Shop Talk

I don't think you guys understand. This $18 upgrade fee is a bogus charge. Its just a way for the companies to make more money. Yes $18 is a little bit of money, but if your tv company came up to you and said to continue to have service you have to pay $18 a yr but for no reason. You would complain too. Its about principle. I would rather go to another company and spend more money too.

They're not saying you have to pay the $18 to continue having service, only if you want a new phone. Considering how much those phones are actually WORTH (and having had service and paying for however long does NOT entitle you to free hardware) you're still getting a hell of a discount.

Well said. Plus I don't have to have a contract with my other services.

It's just another symptom of people being spoilt little brats, that she expected a new phone completely for free. Customers expect everything on a silver platter... all the time, if it were once in a while and you wanted to do a courtesy that's one thing but I spend all day listening to people demand free stuff for their 'inconvience'... because the phone is defective, because they didn't like it, because they had to hold five or seconds. Defective phones happen, we'll replace it, it takes a few days... if you wanted instant gratification you shouldn't have cheaped out on you local stores and ordered online in the first place, it's the price you pay for a $200 piece of hardware at no cost... a two day wait. Hold times happen, if we had fe...
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Hey... why does T-Mobile always charge ME for shipping when I need a replacement? 10 bucks for the 7 day shipping and 15 for the 3 day!

Customer care vs New Activations... our system is free for the 2- 4 day and 12 for overnight.

Upgrades are through care.

here here!

You have some good points. But The price of the phone is built into the contract price. In other countries you pay less for service and have no contract but you buy a phone for full retail price. As I have said that this $18 fee is a bogus charge. The customer is resiging a new two year agreement which is 959 dollars in a 24 month period on the lowest plan. And these phones are not made to last usually more than two years anyhow.

I completely agree that customer shouldn't get free accessories, but the reason they think they can get them is because there are a lot of indirect agents who do give away free accessories. I work at Radioshack and the way we make money is by selling accessories.

Anytime I can get that $18 fee waived I will d...
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it was just this past spring when Sprint changed their upgrade fee from $36 to $18 to match everyone elses... I can usually call in to get an upgrade fee wavied, anyway....

No Sprint used to not have an upgrade fee at all.

I'm so glad we charge $18 if a customer wants to do an upgrade in our retail stores. If the customer was smart, they'd either go home and order their phone online or call telesales in which either case the $18 upgrade fee is not only waived, but the shipping and handling charges too!

i'm in a sprint kiosk and I agree --- thank god sprint has a upgrade fee.... because When I get that credited back, I look golden and they send more customers in to me for new accounts and accessories and everything else.

Oh Horse Crap! Customers should not be given a credit for the $18 HUP when they purchase their wireless device from a retail location. Do you work for Enhanced Wireless, the wireless company founded by former Sprint Nextel employees who were terminated in the first round of 5k cuts?

no, but my customers do come back and spend more money for add-a-line and accessories with me/

Well I work for the BigPink and I try not to say the nasty things I think about your Provider so I'd appreciate it if you'd not refer to my company as Trash... and we do not have an upgrade fee, not that I am aware of and I've upgraded phones on my lines (not a dealer plan either, as a plain old customer) with no upgrade fee.

I am completely ok if you would like to talk trash about Verizon, Sprint, or AT&T.

They charge you an upgrade fee because they know that the plan you signed up for two+ years ago has changed and they want to get a little extra out of you for keeping it. Granted at&t is kind of cheap about that they know you will pay 18$ to save monthly which over the course of one or more years will well outweigh a measly 18$. Also, most phones will cost more for upgrades but thats done by all carriers. 😎

Um..........then how come when I annual upgraded my husband's phone, and all the other's I've done in store, those charges never appeared on my or any of my customer's bills?

Is that charge limited to direct locations or direct fulfill? Because it's never come across on the indirect side. Atleast not in the market I'm in.

It's a Direct thing. Indirects have their own upgrade policies, for the most part.

Ok, It must be like the direct "mandatory" $15 phonebook transfer fee, even if it is due to a warranty defect and the phone wasn't backup assistant capable. Or like the $10 ESN fee to put a different phone on the account because they need one to use while their said defective phone is being repaired/replaced and there is a wait period.

We don't do that here, THANK GOD! I understand why there are these fee's, but man. Will we ever get back to Customer Service, and not have to charge for everything we do? I mean, seriously. It's like those electronics that you buy, but if you need assistance call this number.. and it'll charge you $.69 per minute. It's crazy!

Yeah I used to work for an indirect vzw agent awhile back. And we never charged, nor did the contract that printed up, an upgrade fee.

Damnit OfAMightDivine... Why....

You just broke my bullshit detector. It pegged so far off the meter it exploded... Do you have any idea how much these detectors cost!

Sorry, we don't charge an upgrade fee. At all. Ever.

I can't speak for your section of VZW. But the Midwest DOES charge a $20 Annual Upgrade Fee. Must have been a cheap detector.

There's an annual upgrade fee at VZW if you qualify for it but pay less than $80 a month for your price plan. I should point out that this has ZERO effect on actual, 2-year upgrades (or 1-year upgrades after fulfilling the prior contract) and ONLY applies to exception situations. Do Sprint, AT&T et al allow customers to buy phones at the 2-year price when they're 1 year into a 2 year contract at all?

Yes, AT&T does if a customer pays more than $69.99 a month for their price plan. These customers usually have the upgrade fee waived, too.

(Someone correct me if I'm wrong b/c $69.99 sounds wrong. I think it might be $79.99.)

None of it really makes sense to me.

To me, they ought to be happy that we secured that customers business. If I am able to get a fee waived, or whatever it takes to secure the customer, I always make them aware that this was a one time thing. There was nothing I could do to guarantee any further credits for purchases made on any other lines. Yeah, we may have had to knock a little off here and there, but in the long run, that customer will remember that we did what we could.

If we didn't try to do anything to save the sale or the customer, there wouldn't be any customers left, atleast not in the store. They would all resort to shopping for everything online or over the phone. The word gets around that the store doesn't care, an...
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...or not charging you in the first place for them. I don't think they're a very good incentive for new business, but boy do they reduce churn! If there is an upgrade fee in place, even if you as a salesperson eliminate it, your company still leaves a bit of FUD in the customer's mind, and not in your favor. Sure, it was waived this time... but what about 2 years from now? What about your 2nd line on the account? Your grandmother's line who hasn't upgraded in 5 years because she doesn't want to get a new phone but is finally seeing her old Nokia give out?

The ones I really don't get are companies like Sprint who occasionally have their existing customers actually pay more for a new phone than a new customer. Why would you do that? Do you,...
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And why do the "big box" guys get to offer instant rebates and not the indirect channel. The big box experience is not one you want to promote to long term customers. The minute they have problems do they go to big box? No they come to you. I think it should be the same across the board same $'s for new or existing customers. And the same instant rebates for all or none. Sorry had to rant!

Your store can offer those rebates instantly if it wants to, I'm sure. Granted, they'd be losing $50 per sale, so they probably don't want to.

And that is another reason I love vzw. 100$ off a new phone every two years is a hell of an incentive for me to stay with them. Nevermind the fact that I love their phones and they get the best reception in the areas I talk in.

AT&T, like the others, is a service provider . they provide a service and charge a fee for it. im not a technician or anything for AT&T...but i dont think upgrading a customers account takes 18 dollars worth of effort. i dont think it takes any more effort than a computer resetting some dates. but i dont get them waived for everyone because then they get the mindset that its free everytime....the system tells u if the fee is waived.

Truth.

I had a customer not upgrade his phone b/c our MP3 players access the web momentarily to gather data on the services & the music listend to to make sure it's not pirated. I told him this, and that it would average something like 15 cents a month and he cussed me out.