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Different agent stores, help...

1techguy

Apr 12, 2006, 2:00 PM
What different types of agents are their for agent and corporate stores and what are the differences? Do some only sell Cingular while others sell Cingular, T-Mobile, etc...? How can you tell? I've heard some are exclusive and some are premier. What are those differences?
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averagejoe

Apr 12, 2006, 2:42 PM
There are 2 types of stores, direct and indirect.

Direct is cingular owned and run corporate locations.They only sell cingular items, cingular branded devices.And dealing with them is like calling customer service as they are a extention of the company.

Indirect or authorized sellers,or re-sellers.They are independantly owned and run, they simply are licensed to sell service on behalf of the company.Being indirect means that you are subject to their buyers remorse policies.They tend to have licences with a few carriers unless they have an exclusive agreement with one carrier.

As an example a cingular corporate store will have a 30 day buyers remorse on phones, thats cingular's policy.Indirect can have the same policy or something a...
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1techguy

Apr 12, 2006, 2:47 PM
Thanks for the great info. What does premier and exclusive mean for the different types of agents.
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mistercrinkles

Apr 12, 2006, 4:29 PM
Exclusive basically means they only sell one carrier.

My company that I work for is an exclusive agent, we only sell Cingular Wireless.

We also happen to be a premier agent, at least as far as I know. We've won the Golden Jack Award for the Philadelphia Market, and most recently we won Cingular's MVP Award for Best Agent.

Premiers, as far as I know, are made out to look like a company owned store.
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Atavist Arise

Apr 13, 2006, 12:07 PM
averagejoe said:
And dealing with them is like calling customer service as they are a extention of the company.



this is true to a point. alot of the corp stores out here are money hungry bastages.

they know they won't turn a dime from helping the little old lady who doesn't know how to turn her phone on, and needs a few questions answered, so they usually send her to us indirect dealers, or CS themselves.

I get a kick out of it when i exceed her expectations, and then she brings me all of her friends and family who need phones though.

this is just what i have seen personally. this in no way reflects any people on this board, it's just 1 or 2 stores in my area.
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AshDizzle

Apr 13, 2006, 12:14 PM
You are completely backwards. I'd say about 95% of all indirects send customer service problems to COR stores. You've have to be totally blind not to see that. COR stores will not send CS problems to indirects, that's completely ludicrous.
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averagejoe

Apr 13, 2006, 2:24 PM
AshDizzle said:
You are completely backwards. I'd say about 95% of all indirects send customer service problems to COR stores. You've have to be totally blind not to see that. COR stores will not send CS problems to indirects, that's completely ludicrous.


I'd say from talking to them all over the ladt 5 years its about 80% of indirects that refer to them to call customer care, and myabe 20% of corprate store reps that have had them call us back in customer service.

They do try to help out but indirects don't have the systems we do to acees more information on the customer's account, and normally the corp store when they call in either are just fairly new and inexpierienced.

No blame either way, ju...
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Atavist Arise

Apr 14, 2006, 9:11 PM
we're all trained on issues and current tech watches and what not, but you are right as far as customer info.

I can only look up number in my market (MTZ) and my powers are extremely limited even then.

especially for credits, MAN i wish i could credit people.

i can't even unsuspend users all the time.
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averagejoe

Apr 15, 2006, 12:20 AM
Atavist Arise said:
we're all trained on issues and current tech watches and what not, but you are right as far as customer info.

I can only look up number in my market (MTZ) and my powers are extremely limited even then.

especially for credits, MAN i wish i could credit people.

i can't even unsuspend users all the time.


Don't take this thew wrong way, but i'm glad you can't credit.In the past some stores did, and they used suckers to credit towards phone prices, selling tactics, give em redit for valid charge just to get them outta the store, there is not need for those days again.

As for training, i know you get training but soemtimes things can change 3 times in one day, its happened ,and we...
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tadams

Apr 13, 2006, 4:17 PM
Well I also disagree with you. 95%??? Please speak for only your market. We blow COR stores away with sales and customer service in my market. Let's not get into the who is better for the customer. It shouldn't matter if a store is a corporate store or is an agent location. A customer SHOULD be able to get assistance for any problem in ANY Cingular store that is exclusive. And Cingular is making that more and more possible.
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texaswireless

Apr 14, 2006, 12:07 AM
Does that figure just pop out of your behind or what?

Well trained reps do what it takes to help the customer, period. They don't SEND people anywhere.

Turning this into an agent vs. corporate argument is the last thing this guy was looking for IMO.
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AshDizzle

Apr 15, 2006, 2:32 PM
Yeah, it did just pop out of my behind. That's why I didn't say "I got this figure from ____."

Well trained reps, yes, will help the customer. And how many indirects are "well-trained reps"? Be realistic. You know what kind of reputation indirects have.
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texaswireless

Apr 15, 2006, 3:26 PM
That is the second ignorant statement you have made.

How many bad "direct" sales reps are there that can't be fired because of the big union.

I have met just as many "direct" morons as I have indirect. Realistic? Stop making up **** just for shock value.
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mistercrinkles

Apr 15, 2006, 4:34 PM
In my area, we have more people come into my Agent store complaining about COR reps than we ever have going into the COR stores. Granted, I don't work in the COR stores, but all of our customers come back. We treat them well and work our best to resolve any situation that arises on the spot.

Even though we do have to call customer service more often than not.

☚ī¸
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AshDizzle

Apr 26, 2006, 7:22 PM
Just because you are an indirect doesn't mean you need to defend the whole country. Maybe you run a squeaky clean indirect company, big whoop mahn. Bottom line is indirects have a reputation for being shady and I know, I work indirect. 75% of the employees in my company don't even know half of what they should and constantly refer people to COR because A) they are too lazy to help or B) they have no idea how to help.

You KNOW this is true, you'd have to be an absolute IDIOT to think your chances of getting helped are better at a random mall kiosk then a random corporate store. And that is exactly my point. Sure there are idiots at corporate, I've met them. But there are a HELL of a lot more just plain shady joeshmo-buy-a-phone-i'll-...
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texaswireless

Apr 27, 2006, 11:22 AM
A poll of internet posters on phone scoop? That's a good idea. No one biased in here.
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uscingulair

Apr 27, 2006, 3:18 PM
i take offense to that. Our indirect quotas are much higher that the corporate stores not only on acts but verts ( 5 per post, 2 per ppd. The store numbers aren't as much cause we only have two people working at a store at a time, where as the corporate has five or six. our goals are so much higher cause we sell so much more. We have a corporate store less than two miles away and everyday they loose customers because of there poor customer service. so please don't generalize all reps and i won't generalize all corporate associates. from my experiences with both sides the agents seem to want it more. Or at least the ones here
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Betherfer

Apr 26, 2006, 2:32 PM
Our stores are considered the largest and most successful retail agent in the state of Georgia besides the ones that are spread across many states. The only difference in one of our stores and a coorperate location is that we do not have the cash payment center, we only use pos, and we cannot return / exchange outside of our shared inventory. Other than that... we do it all. The stores that do more than one carrier are basically doing all they can to activate in order to make a profit. They are not so much customer service as they are a place to activate and upgrade.

🙂
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