Shop Talk
Loaner Phones
I received a voicemail today about a loaner phone. Here is the message:
Hi, my name is Sue Sorry. My number is 555-555-1234. My phone broke and I have to send it back to the company, but the phone they sent me is not a suitable replacement. I was wondering if you have a loaner phone policy or am I just out of luck?
Now, this is what I heard as a two year veteran of the wireless industry:
Hi, my name is Sue B!tchalot. My number is 555-555-1234. I broke my phone and have to send it back to the company, but they sent me a phone that I do not like. Will you replace it with a loaner phone or do I have to come in and cause a scene in front of your customers until your manager finally kicks me out.
Why do customers think every store car...
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Hi, my name is Sue Sorry. My number is 555-555-1234. My phone broke and I have to send it back to the company, but the phone they sent me is not a suitable replacement. I was wondering if you have a loaner phone policy or am I just out of luck?
Now, this is what I heard as a two year veteran of the wireless industry:
Hi, my name is Sue B!tchalot. My number is 555-555-1234. I broke my phone and have to send it back to the company, but they sent me a phone that I do not like. Will you replace it with a loaner phone or do I have to come in and cause a scene in front of your customers until your manager finally kicks me out.
Why do customers think every store car...
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when a customer does not want there old phone i will either clean it up and sell it or use it as a loaner to someone who is going to return it within a reasonable amount of time until they get there replacement from insurance or warranty. Depending on the person and there situation i will take a deposit until its returned. If they come in and there phone is broken out of warranty and doeas not have insurance and they can upgrade within the next few months a will charge them $75 and credit them back if and only if they upgrade from me. And i will only credit them back $50. So its a $25 charge for a loaner if its for a few months, if it a month or so then i will refund them the whole amount but must upgrade from me at that time.
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We have a couple of older recons we use as loaners. We could have 10x as many and that still wouldn't be enough for the people that ask for one. Over the years we've learned that if we have a more recent or more featured phone then it might not come back as quickly or might not come back at all, so it's all ugly old recons now.
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On a more serious note, the best solution for this would be some sort of rental service but then people would complain, "but I have insurance..." It would take a fairly substantial stock of them and then you'd have to charge more than what most people are willing to pay. It might work through a 3rd party dealer, but I don't think any direct store would ever do a rental or more broad loaner service just...
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🤣
On a more serious note, the best solution for this would be some sort of rental service but then people would complain, "but I have insurance..." It would take a fairly substantial stock of them and then you'd have to charge more than what most people are willing to pay. It might work through a 3rd party dealer, but I don't think any direct store would ever do a rental or more broad loaner service just...
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With Cellular One's warranty program, we send out a loaner phone. Then, you send you phone in and it is either repaired or we send a replacement. It is a horrible program. It usually takes 6-8 weeks for repair and customer hate the loaner phones in most cases. It is usually either a Motorola C139 or a Nokia 6010. Both are good basic phones. Neither has a camera or a media player and the C139 has no internet access at all.
As far as junk phones, almost no one leaves their phone with us when they upgrade. If they do, it is so that we can throw it n the trash as it is cracked, chipped, burnt and / or filled with liquid.
Refurbished phones are a good idea except we hardly ever get any and we cannot order them. Usually, they are just sent ...
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As far as junk phones, almost no one leaves their phone with us when they upgrade. If they do, it is so that we can throw it n the trash as it is cracked, chipped, burnt and / or filled with liquid.
Refurbished phones are a good idea except we hardly ever get any and we cannot order them. Usually, they are just sent ...
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Sprint corp stores have loaner forms and processes. Not all of them actually have loaner phones available though. That's up to the store manager or district manager to work out. Many of them don't bother with it due to the hassle of keeping track of them and the fact that you never have enough no matter how many you have.
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We have a loaner phone program at my store, but not for customers with broken/lost devices. Our loaners are for customers who need to test out service, since up here in VT it's all about who works where you spend your time.
Every now and again we'll make an exception and let a cust take the loaner while they wait for a replacement, and we have a few "junk" phones that we hold on to for the real whiners, but 9 times out of 10 it's too bad, so sad.
Every now and again we'll make an exception and let a cust take the loaner while they wait for a replacement, and we have a few "junk" phones that we hold on to for the real whiners, but 9 times out of 10 it's too bad, so sad.
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