employees are happy working here, it's just those of us in the area that are "Blue" that are, well....blue.

Guarenteed pay raises for ALL...WOW. Even the worse performers get pay raises and the best performers dont get any more. Collective barginaing? I don't know about you but most people would rather negotite their own pay not allow someone else to decide their worth....

The Teachers's union is the worst. Look at the trend in grades and ability of teachers in "union" public schools verses the non union private schools.

I highly doubt all but the wore VEriaon employees are "leaving for Cingular so quickly"

Ususually the worse employees are the ones "protected" by a union and guarenteed pay raises whether or not they deserve them.

BTW At least managers are in charge of their own destiny and don't depend on some third party who is ta...
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"At least managers are in charge of their own destiny..."
I have actually completed our Management Development Program in our district and am next in line for a store when/if one opens up. Let me tell you, NO manager in our area is in charge of their own destiny. They are all walking on eggshells because the higher ups are taking their money by cutting their commissions too and cutting their foot traffic because of their idiotic support of indirects, instead of their bread & butter direct stores. Managers have no security in our area. I'm the best employee for sales in our district, within the top 5 for a 5 state area and do all of my managers duties daily. I am glad to have a little protection right now, because management sure doesn'...
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tenmidgits, i started this thread for people who work for the company, discussing our pay structure and possible changes in the future. being that you are not an employee and always try to sway consumers away from our retail stores y dont you take a back seat to this topic as it was posted for people who make their living by cingular and not for people like yourself that abuse our knowledge to go buy the product elsewhere. thanks

CAtch a clue. Managers are NEVER secure. By virtue of the position alone. Good managers are hard to find and deserve the big dollars they can command. People think managing people is an easy thing. It takes more then an MBA or management course to ecome a good manager otherwise anyone could be a coach which is really what a manager is.

It would be impossible to represent managers via aunion as it is a highly skilled position that involves an innate ability to motivate and lead.

No mamagers are never secure nor should they be. They are responsle for the livlihoods of many of those who they "manage" and are caught in the middle. A good mamger can keep both ends of that candle burning bright, workers and upper management. Unfortunately t...
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Ten-
I actually agree with what you said ! !

Stop the indirects from doing what? Indirects get bullied by the corp stores. How does an agent migrate someone to a v188 for FREE when the V188 costs $140.00 and the commission for the migration is $110.00? Corp Cing is ALMOST as bad as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Firefly and Amazon. I am not saying its your fault, you are only an employee, but the big corporations are trying to sqeeze out anyone that thinks outside the box.
I know TEN - Your gonna be all over this thread. Its ok - I hope you had a Merry Christmas.

Indirects in our market account for 60% of the activations, whereas as AT&T, corp stores were 60%. I have steadily seen my commission decrease and my cases of customer care for people who activated outside of corp stores increase. I worked indirect before I made the move to a corp store. I know from experience in a mall of 13 indirect dealers that we were for the most part liars and cheats and that when a problem arose, we sent people to the corp stores. In our area, we have exclusive Cingular agents that look identical to our stores, mess up the activations, then when we tell the customer that we can't exchange equipment etc., they yell and scream at US. I have many friends still in indirect and I wish them no harm, but the increased p...
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You got it ass backwards... Direct is where the problems start. At least thats the way it is in my town. You got a bunch of clueless idiots making $10.00 an hour that should be making $6.15 and they have no sales skills so they hide behind the corporate name and want to give a black eye to the agents. The only way they can sell a phone is to scare the customer away from meeting a real salesperson.
Admit it ! ! If you could sell a rubber in a VD Clinic you would have your own store making $150k a year instead of working in an enviroment that protects the weak.

I'll admit no such thing, it's nothing like that in our area. And in our area, having 1 agent location, unless you're working it full-time yourself as an ownere operator, there's no chance in hell you'd be making $150k per year. I worked for the largest chain of indirects who also has the largest network of sub-agents and I know what all of the sub-agents and all of the stores grossed per year and only a couple grossed over $150k, but that goes away really quickly once you start paying employees.

Who is the Corp employee? Oh, thats right- You are...
Who is the owner operator? Oh, thats right- I am...
Guess I got a pretty good idea what I make.

I guess you're also illiterate. As I said, I worked for the biggest indirect with a sub-agent program in our area. I managed the commissions for the sub-agents and know, as I said before, in our area, that no single indirect location makes $150k a year profit. So either A) you're full of **** (which is what I personally believe) or B) you are the strange rare exception. As part of my MBA program, I learned a lot about business ethics and trying to mislead people into thinking that if they strike out on their own and go indirect is the most successful way in the cellular world is incredible unethical because it's a flat-out lie.

I have 10 locations. I have some that do very well and some that do fair. I am a non-exclusive agent and represent several carriers.
My company grossed $3.4 Mil in 04 and will probably do close to $3.8 for 05.
Your MBA gives you the right to brag about your education, because I just escaped High School with a diploma. Although I would rather have my success than your MBA I will give you credit for going to school.
As for you not believing me. That is not my worry. It is your decision.

Like I said, you are the exception. I commend your business. While I was managing sub-agents though, I saw literally as many per month close as I saw apply with us to sell. MOST people are not as successful. I saw most of the employees of our company living in relative poverty. I can easily say that working direct, I make twice as much as I did as a manager of 8 stores for one of the top indirects in the area. Being the top salesperson in the 3 state area made me over 6 digits take home. For someone who has success with one store and is able to open additional stores, indirect can be good, but as I said, at least in our area, it is very rare. There are basically two successful indirects and a bunch of others that are happy grossing $...
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I do agree with you about the unfortunate demise of indirect agents. I see 2 mistakes most indirect agents make that cause their demise.
1) They listen to the carriers promises about going exclusive. Carrier's make it very attractive and extremely tempting to sign that exclusive agent contract. Dont do it. Period. Have atleast 3 carriers but no more than 4.
2) Do not try to compete with the direct stores. You have to have your own niche and be proud of it.
The people that go to Outback do not complain about spending $15.00 for a steak when they see the $6.99 T-Bone Golden Coral ad. Have a presentaion that make people feel good about spending money, offer them something they cant get anywhere else. I charge a $35.00 processing fee and a $...
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Dude,

I am an agent principal to an exclusive Cingular Wireless location under a master agent in the Dallas market. I signed a non-exclusive contact but chose to carry Cingular only. One, it is the only thing that works well in my area and two, I couldn't sell any other product. I love Cingular and bleed orange.

My question is, why would I not want to sign an exclusive contract? My fellow colleages who are Premier dealers tell me that my store would no longer be my own. However....

I really would like to have some type of external signage. I have orange jacks and Cingular wireless on my door along with my store hours and agent name. I have a 7 foot inflatable jack that sits outside my store. I have to buy my Cingular branded accesso...
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exactly, but if we charge the same price for some phones as they are on new activations, then we would actually be breaking even and not making a dime. losing money if they cancel. not worth it.

i c your point, but thats because on new acts theres an even deeper discount to attract the business. its almost ridiculous on some of the phone offers i see and thats where the problems lie. i can understand maybe a 10 to 20 percent higher discount at most on a indirect promo but damn giving away phones that corporate sells for 75 more bucks (and a lot of times much higher) is stupid. to me that means corporate is paying you indirects way to much and they should a. quit doing that or b. have better restrictions on how much a dealer can discount.

Paying us to much? Not even close bro ! !
On a $39.99 rate plan we get $220.00 / $59.99 plan $245.00 and on a add a line or UG its like $110.00. You take those numbers and then look at the $99.99 Razor that I pay $260.00 for. $160.00 loss on a $245.00 comp? You cant pay the bills on that. Try running those figures on a add a line or an upgrade, huge loser.

then y would you sell it at such a loss? cingular corporate retail only recently lowered it to 100.00 while dealers have sold it at that price or lower for a while. not sure if the commission paid is the same for all indirects, it probably isn't and thats y you may have to take such a hit on the phone, to stay competitive and make money. thats where the blame falls on cingular as a company paying indirects, its inconsistent and causes problems for everybody including customers. its really a no win situation that needs to be addressed. mean while cingular purchases more phones than the dealers and probably gets a nice piece of change or a substantial discount from manufacturers for volume buying. in the end its all dollars for cingular at the...
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Where in Central Florida are you located? I have 10 stores. I am looking for a couple people to help run stores. Polk, Pasco, Hernando, Citrus Counties..

LOL im in orlando, but i dont think indirect is in me unless the pay was substantial.

Its substantial.....

doubt it... I actually looked into starting/buying an agent location. There is no money in owning a single agent location or working for one. Having several friends and family that own locations, I can say, at least in my experience, that not one of them can offer me anything near the package I have with Cingular. (5 weeks vacation / Pension / 401k / health care / and a decent salary.

Based on your response, I can see what is most important to you. Time off... Although I respect that you enjoy time off because I do as well, real time off comes when you retire. When my store managers are making $80-$90,000 per yer I bet they will retire and start enjoying their time off far earlier than someone who would rather make $40k a year and get 5 weeks paid vacation. My people only get 1 week unless they have been with me for more than 3 yrs.
Oh- They can afford to get there own health insurance and do their own 401k as well. I bet they will still have plenty of money left between what you make and what they make.

Actually, time off is only part of the package. Not sure what market you are in, but a tenured store manager in my market makes a whole lot more than 40k. Heck, base salary is more than that. Why would I purchase my own insurance when its' provided for me. Sure they can do thier own IRA but no one is matching contributions (giving free money) or providing a healthy pension.

i gotta get some damn sleep, good night! 😳

they dont need to reduce our commissions. we dont make crap as it is. what they need to do is create a rule of equal pricing throughout every channel. if you're caught violating the pricing structure your dealer agreement should be terminated. if cingular is supposively striving so hard to be an elite cellular company with superior service and sales they need to get a check on everything and try to get the pricing the same. U.S. Cellular does this and it seems to be working pretty well.

Gotta be that top sales person 🙂 im the #1 in my store and i make over 35K a year and im in a agent store. Gotta love those feature bonus

Your in a store only getting 35k? Damn I was under the impression they made more, theres reps in call centers getting more than that

My store managers are making $80-$90,000 per yr.

Is that a corp. store?

No. Agent of Multi-Carriers

hell i'll give a phone for free to the customer and take $0 comp to keep them from going to a corp. store. because when they come back to add another line. they come to me.

That all sounds great. I dont no how it will work for indirect sales though. Sounds like all Cor reps will get some bonuses to commision but I dont no if that means agent locations that are not owned by cingular will get the same benefits because as of right now you guys have a better system for getting commision then we do. Hopefully if they change commision for you guys that will be past down to indirect stores as well.

Your market is paying out $8 per migration/upgrade! Thats double from what were getting in Central.

lol i aint see anything on csp, i always look at the bottom section, is there another place i should be looking for updates? my ASM just now got the info but that probably cus our dist. manager is an idot without a clue.

It's under 'Sales Operations'