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Price Matching

hardcorehavok

Feb 6, 2008, 1:52 PM
Today, my area representative spent the day with me at our store. An incident happened and I would like your input. We are a dealer. We are VERY slow. We average 50 payments a week and about 30 new activations/upgrades a month since AT&T took over Cell One. I had a lady come in with her husband and brother. She wanted to migrate 3 lines from Cell One to AT&T and add a fourth line. I ran her credit and because she was a Cell One customer, it came back approved. As they were looking at the phones, I prepared to start the migration. Then, the husband started telling his wife that they should go to Walmart because the phone he wanted was only $50 there and the phone she wanted was free at Walmart. They decided to go to Walmart instead. After the...
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ac4321

Feb 6, 2008, 2:09 PM
We price match printed advertisements for brick and mortar stores in our area on a reactive basis.

If it's a too good to be true type thing, our manager will call our district manager and get advice/authorization. If we match, we have to keep the printed flyer/ad or receipt with the manager's authorization for our records.
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ajstrong

Feb 6, 2008, 2:13 PM
not sure what your costs for phones are. we've been slow as well, so we can't price match as much as we used to when we were doing lotsa business. sucks that you're across the street from the price wh0re of the world.
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cremz

Feb 6, 2008, 2:30 PM
Laughed at them and told them good luck getting decent information, let alone help. I would also inform them that they are married to walmart then because your store and the core store will make them go back to walmart for questions just to prove a point. I usually tell my customers that you pay for service at our stores (3rd party and core) there is a reason we spend days training instead of stocking shelves in electronics and housewares.
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thom06

Feb 8, 2008, 1:22 AM
while i understand your frustration, you can't simply refuse to help them, even if they do buy the phones elsewhere it is your job to provide great customer service and help them out with whatever they need, if you do that they will most likely be bringing in more business for your store, word of mouth is an amazing thing. let them buy the phones elsewhere if you can't convince them otherwise, but give them your card and tell them "if you need help learning how to use your new phone or just want to learn more about the services we have to offer feel free to come back when you get them and i'd be happy to help you out" i can guarantee you if you do this with those types of customer 9 times out of 10 they end up coming back when the see what ...
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hardcorehavok

Feb 9, 2008, 8:45 PM
My manager told me about a customer she had last week. She spent an hour and a half explaining the plans, features and phones to this lady. The customer picked a phone and plan and said she had to go to the bank to get money, but she'd be back. She came back a few hours later with the phone. She had bought it at Walmart and was stopping in to ask how to set up voicemail. She told the lady to go back to Walmart and ask them.

I understand both sides. Thom06 is right: good customer service breeds return customers. However, most people go with the cheapest price, not the best customer service. I am a hypocrite as I got my V3xx at Walmart for $50 when it was still $150 anywhere else.
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thom06

Feb 10, 2008, 2:19 AM
oh yes, we all have those ones ☚ī¸ unfortunately just part of the biz, there are days when i want to say "get the hell out of my store and go back to where you bought that damn phone!" but i don't of course, i provide cs as much as i can, of course none of us are infallible so its really a moot point. cheapest price is always something you have to get people away from as the main factor in their phone purchase, i'll tell them about us providing loaners in case they need one, free phonebook transfers, and in the event of water damage i will also fix their phone for free (if its an easy fix) or at the most charge them $20, show them what you have to offer, make them realize that you are the best and they deserve nothing but that 😛 ok i'll sto...
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smile

Feb 6, 2008, 2:43 PM
omg...our nokia 6555 are 145.99 with a 50.00 mail in rebate...and we have been selling the heck out of them...our prices are ALWAYS jacked up. I know what you mean ab price matching...but instead of dealing with the custies ab walmart...we always deal with the cor store across town...

we try to match prices but we can only go down so low before we are making absolutely NOTHING on the sale...

we stay pretty busy though because the other store drives the custies over here...we have like at least 2 complaints a day from them...but oh well...more business for us!!
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BigShowJB

Feb 6, 2008, 5:53 PM
so you gave up about $400 in store revenue plus what ever the phones and accessories would have been for a $50 total price difference? sounds like what our owner has to do at least once a week because we arent' allowed to match prices on phones.

What we can do, however, is give discounts on chargers, clips, BT's cases, whatever....
our car chargers are about $16 apiece and clips/cases are $10-$15 each... 2 free cases and free chargers later I have 4 activations... how about you and your manager?

that doesn't include referrals and future upgrades that they send in or come back for...
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kapwww

Feb 10, 2008, 2:33 AM
One problem with this is that all of those referrals then expect free stuff too...
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BigShowJB

Feb 11, 2008, 12:28 PM
so you wouldn't give away 30 accessories to get 30 activations?

my quick, very approximate math, says $2 * 30 acessoriesis $30 in cost, and $125 * 30 acts is $3750. not a dificult decision for me, even if i have to lose $15 in GPon the accessories
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cuckingcrazy

Feb 6, 2008, 6:09 PM
Now in AT&T COR stores in my market is not allowed price matching of any kind so no more free phones. This sucks people are going to wal mart best buy or e-store. Thanks AT&T for letting me lose more sales.
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Dj Podmaster

Feb 7, 2008, 8:21 AM
Ive lost so much commission to walmart, best buy and franchise stores. I have to stick to the price as dictated by head office no bargaining. The same goes for accessories, no discounts what so ever.
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thom06

Feb 8, 2008, 1:12 AM
yikes that must be hard! we used to be able to give any accessory we wanted away for free as long as it meant making a sale, of course they took most of that away from us, but we can discount to almost nothing on most items (including phones) the only catch is that we make 7% commission on the retail price of the accessory, so if i sale it at 14.99 instead of 24.99 i make the 7% on the 14.99, not a big deal, but it still makes a difference.
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powerman79

Feb 7, 2008, 9:33 AM
Cremz and Bigshow said what I was gonna say. Only way to beat those bas*ards is to discount what they can't....car chargers, leather cases and handsfree. Also point out your level of expertise vs those at walmart. I tell people who compare my prices to walmart, circuit city..etc that i have been selling phones for x number of yrs and that if they buy the phones over there that they will have to go over there from then on if they have any problems. I charge them if they got the phone somewhere else and come back in the store.
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hardcorehavok

Feb 7, 2008, 10:19 AM
There is two problems with discounting accessories:

1. Walmart is already cheaper than us. Our cases are $19 and car chargers are $25. Walmart's cases are $5-10 and their car chargers are $10. The only thing I could do to compete is give the accessories away for free. However, that is not my call. That is up to my boss.

2. We have sh!t for accessories. Read my post entitled "My Boss" for more details.

https://www.phonescoop.com/forums/forum.php?fm=m&ff= ... »
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UOQuack

Feb 7, 2008, 10:47 AM
We can occasionally price match on activations, almost never on upgrades(unless they are really loading up on features). Migrations, I don't know, we're not in a market that has ever done migrations so I don't know how the compensation is paid out. I do know this: on almost every upgrade we do, if we sell the phone at the AT&T listed price, we are losing money right from the start. We have actually raised our prices above the AT&T list price. We have had to do this simply because we werent making money the other way. Our numbers have actually increased over the last few months, but there are other factors involved that caused that. We stress the value of our customer service and product knowledge. This is also how we compete against W...
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FLPhoneGirl_87

Feb 7, 2008, 11:03 AM
I would quite frankly KILL to work at your store. I am located in south fl, in an area that is overrun by the elderly! Everywhere you turn there are wrinkles and adult diapers!

Our store primarily refills go phone accounts đŸ˜ĸ . We do MAYBE 3 new and about 15-20 upgrades a month also.....to top it off we haven't had a manager since early October but since I have worked at this store the longest I am doing the work minus the pay!!! 😡

I am very close to leaving but I enjoy this industry it has been what I do for over 3 years now....I just want compensated for all I do đŸ˜ĸ
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johnnyslick

Feb 7, 2008, 11:07 AM
I wouldn't price match with Wal-Mart. I would delineate why it is that your company is better than Wal-Mart (for example, as an employee you actually know what the phones do) and remind people that you get what you pay for.

That's one thing that really, really irks me about society today. People complain about the decline of customer service. Well, you know why customer service is declining? Because you, sir, don't care about customer service. Oh, you may whine about it, but when push comes to shove you'd rather go buy your cell phone from a guy who gets paid $8 an hour to stand behind a counter and occasionally clean it off with a paper towel than from a guy who gets paid more (off of commission, perhaps) to actually know something about...
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hardcorehavok

Feb 9, 2008, 8:54 PM
AMEN!

I had a customer come in a week ago and ask what the difference between Walmart and my store was. I flat out told them "Customer service." I told them that Walmart will sell them the phone and that is about it. She saw that our phones were more expensive and asked why. I told her that Walmart has hundreds, if not thousands, of stores through out the US that sell AT&T. They can buy truckloads of phones at discount and sell them at ridiculous prices. My store is a privately owned retailer. We do not have hundreds of millions of dollars behind us. Then, she asked if she couldn't just come to our store for customer service. See the problem. Really, we can't turn them away totally, but...but...AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! !!
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UOQuack

Feb 11, 2008, 10:26 AM
When customers use that line on me--"cant I just buy at WalMart and get my customer service here"--I use this line: "When you purchase through a particular sales channel, you have to go through that same sales channel for service such as returning the phone within 30 days if it's defective". I'm not exactly telilng them I wont help them if they come to me for cust svc, but I'm giving them the impression they will have to get service at WalMart by using a specific example of something that would in fact require a return to WalMart.

Having said that, I have in fact provided customer service to WalMart customers, saving one lady over $500 on her phone bill and getting about $50 in features for myself. So, those WalMart customers that do ...
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thom06

Feb 8, 2008, 1:16 AM
the company that i work for allows us to price match by either matching it to the price after rebate (which most people accept) or we can throw in free car chargers, discounted cases, or the almighty free phonebook transfer (a $10 value!) of course we normally do this for free anyway, but be more of a salesman (and by that i don't mean shady and dishonest) talk up your expertise, explain the pain of calling in to customer service or dealing with walmart/online sales, obviously you're going to help them even IF they don't buy it from you (at least you should as great customer service that goes above and beyond what you are obligated to do drives traffic and brings sales, my store went from doing 40 acts a month to doing at least 100+ acts and...
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coolestguyinsa

Feb 8, 2008, 2:25 PM
Since Walmart is a large corporation and are able to buy in large quanties they force their dealers to sell at the price Walmart sets. This is one reason why most small businesses do not like Walmart, but for personal stuff cant really beat the prices.

Everyone competes with Walmart, wireless and for everyday goods.

My advice if you can't match prices due to the owner, then work on the next custy and make sure that you close the sale. Tell the custs that you know more then the Walmart reps and you want to offer a higher level of service to them...create (VALUE).

Cheers
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jcoberg10

Feb 8, 2008, 9:07 PM
most customers today have ZERO loyalty. because they can always go to thom06 or someone like him, and get help. if everyone participated in the get help where you bought program, then more customer would appreciate the services you offer. On more than 1 occasion i've help customers to the end of time, to find out they just went 2 blocks from their house cause it was more convienent, or the phone was $10 cheaper, etc. There are still a few loyal custies out there but they are few and far between. we have a major problem with this at my location. customers won't even ask for the rep that helped them previously. They start off the conversation like they knew nothing. and then come to find out they have actually shopped all another rep bef...
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Trench.Coat.4.Hire

Feb 9, 2008, 5:57 PM
the area rep sounds like a douch
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hardcorehavok

Feb 9, 2008, 8:59 PM
Naw! He's a cool dude and I get his point, but price matching is not my call. He gets paid commission/bonuses for the activations his stores do so the more we do, the more money he gets as well. He's looking out for himself in addition to us...but mostly himself.
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d3ity

Feb 10, 2008, 1:50 PM
As an indirect plauged with walmart sitting next to me, I feel your pain.

Your account manager shouldn't be complaining to you, but rather to walmart.

True story: Around the holidays, verizon introduced a minimum advertized price policy. The juke was a phone that was listed on this policy. Any indirect agent that violated this policy... well... lets just say it wouldn't be pretty.

Walmart is across the street giving the juke away for free. They even had it advertized in thier flyer.

I forwared the flyer to my boss and subsequently to our account manager. In less than a week we had the response from VZW.

The juke was no longer listed on the Minimum Advertized Price list.

Is it just me in thinking this? If we have to al...
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