Hey don't worry about it!! Thank you for your input I serioussly do just want to see what "the other side" is thinking!! 🙂

In my opinion the indirects just want the renewal or the activation. Once they've got that they don't care anymore about the customers. So it is now the direct stores job to handle all billing concerns, or equipment issues. Indirects will have nothing to do with helping a customer with billing concerns or equipment issues. They just tell the customer to go to the store and they will help them. So why have them in the first place? They just create more work for us at the direct stores.

You know how much more work would be created for you at the corporate stores if the indirect channel was eliminated? Quite a bit. If there are indirect reps who are sending customers to your corporate store because they do not feel like getting on the phone with customer service for the customer and figuring out the bill, then that is a case of an uneducated and under motivated rep that does not see the big picture (take care of your customers and you will be rewarded)...Guess what...those people exisit in the Corporate owned stores...I cannot even tell you how many times I have to explaing things to a customer about their plan that they just signed up with at a Corp store because the rep just wanted to get them out the door.

well that is your opinion but very simply it is wrong. I have been an indirect for 4 years and my customers come back to me becaseu of the service. Many indirect channels do servcie phones, offer loaner phones, even sell their own insurance plans. I never send anyone to a direct store, it is not wise to send your custoemrs elswhere for they will just go back their next time they need something. If it is reading a bill thenm bring it in and i will go over it. Something wrong on there, then i will call in and get it fixed. So try not to generalize an entire sales channel by your experience with certain agents. That would be like me saying all of custoemr care is idiots because they lady i talked to yeterday told me you can't tether a blackberr...
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THANK YOU!!! 😁

....I agree 110%...obviously LOL!

I agree. I will assist my customers with anything they need. I go over bills with customers all the time. If I can help I will. I know it will make the customer happy and bring more business in the future.

From my experience dealing with indirects, nearly all locations in my immediate area (NW Indiana) are so rude that they could care less about helping people out. Not a single location that is an indirect VZW dealer offer in-store service on phones. They send them off to the manufacturer. In the case of Radio Shack, their sales people refused to insure their phones, and in my case, I lost my phone 7 months into my 1st contract and they were going to charge me $225 for the same phone, and I told them that I would likely end up having to pay the early termination fee because they don't allow the phones to be insured. An indirect that used to be open in my area (a former Ameritech Cellular corporate store, later VZW corporate, then later, an...
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yeah and that is fine, if that is what has happened to you in the past then i would keep going to the store that took care of you, corporate or not. I just don't like be generalized into the category that all agents are useless and don't care becasue that is not true. Many agents like radio shack are based heavily on commision and don't service their phones, but like i said some do. Many agents also order their phones directly form verizon so they carry the exact same selection. If we don't have a model you like i can get it overnighted and have it to you the next day, no biggie. Insurance is a location by location thing, if you don't like the indirects insurance program you should be able to pick verizon's up even if you don't buy it from t...
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Yeah, our local RS has been bashing VZW since they can't sell it anymore. I just show customers the press release that shows RS knew from mid year last year that they wouldn't be able to sell VZW after the 1st. Then I ask, "I know they weren't talking bad about Verizon Wireless between that press release date and Jan 1st...so why now?" Leave it up to the customer to fill in the blanks.

We also had one particular customer that went into RS to upgrade her phone. The rep said that her phone was manufactured by Motorola, but he carried some that were manufactured by Sprint. He then told her that she could just upgrade to one of those phones but they would need a recent bill. What they did was port her over to sprint and didn't disclose ...
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Yeah that kinda of backs up my point, not all agnets are bad, it is just some have givent he whole channle a bad name. In the same manner there are people that hate going the corp store becasue they have treated poorly, so i don't think it is a direct or indirect issue, in the end it falls on the salesperson, there are some good ones and bad one working in both channels.

true that! I would think that if VZW treated their in store reps better and didn't have crazy quotas and obscene pressure that the retail stores would do a whole lot better. Of course people go to directs because it is Verizon and not Cell Guy/Direct TV guy.

I had a friend who worked for three months in sales and he said the quotas and pressures were intense. I know that the one near us, everytime I take a phone to the techs...I deal with the same techs, but all the faces in sales are different. They have a very high turn over rate. That will only hurt the overall customer experience.

My local corporate VZW stores & kiosks have low turnover. In fact, a T-Mobile authorized agent in the same mall as VZW has new people every 3-6 months, and it's likely because of quotas. The corporate store is usually busy, and put in a self-service pay machine to pay bills, and restrict the sales reps for sales and service. If it's too busy at the corporate store, then I'll go to a VZW kiosk either at CC or Southlake Mall in Hobart Indiana.
To yeahright:
I can't speak about authorized VZW agents in other areas of the country, but where I live, in NW Indiana, my overall experience with each one that deals with VZW service, both VZW only agent stores and agents that sell multiple service. For Clarity Wireless in Schererville Indiana, ...
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I don't know if DYER is close to you but this agent may be worth checking out:

823 Joliet Rd., Dyer Indiana
In the New Jewel Grocery Store Plaza

LOL 🙂
Some RadioShack ppl have been known to try and sell the brooklyn bridge.

I am glad that is YOUR opinion. I take pride in the fact that the agent channel has the lowest churn rate of any VZW sales channel...


Over the past few years, VZW has cut commissions...lowered their selling prices...and made profit levels alot lower for the agents. So to just sell and forget people would make for a very short term agent. Granted I do feel that wally world hiring someone for 6 bucks an hour and using them to activate phones...well, that isn't good for VZW. But you have to remember that their are indirects such as myself that are independant businessmen who take pride in customer satisfaction. Yes, I will call VZW to help straighten bills. I don't have access to billing (VZW's choice...not mine) so I have to call it...
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I'm not trashing VZW as a company; overall, they're very good. Excellent phone-based customer service, to take one example. BUT... I've had bad luck with salespeople in my local VZW store: unfriendly, apathetic, slo-o-o-o-w service and poor knowledge of their products and technologies.

Also, I dislike VZW's return policy once you get past the initial (15-day?) "grace period". Even if your phone is brand new, you can only get a refurbished replacement phone in this circumstance. Which would be fine if the refurbished ones were "like new" - but they aren't. On one occasion the refurbished replacement I got had a blank (black) screen the first time I opened the flip to make a call. Had to rush back to the store minutes before they cl...
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Actually VZW already has one of the best equipment replacement programs. Technically speaking the warranty is between you and the cell phone manufacturer...not between you and the carrier. They could be like most other carriers and require you to send your phone back to the manufacturer for repair. So having a program that allows you to get a replacement phone at the POS or within a day or two if they are out of stock...that is more then reasonable.

Believe me, I sell another carrier and VZW's equipment replacement programs...and upgrapde programs...far exceed the other carrier.